The Best and Brightest programs have always been a platform for dialog, education, and employee engagement tools. This guide is designed to help executive leadership, team leaders, and supervisors in virtual and hybrid environments with team bonding activities that amplify a healthy and uplifting culture.
Involve employees in the decision-making process by setting up focus groups and encouraging company-wide brainstorming before a big decision is made. Give rewards for big ideas that lead to change within the company and encourage employees on every level to contribute. Employees may win cash prizes if their ideas are implemented.
A company out of Milwaukee has a full-time director of training and development, who leads the creation of customized career paths, development plans, and training opportunities to help employees realize their full potential.
Create an engaging way to track when these corporate behaviors are exemplified among team members. Employees that achieve all of the desired behaviors can be recognized. One company designs PowerPoint a presentation about the employee and gives them a bonus.
Many businesses are moving away from performance reviews. Rather, a focus on each individual’s developmental needs, with a deep understanding of their specific talents, roles, and responsibilities, is the key. For one company, a minimum of once a year, Career Impact and Growth surveys are utilized, so that each person can express their desired growth plans. Others use facilitated discussion tools such as UMAP.
As a result of the pandemic, a company pivoted to becoming a continuous feedback company (versus filling out old-fashioned performance reviews) by using UMAP, a Best and Brightest recommended platform. This tool has made it much easier for managers to provide continuous feedback to their employees and also allows employees to provide feedback to each other, as well as their direct report. This tool has also significantly shifted their culture, as they are not just focused on business-related goals, but equally on employees’ personal goals.
For those in more skilled and specific industries, training and mentoring is a valuable tool for engagement. One Best and Brightest company provides employees with specialized training in scientific, financial, and technical fields. Employees are then matched with other workforce talent from around the country, to ensure they are successful in every area of development.
Many companies are moving towards paid training programs prior to work beginning, as a way to engage employees from the beginning of their positions. A Chicago winner begins education and development with an extensive five-week training program at world headquarters. Senior leaders conduct a global onboarding calls with all new hires. Also offered are a structured career development program and a leadership development program. Employees are encouraged to build skills and increase networks outside the company, accomplished through an annual $1,500 per person training and development budget.
A Virginia winner has established “Next Generation Leaders,” for early-career staff to learn about leadership principals, as a way to engage and retain young talent. There are monthly team activities, as well as individual reading and assignments. The program is led by the company president and co-founders, and is designed for staff to develop new perspectives on leadership and to encourage new relationships and connections across the business.
A midwest winner trains leaders to take the time to know each team member’s strengths, preferences, and areas of development, to ensure employees are placed in assignments that best utilize their unique skills and experience. They use a tool specifically designed for their organization.
Many Best and Brightest companies anonymously poll team members on a regular cadence. For one winner, results are provided to the company president, who uses them to shape the focus of the company’s annual planning session, driving a culture of continuous improvement.
One winner, in an effort to engage families, encourages work-life balance with its new-parent transition program, easing the challenges new parents face when returning to work after maternity, adoption, or parental leave. They offer a flexible return-to-work period during the first months back on the job, with a gradual transition from reduced hours to full-time.
Achieving ambitious goals is rewarded by a Chicago winner with incredible trips, such as Napa Valley wine tours, South Beach deep-sea tours, and relaxing Cancun retreats.
Many winners are enhancing their DEI efforts to engage team members. One winner has a strong emphasis on diversity, with six committees to recognize the needs of specific groups, including Associated Women’s Network, Young Professionals, Cultural Awareness Network, Veteran’s Network, Pride & Equality Exchange, and Forward Abilities Network, serving individuals with disabilities. Feedback from these groups is communicated to leadership for changes and improvements in the company culture and policies.
One way to engage the team is to train and certify “playbook coaches” to teach new hires. Bonuses are provided to those who are certified to teach new hires after they submit a completed 90 Day Success Plan for the new hire at the end of the training period. They recently expanded this playbook concept to include Client Service Playbook Coaches with a similar approach.
High scoring companies believe that health and wellness correlate to a more engaged employee. An example of a best practice is offering team members up to $100 reimbursement for wellness-related expenses, such as gym memberships, Weight Watchers, yoga pants, or new athletic shoes. Other examples include a focus on stress reduction by providing workplace massages; a room for meditation, prayer, and yoga; and by being a dog-friendly workplace. Some have wellness coaches as an on-site resource offered to all employees, available during or after work. One company out of Detroit offers an in-house certified nutritionist who oversees all wellness activities for the company.
