Building Culture and Connection Within Remote and Hybrid Teams

Pros and Cons of Remote Work

• Pro: More flexibility for both employees and employers.
  • Employees can work when they want, where they want, and spend more time with family.
  • Employers have access to talent anywhere in the world.
• Con: Employees lose connection with coworkers.
  • Workplace friendships and employee engagement have been diminished due to the distance of remote work.
  • Employee engagement is what turns a transactional relationship between employee and employer into a relationship of personal accountability. 
  • Employees hired into an already remote workplace have a more difficult time making connections with their team. 

Improving the Remote Work Culture

• Encouraging casual social interactions solely for the sake of building employee relationships is crucial to cultivating a more connected remote workplace.
  • Employee retreats are a great way to do this, if your company can afford it.
  • In order to make an impact, these social interactions ideally need to happen a few times a week.
• Companies that have transitioned from in-person work to remote work struggle the most with maintaining employee engagement.

How heyLIME Helps Build Employee Relationships

• heyLIME is a platform that uses games and other activities to create shared social experiences in the workplace.
  • Some activities are designed to only take a couple of minutes so they can be integrated into regular team meetings.
    • Activities include trivia, meditation, ice-breakers, etc.
  • Other activities are meant for longer meetings dedicated to team building.
  • heyLIME also helps plan social events for employees meant to last a few hours. 
• Team building activities may always feel intentional or “forced,” but planning activities around your team’s specific needs will likely make employees more receptive to them.
  • Integrating activities into the first or last few minutes of pre-existing team meetings is an organic way to ensure, or at least encourage, participation.
• heyLIME encourages employee engagement by catering to many different needs and motivations. 

Why Use A Third-Party Company Like heyLIME to Boost Employee Engagement?

• It can sometimes be difficult to understand or measure how effective your team building activities are in building engagement. Bringing in a third-party that specializes in creating tangible programs for engagement can help demonstrate results. 
• heyLIME’s culture advisors help teams onboard onto the platform and understand the science behind what is working, what is not working, and why. 

Advice for HR Professionals

• Be very intentional with team building strategies, because in a remote workplace it will never happen organically. 

James Simmons Background

• B.S. in Computer Science from Harvey Mudd College
• He began his career working as a Software Development Lead for Northrop Grumman
• He served as Director of Technology for SAIC, and the Director of Business Technology for Verify
• Mr. Simmons then became the Head of Engineering - Product Development for LegalZoom
• He served as Chief Executive Officer for Everyone Counts, Inc.
• He currently serves as Partner/Startup Advisor/Chief Technology Officer for Fortium Partners 
• He is also currently the Founder and CEO of heyLIME.

Contact

• James Simmons on LinkedIn
• James Simmons email: james@heylime.com