The challenge

This 90 employee team was carved out of a larger tech team that used to work as a single business unit earlier. The nature of the work required them to work collaboratively with each other. With 50% of the team hired during lockdown, the organization foresaw reduced opportunities for peer to peer engagement and micro-learning resulting in the formation of small but strong silos. The client needed HR solutions to prevent this from happening!

The approach

The cornerstone of the approach was humanizing the team – by designing an activity that required participants to communicate and share information unique to them, but relevant to the rest of the group. Throughout the rest of the competitive activity, participants were forced to swap roles and had to seek help or support teammates in order to progress. Additionally, participants realized that teams only succeed when the group eventually succeeds as well.

Outcomes

The 90 minute experience had several takeaways—empathy with team members, building trust, a willingness to initiate conversations, ask for help and being receptive to ideas and suggestion. People moved away from internally competing to collaborating as a group. Most importantly, the client’s EVP was authenticated in their Employee Experience resulting in a deeper connection with the Employer Brand.