Zoom meetings and team-building activities – does it sound like your version of personal hell? Well, do not worry. Many employees feel that way! But what is the reason behind this, and how can companies overcome this?

Post-Covid has been tough for employees as well as companies – remote work has been both advantageous and disadvantageous. Hybrid team building activities for employees is one of the ways in which team leaders help their team to interact and collaborate on projects, as well as for engaging activities.

Often companies go hybrid engagement activities because they have remote employees as well as in-office employees – hybrid activities are the best way to engage both these category of workers. But do these virtual activities help employees?

A lot of employees are expressing their distaste about online meetings and engagement activities that take place over a platform like Zoom or Google Meet. This blog explores why your employees are skipping the hybrid engagement activities, and how to make these activities more exciting.

 

Hybrid meeting
Hybrid Team Activities – Where Do Companies Go Wrong?

Hybrid team building activities are engagements that have both in-office and remote employees. The management of an office arranges for these meetings in the hopes of bridging the gap between employees and encouraging a more inclusive, joint workforce.

Since many companies are offering remote working options, the workforce is now divided between in-person and remote employees. Hybrid activities like games, interactions, etc, help teammates to bond and have a good team experience.

Statistics state that communication patterns can improve by up to 50% when socialization increases among employees. But why is it that employees are not satisfied with virtual or hybrid team building activities for work? Here are a few reasons why.

Where Do Companies Go Wrong?

1.Screen fatigue and lack of excitement

A 2022 study found that around 37% of employees found Zoom fatigue as the greatest challenge of virtual meetings and work. If employees are starting to associate virtual meetings with fatigue and exhaustion, then how will a hybrid engagement session seem exciting to them? This is the biggest concern that many team leaders have today.

There is also limited interaction in virtual meetings – which leads to a lack of involvement and excitement on the employees’ part.

fatigue

2.Lesser opportunities for bonding and socialization

With real-life interactions and outdoor team building activities, employees get more chances to build better relationships with their colleagues and participate more actively.

But the same cannot be said for hybrid activities – many times, employees do not feel comfortable sitting in a virtual meeting for a long time as it dampens their energy.

3.Technical and technological constraints

One main issue with hybrid meetings and activities is technical and technological constraints. Whenever there is an issue with the network or the device of even one person in the meeting, the flow is hampered thus causing disturbances. Employees find these issues irritating and hope to avoid such problems.

4.Poor execution

Sometimes, the problem lies with the higher-ups. Even if the activities planned are exciting, the execution part can go wrong. Often, the focus of the team-building activities does not align with the larger goals of the company or the particular team.

 

Getting it Right – Making Corporate Hybrid Team Building Activities Exciting

Be it in-person or virtual, team-building activities are more fun and inclusive when the team leaders make sure that all the members of the team are heard and seen. This might seem like simple advice, but this is where a lot of hybrid ideas go wrong. If all the teammates do not feel valued, team-building activities might end up faulty.

So how can the management overcome this problem?

Different Types of Virtual and Hybrid Team Building Activities for Work

There are a few different types of hybrid engagement activities that you can suggest for your teammates. These can be real-time activities or asynchronous engagements; one can also decide whether these activities can be real-time strategic ones or just fun activities.

Real-time Activities

Real-time, team-building activities include games like Escape Room and Scavenger Hunt where all the team members have to be actively present. This can enhance communication between teammates and also encourage better communication in real-time.

Asynchronous Activities

These can be simple, regular activities like Sharing Your Desk Pic and GIF Battles that will keep teammates in touch with each other. While they do not serve many team-building purposes, they can still keep all the members of a team in the same circle.

Fun Activities

Sometimes, all the team needs is a break, so why not go for a fun team-building activity? Picnic from Home and Book Club can be exciting when the team is involved.

Practical Activities

Practical games and team-building activities can include strategy games, time-management activities, and much more. While being fun, these also focus on practical issues that are faced by teammates and find a way to resolve them.

happy workplace

Some Popular Hybrid Ideas for Team-Building Activities

Here are some of the most popular and exciting hybrid engagement activities that you can arrange for your teammates to boost productivity and improve communication.

Popular Hybrid Ideas for team building

Escape Room

Escape rooms are one of the best ways to bond with your teammates while simultaneously having fun. There are hundreds of virtual escape room platforms and games that let your team participate in elaborate, realistic setups that can be challenging for your team.

Escape rooms can be the perfect hybrid corporate team building activity for your energetic team.

Learning Circle

A learning circle is a hybrid activity that gets as preachy as it can get. However, it is a crucial activity that can help new employees learn more about their team projects, working principles, and emerging technologies.

Employees can give short presentations on various niche subjects so that everyone in the team can catch up with the progress of the team.

Digital Scavenger Hunt

This activity involves finding clues that are hidden in digital media like pictures, videos, gifs, etc. By collecting all the clues, team members can gain points and win the game.

Employees can either pair up or play individually. This strategy game can help in improving logic and rational skills.

GIF Battles

GIF battles are all about relaxing, asynchronous fun – send hilarious gifs on your team group chat and try to one-up your teammates! This activity can keep the team members engaged and active in the group.

Picnic from Home

Food is the best way to share love, so why not include everyone in the team? Remote employees can cook their favorite meals and share them virtually with their teammates by arranging for a virtual picnic.

This can give the employees a break and help them relax with one another.

Halloween Day

Ask your teammates to dress up every month to make things exciting, both in the office and at home! You can provide a common theme every month and ask your team to dress up – after all, costumes make everything more fun!

Benefits of Corporate Team Building Activities for Hybrid Meetings

  • Hybrid activities help both in-office and remote employees to improve their communication and work in harmony.
    These activities, when creative, can encourage employees to improve their artistic hobbies and talents.
  • As a sense of collectiveness is built, teams work with better interest and show higher productivity rates.
    Hybrid team building activities can be fun and relaxing for employees who have been monotonous working from the office.
  • These games and tasks can help remote employees to beat loneliness and feel more connected with their team members.
  • Hybrid games for employees can also be just fun and relaxing for corporate workers who work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, all year long.

Engaging Hybrid Team Activities by Mileage Virtual

Are you facing trouble with arranging engaging hybrid activities for your employees? Mileage Virtual is here to help you out! We are industry experts who specialize in in-person as well as virtual and hybrid team building activities for corporate teams to have a better communication and productivity streak.

At Mileage Virtual, we understand the need for your employees to feel included in the activities, so we pitch exciting games and tasks that can be both practical and fun.

Based on your team goals, our experts at Mileage Virtual customize strategies to come up with the best activities for your team. Additionally, we also offer virtual and hybrid event management for your teams – conduct relaxing events and encourage your employees to take more active participation!

The Bottom Line

Hybrid team building activities for employees often tend to get boring, but not if you do it right! Join hands with Mileage Virtual to conduct exciting hybrid engagements for your team so that they feel connected and encouraged even when they are working remotely.

Remember, hybrid activities and games are only interesting when you make them innovative, so don’t hesitate to go a bit wild!