10 Ways to Use Microsoft Teams for Remote Employee Engagement
Since most people are working from home, we have to think of new ways to keep employees engaged. Microsoft Teams is a great platform to hold engagement events & activities for remote workers. Activities can be used for friendly competition or “just for fun”. We plan to give each employee who wins a challenge an entry into a grand prize drawing that will take place when we are able to return to the office.
10 Ways to Use Microsoft Teams for Remote Employee Engagement
Here are some activities we’ve done at Worksighted to help employees stay connected!
1. Meme Contests
Create or find the best meme about technology (or social distancing!) and post on Teams. Employees will vote on their favorite by liking the post, most votes win!
2. Typing Contest
Use typingtest.com to give employees three tries and have them post their best score. Whoever has the highest words per minute (wpm) wins.
3. Teams BINGO
Use a “Social” channel where people post non-work related material. Send each person a BINGO card and “call out” (post) each number. The first person to get a BINGO and post it first wins!
4. MTV Cribs: Remote Edition
Time to show off our new workspaces! Have employees post a picture of their new work set up, including any new “coworkers” they have (such as kids, pets, or significant others)
5. Online Trivia
Create a private room on sporcle.com and see who knows the most random facts. We host three games at three different times throughout the day to make it available for as many people as possible.
6. Virtual Happy Hour
Host a virtual happy hour through Teams or Zoom to keep everyone connected. Keep things light and have a few questions to ask if the conversation turns negative.
7. Host a Card Game Tournament
Use an online game service like Trickster Cards to play a popular card game over a lunch hour or after hours. We hosted a double-elimination Euchre tournament that was a big hit. We used Microsoft Teams with the breakout room function to break into groups of 4
8. Cross Team Collaboration Sessions
It’s easier in a remote or hybrid work environment to only connect with people that are on your team or you work with directly. To help bridge this gap, we brought people from all over the organization together in small groups to focus on team building. These sessions have a wide range of content – anything from “just for fun/culture building” to really breaking down common problems and working on finding solutions.
9. Walking Challenge
We have run multiple walking challenges with the Outbreak App and people have really gotten into it! You divide participants into teams and work together to avoid getting killed by zombies. We connected with our team via chat in Teams to work together on our strategy and remind each other to get walking. Employees were more intentional about walking during remote meetings or taking a jog during lunch.
10. Fun Facts Guessing Game
Have employees send in a fun fact that others may not know about them. Send out the list of facts and employees guess who they think the fact is about. Whoever gets the most correct wins.
It has been incredible to see the ways we have all adapted to this new way of life, new inventions, new ways of fostering connection, and new ways of getting work done. We are convinced that Microsoft Teams is the best way to boost employee engagement in a remote or hybrid workforce.
Ready to jump into Microsoft Teams?
Start with a Power Hour with one of our engineers to see if it’s the right tool for you.
Worksighted Team
We are a team of over-enthusiastic people, ready to help our clients utilize technology to spur growth! We love technology and come to work every day eager to solve problems and find ways to impact our clients.
