Fun Ways to Keep Your Team Happy and Engaged During COVID-19

We’ve always had processes in place that allow our entire team to work from home effectively when they need to, and we’re also always keen to offer flexibility around when and where our team completes their work.

However, for many people, this will be their first time working from home for an extended period, and it’s sometimes easy to feel a little laggy and disconnected (even in our world, where there’s more connective technology than ever before).

The truth is that nothing beats the power of face-to-face communication when it comes to building team camaraderie and friendships, however there are still some great ways you can engage your team and have fun in the process while working at home during COVID-19.

We’ve been having loads of online banter the last couple of weeks keeping the spirit of the office alive from our lounge rooms, and thought we’d share with you our ideas for keeping your team happy, healthy, motivated and engaged.

Drag bingo

Let’s start this off with a bang! The Jaywing and Frank Digital teams were treated to a fun Thursday afternoon game of drag bingo with none other than Sydney’s most fabulous drag queen extraordinaire, Prada Clutch.

Conducted through online video chat, the hilarious Prada hosted several games of bingo for us that involved prizes like UberEats and Dan Murphys vouchers! It was a fantastic way to blow off some steam after a busy week (and see what dress-ups the team had hidden away in their wardrobes!)

Virtual yoga

Our Senior SEO Analyst, Egle Gudiskyte is a major yoga enthusiast, and we’ve been lucky enough to have her run some great morning yoga sessions through video chat. This is a fantastic way to encourage your team to exercise and start their day in a considered, calm and thoughtful manner. The team has been loving their virtual yoga sessions, and they’re super easy to set up if you’ve got someone who’s a bit of a yogi in your organisation!

Dress-up quizzes

Online quizzes are a great substitute for regular pub trivia while your team is in isolation, and the best part is that you can make the quizzes personal to your team! We recently did an online quiz that involved dragging a funny ‘vintage’ photo of a team member out of the woodwork and everyone had to guess who it was. 

Theming your quizzes is also a great idea for getting people out of their pyjamas and sweatpants routine – we gave our team the choice of ‘formal’ or ‘your partner’s clothes’ for our most recent quiz! To do your own, simply create the quiz on Powerpoint, create a calendar event and share your screen in the video chat. 

Weekly goal setting

We always do an 8.45am Monday morning meeting covering updates from the previous week and giving our team the chance to workshop roadblocks they’re coming across with their colleagues.

During these meetings, each team member also chooses a goal that they’d like to complete for each week – whether it’s something work-related, exercise-related or life admin-related. Basically, it can be anything that they’ve been putting off doing and need to tackle! Teams work in pairs to complete their goals, and if both team members complete their goals at the end of the week then they get two points. The team with the highest number of points at the end of each month gets a $50 voucher!

Encouraging your team to set weekly goals (both in and out of work) is a great way to boost motivation and keep everyone accountable for the things they want to achieve. It’s also a great conversation starter and way to check-in with your team while they work remotely – which is more important now than ever!

Publicising your pets

Finally, at the end of the day, nothing makes people smile more than furry friends. Get your pets involved in your day-to-day video calls and you’re bound to light people up. Waiting for someone to join a video call? Pass the time by introducing Marbles. Dog won’t stop barking in the background? Grab Max and introduce him to the team.

We’ve been loving seeing our team’s fluffy family members while everyone has been working from home – just check out some of our adorable animal companions below in our Harmony Day LinkedIn post!