Managers: a crisis is the perfect moment to build stronger bonds with every team member.

The coronavirus crisis has left us deeply uncertain about the future, and sometimes forces radical decisions to protect the company and its jobs. Yet it also brings us back to a truth that’s easy to forget: you have to be able to count on the people who make up that company. Like a solid safety net you can lean on.

So perhaps what matters most in uncertain times is strengthening those bonds with every employee, so you can face things together — with the help of a digital game. But how do you motivate your teams right now? How do you move the company’s shared project forward? Think collective. Company projects don’t belong to leaders alone, but to all their stakeholders. That’s why creating group momentum starts with thinking teamwork.

The festive season: time to take stock

There are the figures, of course: the ones that give us cold sweats, and the ones that put a broad smile on our faces. But it’s also the moment to thank everyone you’ve been able to rely on. Beyond financial reward, which is a significant part of how employees feel recognised, informal recognition matters just as much. Taking the time to recognise people plays a major part in team performance.

Gen Z, for instance, rates the atmosphere at work as highly as pay when it comes to motivation (source: Mazars and OpinionWay — Future of Work study, 2019). That signal is stronger still when you acknowledge each individual’s place within the organisation, particularly in a crisis.

Employee engagement comes up constantly as a challenge for managers. But how can you expect engagement without recognition? A healthy, lasting working relationship rests on both sides of that trust.

Why thanking your employees matters

Despite all the goodwill and the initiatives gradually shifting attitudes, our often top-down mindset pushes us to highlight what’s going wrong and what could be better, with a pinch of pressure and a generous helping of ambitious targets. And yet we’ve already asked a great deal this year: working remotely overnight when nothing had been planned for it. Juggling personal and professional life without clear boundaries. Living with the fear of losing your job and the sense that you have to do more just to get through.

Effort is of course necessary — but it isn’t always enough to weather a crisis that comes from outside rather than within. This time, rolling a few heads won’t get us back on our feet. What will is the strength of the safety net we’ve built. It rests on the bonds between people, the ones that create a sense of team, loyalty and belonging (that famous engagement, perhaps?). So this year, I suggest replacing pressure with a little humility. What if we simply said thank you? Thank you for the shared effort, for the shared responsibility, for the challenges still to come, for sharing the company’s vision — because we’re all part of one common project. Thank you for 2020.

Can you build team spirit remotely?

The lingering anxiety around the health crisis could easily push us to cancel every event. To tell ourselves that saying thank you matters less than keeping people safe. And besides, we’re all tired of Zoom calls, aren’t we? Meeting fatigue has certainly gained ground this year, and getting people to join yet another video session really does have to be worth it.

So here’s an argument in favour of your end-of-year event. Paradoxically, digital tools encourage exchange and innovation. But for 31% of French respondents and 42% of future leaders, they also isolate people and weaken human relationships. (Source: Great Place to Work).

So even if some have come to loathe it, digital will remain central to the way companies work for some time yet (if not for good). The point is to use it to strengthen human relationships, create connection and a sense of belonging. Because yes, connection is possible, even at a distance. How? By encouraging informal exchange in small groups, and by introducing games that let people step into a role and interact more easily. In short, working together in a way that includes everyone and builds genuine team spirit.

Team building through digital games

At Arcane, we run a remote team escape room, where the clues needed to solve the puzzles are spread across the players’ hands. Only strong communication between team members will crack the challenge. Think that’s trivial? Perhaps, if you believe an employee’s only value lies in their output. But we’re all more complex than that. We’re human. And humans are social animals. So in an age of physical (and let’s face it, somewhat social) distancing, it’s more necessary than ever to restore the glue that binds us: cohesion, connection, exchange. Management means caring about the person as much as the quality of the work, because the two go together. To unite a team, you have to conduct as many personalities as there are projects.

I’m no dreamer chasing groundless utopias. I’m a business owner aiming to set a virtuous circle in motion. Group cohesion makes a team more effective, and an effective team is a closer one. People identify with each other through a shared mindset. Invisible bonds form between them, building the cohesion that decides how well a team performs and lifting productivity along the way. Bringing teams together around a playful activity such as team building is the ideal answer to your HR challenges.