Don’t Let The Pandemic Quarantine Your Company Culture

Written By: Paulina Yousif

Company outings. Happy hours. Holiday parties. Familiar words employees would look forward to hearing prior to the pandemic. While most offices continue to work remotely, the focus remains on productivity, however, culture is still a vital component of keeping employees engaged. The question remains, how can employers prevent company culture from declining? 

Much like other aspects of business, strategizing, and evolving helps companies keep up with new market trends. While all business meetings have moved to the virtual world, social gatherings have, as well. There are some great activities that companies and teams can participate in to ensure company culture doesn’t fade, and give employees a sense of fun and bonding. 

1. Have a virtual happy hour. Get your team together with their favorite drinks after a long week of work and have a casual, virtual hangout, no working allowed!
2. Bring in outside entertainment. Invite an entertainer to your video call. A good laugh from a comedian is always appreciated, or leave your team in awe of a magician’s tricks. 
3. Participate in a group class. Being at home is tough on the body. Hire a yoga instructor to relieve some stress or even an instructor to teach you how to cook your favorite meals. 
4. Invent new games. Break your company up into smaller groups and have them compete in trivia, physical challenges, and team-building exercises.
5. Encourage costume themes. Add a little flavor to your meetings with themes like crazy wig day, pajama day, sports days, and so on. 
6. Recreation challenges. Assign a few team members each week to recreate famous paintings, tv scenes, movie covers, famous sports moments, and send it out weekly for the rest of the team to see. 
7. Talent show. Everyone has a hidden talent. Let a few team members each week show you what they’ve got!
8. Celebrations. The pandemic has been rough on people celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, and other milestones. Surprise those employees with a quick, congratulatory company meeting.
9. Get to know your people. Most importantly, get to know your team members. Have everyone share something you may not have known about them. It may even bring your team closer together.

Creativity and fun activities will be appreciated by employees, as they will see that there is effort and reward for their hard work. Setting aside time to encourage employees to mingle can even strengthen their bond for when the office is back open.