Friendly Competition Brings Remote Teams Together

2020 has required us to find new ways to inspire and motivate our employees. We have been forced to get creative, the punishment if we cannot adapt? Employee burnout and dissatisfaction. This article is going to explore the benefits of using competitions to get your employees excited again and prevent reaching the point of burnout.

Camaraderie is a mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together. The camaraderie that leaders had built up within their departments has been damaged during this time of remote work. Some examples of camraderie killers are tough layoffs, increased stress, and reduced interaction because of distance working. Competitions can bring camaraderie back to life within your team. It is important to note that I do not mean work-related competitions, which can be unhealthy for your culture. I am talking about friendly challenges such as walking competitions where your employees are on teams competing to out-step their rivals!

There are many benefits to fostering camaraderie within work teams. Gallup’s 2016 State of the American Workplace found “when employees possess a deep sense of affiliation with their team members, they are driven to take positive actions that benefit the business — actions they may not otherwise even consider. The best employers recognize that people want to build meaningful friendships and that company loyalty is built on such relationships.” When your employees are connected to their coworkers, they will be more inclined to make decisions that improve your bottom line.

Being part of a team and having a sense of belonging is one benefit of hosting competitions but it is not the only possible result. You can use competitions to promote both physical and mental wellness. Shaka Culture Application enables you to build completely custom competitions for your organization so you can target initiatives that are most relevant to your company.

Is your organization experiencing high levels of employee stress? Exercise is known to reduce stress. Consider hosting a physical activity competition encouraging employees to take time to workout. Giving employees a team to encourage them to participate and support them along the way will produce even stronger results.

Maybe your organization wants to focus on mental health awareness because your staff is feeling overwhelmed while working from home. You can host a meditation competition where your employees are challenged to take 5-10 minute meditation breaks. There are many free guided meditations you can provide to them from Youtube and Spotify. Meditation is known to help employees relax, unwind and refocus. This can be a great exercise to prevent burnout.

There are many ways you can design team-based competitions to boost morale and reignite that sense of camaraderie that your employees have been missing. Just like how professional sports brings communities together, competitions can give your teams something to cheer for and celebrate too!