Humans are social beings. Our journey through life is richer and more fulfilling when we’re with others. This is true both personally and professionally. But at work it’s about so much more than just being a social being.
People want to feel safe at work. And it’s in the interest of managers to make their employees feel safe. And by safe, I’m not just limiting it to physical safety. Do your employees feel comfortable around you? Do they feel like they can bring up issues without being looked down upon? Are they open to feedback or do they immediately get defensive when they hear challenging criticism? Do you know if your employees like and enjoy working with their peers? If you answered no to any of these questions, then your employees likely don’t feel safe at work. Instead they are taking up part of their cognitive load to stay on guard for threats from others.
One of the fundamental problems is that people are in their fear zone at work because they aren’t in relationship with their peers, subordinates, and managers. To be truly in relationship with someone, it’s more than just knowing their name and what they do. It’s knowing who they truly are, what makes them tick, and understanding their true nature. When we get to know each other, fear abates and we feel safe in each other’s presence.
Employees who feel safe are the more productive, more creative, and happiest in the workplace relative to their fear-carrying counterparts. Happy, creative, and productive employees generate the best work output, maximize customer satisfaction, and stay employed at the company longer. And when your employees appear to be happy, creative, and productive, that permeates to others in the organization. The foundation for this is to be in relationship with those that we work with.
Given that this has such profound effects on employee output and satisfaction, there are a plethora of ways to cultivate this foundation. A Google search for ‘team building exercises’ yields over 3 billion results. Most of these exercises are for building team activities in-person. But as remote workplace cultures become widely accepted, not only are the potential ways to build connection limited but they’re also even more critical. Remote work by its very nature does not foster human connection. When working in the same physical office, at the very least there are serendipitous opportunities to generate human connection. But all of that is thrown out the door when working from home, making the task of building team connection all the more critical for managers.
To help solve this problem, Sporcle runs special private virtual trivia games for corporate teams. Our games have been played by thousands of companies and organizations in 2020, from small businesses to schools to Fortune 500 companies. For remote teams, there is no better way develop or maintain human connection that employees need to thrive. The games are fun, engaging, and last either one or two hours. Our games have been used as a team building activity, a fun game to play during a company party, for birthdays and holiday parties, and to facilitate connection during new employee onboarding. While some companies use Sporcle virtual trivia games for one-time events or parties, most come back to Sporcle every quarter for another event. We even have customers who engage us several times per month. In all cases, these companies are making an investment in human connection and helping employees feel safe, valued, and heard in a remote workspace.
Invest in your employee’s satisfaction.
Invest in human connection.
Hire Sporcle today to run a Sporcle virtual trivia game for your corporate team. Click here to learn more and inquire. Looking for more? Here is an entire list of virtual activities to try.
