Many candidates express similar sentiments during job interviews: “My priority in a job is what my team is like and can I rely on them to support me on tough days, provide inspiration through brainstorming when I need it, and help out if there is a deadline looming.” That’s not surprising – humans are social creatures, and spending eight hours a day working with someone you hardly know, without forming meaningful relationships, can strain mental health.

This is doubly so for remote work, when your co-workers are hundreds or even thousands of kilometers distant, and even with the help of modern tools like Slack and Zoom/Google Meet, the feeling of being on your own can be overwhelming. Having been fully remote for over a decade, BB Agency takes special care to nurture friendship and create lasting bonds between team members, making sure that everyone feels truly like a part of the team, and not just a “bunch of individuals”. This blog post will showcase some of the team bonding activities that have worked well for us in establishing a healthy remote working team.

Company-wide bonding activities

We have three main activities that help all of us come together – our company meeting which occurs weekly and is more formal, plus our two informal meetings (Friday Team Meeting & Hangouts Meeting) happening monthly.

• The company meeting keeps everyone aligned on project updates and offers support for any challenges.
• Our monthly “Friday Team Meetings” feature a range of activities, usually created by team members themselves. We rotate activities each time and it could be any one of the following:
  • Our famous “Pecha Kucha” where new colleagues introduce themselves through brief, creative presentations,
  • a “Culture Map” of different countries and nationalities, showcasing the richness of cultural diversity we are lucky to have in the company
  • a team member’s “Truth or Lie” presentation about their life experiences,
  • or a “F*uck up learning moment (in my professional life)” where people share things they’ve learned the harder way.

The primary bonding goal of these meetings is to get the initial sense of people, their backgrounds and learn a little about their previous experiences in life.

• Similar to the Friday Team Meetings, we also have our monthly “Hangouts meeting”, which differ in the sense that HR is the one bringing activities and encouraging bonding. We rotate different activities from fun games to silly discussions, and have recently even been hosts to a pub quiz, which enabled us to create mixed groups of people who usually don’t have much touch points in their day-to-day, and help them build out their relationships in a fun and relaxed manner. In these Hangouts meetings the bonding goal is more toward creating actual connections in real time with people who are present, actually conversing and getting to know them.

“These meetings are especially important when remote because it gives people the opportunity to get to know each other and socialize”
– Ivan Lucić, Junior UX Designer

“The best thing about the informal meetings in BB is that it is a great opportunity to wind down and share some laughs with the team. Be it just a chat about lost time while making the bed or a pub quiz, it is a good way to bond.”
– Marko Đaković, Project Manager

Bonding activities on a team level

Outside of company-wide activities, we also love to have people connect on a more personal level with members of their teams, both through formal and informal meetings. Each team has a weekly team meeting to discuss ongoing project concerns, but they also meet informally for games and chatting (for example the quirky “Beer & Cookies” meeting by our design department) or knowledge-sharing discussions. Our development and design departments also hold ‘Talks’ every few weeks. On these “Talks”, someone from the team is asked to pick a subject they are interested in, and which could be interesting to others in the team as well. That person then does a presentation for their teammates, instructing them in the subject.

“The informal meetings are definitely a good thing as they help us come closer together which is essential for remote work”
– Vedran Starčić, Project Manager

Other ways for creating bonds

Aside from these activities, we also have several “hobby” Slack channels focused on sharing recommendations for movies, books, concerts, and gaming, providing additional ways to bond. We also have two more channels – a more general “#sharing-is-caring” channel for bonding where everyone is encouraged to share cool moments, from life milestones to funny anecdotes, and a “#shout-out” channel. It’s a very important channel for us, as its purpose is to praise colleagues and celebrate great collaboration, encouraging public recognition of positive feedback.

We publish an internal monthly newsletter, which helps people stay updated. In it, we spotlight employees and ask them to share more about their professional origins, which is a great way to build rapport between them. Feedback on the newsletter suggests it’s a powerful tool for bringing people closer together.

Finally, every month we pick a meaningful celebration or two and commemorate them – things like “International Podcast Day”, or “International Self-care Day”. We always try to tie some sort of activity to the commemoration – for “International Podcast Day” we asked colleagues to share their favorite podcasts, then compiled an internal list of recommendations. Or, “International Self-Care Day” was commemorated by encouraging everyone to step away from their computers for an hour and engage in an act of self-care. This helps us build a sense of community.

“While working remotely has its perks, it can also make you feel alienated. This is why BB puts so much emphasis on coworkers connecting via various informal meetings, games, etc. You could say we have this instead of water cooler conversations! I enjoy coming to these meetings and participating because it’s fun, and I get to learn more about the people I work with.”
– Ana Belić, Social Media Specialist

Conclusion

In the end, all these activities and channels aim to bring people from diverse backgrounds together, fostering a network of trust and support that makes life at BB Agency more enjoyable. The sense of connection we create strengthens our team and enhances productivity. We hope our approach inspires you to implement similar strategies with your own remote team.