Virtual events are vital for employee engagement and commercial success, says Svetlana Bezrodnaya, vice president and head of MICE and business development at JTB Europe.
The coronavirus pandemic upended the daily working lives of huge swathes of the population.
Businesses didn’t know if they would cope. Many have struggled. But remote working has seen the technology pull through, and enabled many sectors to continue to operate as close to normal as possible.
However, remote working can only go so far in delivering the kind of relationship building opportunities, both for internal colleagues and external partners, which businesses have come accustomed to. Socialising with contacts has been severely limited. The ability to assess how employees are feeling, and to support them have been significantly affected. Getting to grips with the problems your associates face without being in the room with them seems so difficult.
An Acas‐commissioned YouGov survey found that 50 per cent of employees working from home felt stressed, anxious or experienced mental health difficulties due to their working situation. Seven out of ten felt that they were missing social interactions with others at work.
McKinsey research shows that 90 per cent of business‐to‐business operations have transitioned to a virtual sales model during Covid‐19. It is clear how widespread the impact on relationships between companies has been, and that the commercial impact of that will be massive.
Businesses need to do more to close the gap with employees and their partners and associates. Not only do businesses need to act as part of their duty of care to employees, but it’s also a wise commercial decision. Employees that are engaged, motivated and supported will be much more productive, at a time when efficiency and energy will be required to keep ahead of your competitor set. Similarly, if you engage in a creative and exciting way with your potential customers and your referral network, you will continue to be front of mind and your relationship can continue to develop and grow throughout lockdown.
Engaging employees, customers and partners remotely
There will never be a replacement for face‐to‐face contact when it comes to building relationships in
business. It’s crucial to ensure that any check ins continue as normal and stay in diaries. These platforms remain crucial to your future relationships.
But relationship building can seem far too big a challenge remotely. How can you possibly ensure everyone participates if it’s a group session? How can you truly know if everyone is ‘in the room’? How can you bring a team together when they are so far apart? How can you be seen to fully understand the concerns of your contact?
For event planners, sales and commercial teams and employee engagement/HR teams, innovation and bravery are needed. The virtual events businesses host during this time will define how effective your workforce is in working remotely, how much trust and engagement you have with potential customers and referrers, and will therefore enable a much smoother and stable transition back into the workplace after lockdown. It may also prevent the difficult trading environment from feeling all too difficult to scale.
Team and relationship building solutions
Since the start of the pandemic, JTB Europe has seen businesses and brands looking for ingenuity and creativity in planning sessions to engage employees, customers and partners. There are many platforms and technological solutions which can be deployed to deliver enthralling and bold virtual solutions that seek to replicate the physical world and all of the benefits for those you wish to engage with would expect.
Here’s a snap shot of the myriad of virtual relationship building activity options to uplift, motivate and challenge employees, customers and partners:
• A virtual challenge escape room that provides mental stimulus and requires whole team participation
• Training or teaser sessions through a dedicated app, including live scoreboards, multimedia options, inter‐member messaging, feedback and data‐capture
• Competitive task based games delivered virtually that seek to identify strengths of different team members or unearth areas a customer may require support
• A virtual origami workshop or junk percussion workshop that sees teams work together and support each other through the hosted process
Team and partner social solutions
Beyond relationship building exercises, many business people are also missing the social interaction which comes with the job. It’s important businesses and teams remember to retain the fun and light‐hearted elements of their internal and external business relationships in online environments.
Here’s a select list of virtual social solutions businesses could look to engage their contacts and teams with:
• A virtual karaoke experience with split screens and no special equipment needed
• An online cookery class hosted by a celebrity chef or company CEO
• Immersive virtual yoga, with yogi’s to teach your team every step of the way – there could even
be a branded yoga mat delivered to participant’s ahead of time
• A virtual mentalist or magician to bring the excitement of live shows to your contacts’ homes
Businesses need to take action to ensure their relationships are maintained throughout this period, and to ensure that contacts feel supported and encouraged throughout this difficult period. Doing so now will see productivity increase, sales maintained and ensure the ties that bound their key business contacts before Covid‐19 remain once the world returns to a version of normality.
M&IT editor Paul Harvey is a journalist with more than 15 years of experience. He began his career in the local press, working for various titles across the north. Since joining M&IT in 2013, he has become a trusted and respected voice in the sector, championing event professionals and reporting on all aspects of the events industry for the brand.