Post pandemic, many CEOs are working diligently to have more creative and ongoing communications for in-person and hybrid work. Examples include digital weekly video, fireside chats to answer any question, and weekly emails. For example, one CEO emails a weekly “Lesson of the Week,” which provides motivation or tips on teamwork and how to be a good leader from their own experiences. Another example at one Chicago Best and Brightest winner is a weekly five-minute training program conducted by leaders in the organization. The sessions are quick and to the point, and are recorded so they can be reviewed at any time.
An Atlanta organization focuses on work-life balance solutions for team engagement. They have a concierge service for team members who travel or work additional hours. Concierge services include dry cleaning, house cleaning, car detailing, catered meals, childcare, yard services, and more. This has helped them retain and engage team members.
A creative Rhode Island Best and Brightest Company offers employees a voluntary subscription to a faith-based video library, which includes thousands of leadership videos, such as those of Patrick Lencioni and John Maxwell. They also offer an onsite corporate chaplain, weekly prayer meetings, a financial literacy and budgeting course, mindfulness, and meditation.
On the west coast, this Washington-based organization has a “Happyologist” on staff, who focuses on celebrating achievements and works with HR to understand what makes each employee tick and to guarantee that they feel appreciated with custom employee experiences.
Join the Best and Brightest Community of Winners to view more Best Practices and Thought Starters. Nominate your company!
This guide is designed to help executive leadership, team leaders, and supervisors in virtual and hybrid environments with team bonding activities that amplify a healthy and uplifting culture.
Allow meetings to end either at 25 minutes or 45 minutes, depending on the importance of the conversation. This allows team members to transition between meetings, get water, take a bio break, and have breathing room between digital meetings.
Host a monthly coffee hour with the whole team and the CEO of the company. Questions to the CEO could be submitted in advance anonymously or directly at the coffee hour. The goal is to create a safe environment for questions to be answered and to get clarity on company objectives.
Find a charity and set up a volunteering day for all team members to volunteer together by dropping off donations or whatever the charity needs that can be done remotely. Some companies with hybrid environments are creating “all team” charity activities in person, as a way to engage team members that normally do not see each other.
Whether in-person or hybrid, schedule Comfortable Days, where employees have the option to not do their hair or make up and to wear comfortable clothes. Many companies require that cameras be on for digital meetings; on Comfortable Days, employees aren’t asked to turn their cameras on.
If budget allows, send gift boxes or gift cards to make home offices more comfortable. Holiday cards are also appreciated. Some companies are sending food kits, such as cookie design kits, to be delivered at home, and scheduling a decorating day with best cookie contests. Others are sending delivered meals for team meetings and social hours. “Sunshine gift boxes” can be sent at stressful times or in the winter to brighten employees’ day.
As a way to preserve culture, some companies are hosting in-person activities in addition to their hybrid work. These meetings are focused on team building opportunities and are set in advance throughout the year. Ideas include volunteering at a local charity, craft facilities (such as painting), nature walks/hikes, or fun group activities at a local business.
If a meeting is scheduled to go over the lunch hour and budget allows, offer Grub Hub or Door Dash for employees to order food. Everyone can share what they are having for lunch during a break in the meeting.
In addition to PTO, the company can offer a Mental Health Day each month for employees to be able to unplug. These days can be taken at any moment with no questions asked.
Whether in person, hybrid, or at home, ensure communication within the company, to allow all employees to know their colleagues’ work status, using whatever communication platform the company provides. Employee status messages should change often throughout the day. Encourage team members to communicate wellness breaks or when they are “out for a walk,” to show support of wellness and well-being in the workplace.
Have a chat channel that is created for fun and social updates. Leave this chat open for anyone who wants to share announcements, celebrations, or photos. Ask weekly icebreaker questions, such as “what are you grateful for” or “what’s for dinner tonight?” to encourage social conversations. This open channel creates an opportunity for employees to feel stronger relationships, not only with each other, but also with the company.
Randomly assign pairs of employees to match together for two weeks, asking them to check in on one another and help stay connected while working from home. Change the employees on a rotational schedule.
Have a point person that can call each employee for a check-in. This gives employees the opportunity to communicate any frustrations or changes needed to their schedule or style of working in a hybrid, in person, or digital environment. Many employers are allowing employees to set their own work schedule and style; it is important to check in to ensure success.
Please note that there is an additional resource guide dedicated to Wellness and Well-being in the Workplace. These are a few examples of group wellness activities for team bonding.
The Best and Brightest Companies® provides the business community with the opportunity to gain recognition in their human resource practices, wellness initiatives, and technology contributions. Nominate your workplace and join our community of winners!
Best and Brightest strives to recognize the most influential, trend-setting companies across the country and regionally in focused programs.
The National Association for Business Resources does not in any way endorse winning companies businesses, brands, products or services, and has the right to prohibit companies from participating in the selection process of a Best and Brightest program based on specific industries, as well as any ethical concerns that may arise.