Would you or your employees describe your staff meetings as exciting? Or are they just part of a routine exercise to get work done as seamlessly as possible? If your answers are no and yes, respectively, you’ve come to the right place because our experts at Cochran, Cochran & Yale asked industry experts and leaders about how they keep their remote teams engaged, which we’ll elaborate on later in the blog.

A lack of engagement can cause discontent in your remote teams over time. So, if you’re looking for creative and energetic ideas to get your remote teams on track, look no further. Here are some creative ways to improve employee engagement in your remote teams:

Try Gamification Techniques To Hold Their Attention

Gamification techniques are a great way to encourage active listening, improve participation, and allow two-way communication in online meetings. They’re also quite easy to execute as well. You can randomly insert a cartoon character, like bugs bunny, in the slides and ask people how many times he appeared.

You can also throw in some incorrect phrases and words, and the person to identify the most wins an incentive. You can also conduct a quiz at the end after collecting quotes from the attendees throughout the meeting and asking them who said that quote. The one with the most accurate guesses wins a small prize or gift voucher.

 

Create Interactive Polls

If you want to break the monotony concerning collaborative decision-making, introduce live surveys and polls in your online meetings. It’s a fun activity that keeps everybody engaged. Once everyone has voted on the agenda, you can discuss the reasons and ramifications and move on to the next piece of business.

The poll is also a great way to keep track of all the courses of action decided within the meeting, which can help relay the minutes to other cross-sectional teams and supervisors later on.

Appoint A Moderator

It’s a little unorthodox, but appoint a moderator for the virtual meetings to keep your employees engaged and attentive. Before every meeting, you can assign a team member to be the moderator. Each team member will have a turn to be the moderator in the upcoming meetings.

The moderator can call on the attendees, ask them questions, encourage discussion, manage talk times, and keep everyone on track according to the agenda. It’ll break up the monotonous meeting routine and bring a fresh perspective and voice to every online meeting.

 

Do Exercises With Your Team Members

If you and your team have to constantly sit in front of the screen all day, break up the routine with some physical activity and stretching and get people comfortable with other remote team members.

You can make a slide including multiple routine stretches to loosen up the neck, back, arms, and core muscles and ask everybody to participate. Ask them to turn on their cameras and lead the exercise. It’ll refresh your mind and body and release tension.

Make Interactive And Creative Slides

Your material can help increase your attendees’ memory and attention, encourage interaction and employee engagement, and boost feelings of inclusiveness. You must have attended at least one or two online meetings since the pandemic. Ask yourself, which of them did you find the most engaging, the one with monotonous slides or colorful, interactive slides?

Since we can’t see our employees and team leads in person, we must bring a creative and interactive aspect to the online meetings. And one of the best ways to do that is to create visually pleasing presentations and slides to provide information, make a point, or give context. You can also include short videos and memes to improve employee engagement and capture your team members’ attention.

 

Add An Ice Breaker Game

Are your online meetings awkward and dry? Break the ice with a fun interactive game. It’ll help set the mood and get everyone comfortable with each other. You can ask them about some of the fun activities they did this week, a guessing game, or ask each attendee to tell a joke. It’ll help everyone be comfortable regarding speaking with each other and set the stage for participation and creativity.

Check In With Your Remote Employees

Employees often choose remote work because they’re working parents or have a long commute. It can often be isolating as well. So, take your time before the meeting to check in with your employees to see how they’re doing, what they’ve been up to, and what challenges they’ve been facing professionally and personally. You can also show appreciation for all your remote employees and commend them on their work and efforts.

Try to cultivate a social bonding with your team members and encourage this bonding between themselves too. It’ll develop empathy, collaboration, and teamwork among your team members.

Play Minute To Win It Games

Do you remember the popular show “Minute To Win It?” It was a contest where people would compete to finish games in under a minute. You can conduct a similar game virtually and play with your team members. It can include typing a paragraph in under a minute, doodling on a piece of paper stuck to the forehead, and asking people to guess. It’ll improve employee engagement and team interaction.

 

Play Pictionary

Put that online marker to use and energize your team. You can give each team member 3-5 seconds to make a picture and let the other guess what it is. This game can get pretty wild because the players must think about making the closest silhouette to the item or object. If they can’t, other players have to throw random guesses as to what the drawn blob of lines is.

Hire C-Suite Executive Recruitment Services To Acquire Quality Leadership And Talent

If you’re looking for exceptional leaders to improve employee engagement at your firm, look no further than Cochran, Cochran & Yale. We’re one of the best executive job search NY, offering leadership recruitment, executive compensation consulting, and candidate assessment services.

Reach out to us today for more information on our Recruitment Consultants For Hire NY.