The benefits and drawbacks of remote work are well known to those who work from home: from flexible schedules and improved work-life balance, to reduced commuting costs. However, for companies, the rise of telecommuting poses a significant challenge – the threat of reduced human interaction in the workplace.

Why personal relationships between remote workers matter

Taking a break with your colleagues for a coffee or chat is an easy feat when working under the same roof. But in today’s remote work environment, building personal relationships has become a challenge. Simply turning on your webcam for a video call is no longer enough to create strong connections with your coworkers.

People spend a significant portion of their lives sharing time with those they know through work. By fostering social relationships with your team, not only will they feel more comfortable and motivated, but it also encourages a company culture based on mutual trust and respect.

In addition to this, a cohesive team is a more creative, efficient, and productive team, while developing and strengthening their social and emotional skills.

Tips for leading a remote work team

Maintaining ongoing communication

We all know that communication is key, and this holds especially true in remote work situations. While there are many collaboration and communication tools available for remote teams, they don’t always achieve their intended purpose. Sure, we can speak, see, and hear each other, but that doesn’t guarantee effective communication.

For example, you can create icebreaker activities before a meeting to encourage everyone to participate, or offer a pre-meeting catch-up period to ensure everyone is on the same page before diving into the agenda.

With Spacecreator, you can conduct group voice and video calls in an immersive environment that fosters interaction and collaboration among your team. This ensures that all meeting participants are clear on the topics discussed and decisions made.

Have fun at work, even from home.

Companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Accenture are examples of corporate offices that allocate a space for leisure and relaxation for their employees. The benefits of incorporating a fun space within your work area include the following:

• It promotes the health and well-being of your team through physical exercise rooms or spaces dedicated to mental health.

• It fosters creativity and innovation through a relaxed and creative environment; it is a place to disconnect and find inspiration.

• It increases talent retention: by providing these benefits to employees and showing that the company cares about their happiness, it increases loyalty and commitment to the company’s values and mission.

  
  

These spaces may include ping-pong tables, foosball, arcade machines, open spaces with plenty of natural light or outdoor areas, different types of seating and tables, various types of food and drink, and even extravagant decorations that deviate from the corporate style.

Gamified activities for remote work teams.

When your team works 100% remotely, in a hybrid format, or even if one part works in-person and another remotely, spending time together in this type of social space can be difficult or even impossible. With Spacecreator, you can bring both worlds together.

You can enjoy gamified activities such as Quizz and Virtual Soccer League included in the monthly subscription of Spacecreator where you can design team-building activities that promote natural communication among members of your remote team.

Create your customized virtual office.

Within the hidden face of remote work, as Melissa Romo points out in this article published in Forbes, there are 5 emotional traps within remote work: boredom, guilt, depression, paranoia, and loneliness. All of them are related to the lack of human contact and a workspace that ensures feeling “accompanied” during the workday.

With Spacecreator, companies can create a personalized virtual office with different contents through a system of pre-designed 3D templates that can be used to create, among other uses, a professional virtual office.

These immersive spaces allow your team to interact through customizable avatars to their liking thanks to video calls, voice areas, private messages, public chat, screen sharing, or even webcam conferences in just a few clicks.

This allows turning an “ordinary” and boring task of the day-to-day into a completely new work experience that motivates your team to achieve their goals.