Team building activities have always been an important part of employee engagement and boosting team spirit. But not all team building activities are engaging. While employers organize team building activities regularly to boost team spirit, sometimes they can have the counter affect and be unengaging. Particularly as the corporate world has become remote since the pandemic, employee engagement and motivation has been a priority for employers. Remote team building activities that emerged during the pandemic were effective in bringing teams together.
However, post pandemic there was a greater needed for creative and out of the box activities that are stimulating and interactive. For example, online activities for team building in Singapore are no longer focused only on team interactions. They have evolved to be more fun, creative, adventurous, and out of the box. In the recent times, virtual reality has been emerging as a futuristic and unique way of organizing team building activities. Adapting fresh ideas such as virtual reality and augmented reality can reflect an organization’s efforts towards employee well-being. Here are a few tips on how virtual reality can help in creating impactful team building activities:
Highly engaging activities
One of the foremost concerns of employers while organizing team building activities is how to generate high levels of engagement from participating team members. Often, team members perceive regular team building activities like ice-breakers or mystery games to be redundant and unengaging. Teams also sometimes feel forced to participate or bond with their fellow team members. This has a counter productive impact and defeats the purpose of organizing team building activities. To improve employee experience, organizing fun and highly engaging out of the box team building activities is key and virtual reality can be an example of such activities. Virtual reality is a unique way simulating an interesting experience for employees and it generates a euphoria around the activity.
Boosting creativity and innovation
Creativity and innovation are important elements of highly productive teams. When teams are not creative, they experience higher levels of fatigue. Employers often scramble for ways to foster creativity and innovative thinking at work. Virtual reality team building can be one way to do so. Virtual reality simulates novel and interesting experiences and activities for team members. Using out of the box techniques like this motivates the team to think out of the box.
Cost effective and adventurous
While virtual reality might seem like an expensive way to organize activities, it can indeed be a cost effective solution. Specifically in remote work when teams are looking for more engaging activities, gathering the entire team at one place for an activity can be expensive. In such cases virtual reality can be a cost effective way for teams to experience adventures, team lunches or escape rooms etc from the comfort of their homes. For employers this can be more cost effective than organizing an adventure trip or a vacation. Although virtual reality activities may not be the solution or substitute for real activities, it is cost effective yet interactive way to engage teams.
Improved communication and team bonding
Improved team communication and bonding are the goals for most team building activities. While there are many team building activities that improve team communication, virtual reality team building can be a powerful way to do so. Using virtual reality, organizations can simulate real world experiences for teams and bring them closer. Virtual reality can also be used to simulate a physical office experience for remote workers and help in brainstorming, communication, and other team activities.
Unforgettable and memorable experiences
A team building activity can be considered highly effective and successful when it creates unforgettable and memorable experiences for team members. This has been more important for virtual team building activities which sometimes team members consider as nothing more than more time on a zoom call. Virtual reality can be a gamer changer in doing so. Using a technological intervention to organize regular activities will not only excite teams but also leave unforgettable memories.
While virtual reality is a great way to enhance engagement of team building activities, it must be noted that virtual reality is only a tool or technology. To organize powerful and engaging activities, virtual reality must be used along with creative activities like escape rooms, mystery games, food tours, survival games etc. Another aspect of team building where virtual reality can be highly impactful is breaking the barriers between team members. Regardless, of the goal of the team building activity, virtual reality can be a powerful addition to it. But like other activities, virtual reality activities are also influenced by multiple factors. Some examples are time available, budget available, objective of the activity etc. Out of the box experiences like this are best when organized occasionally rather than regularly.