May 11, 2022
7 min read
Remote work is here to stay, and it’s continued to increase in the past two and a half years: according to Ladders, a group tracking the increase in remote work opportunities since the start of the pandemic, a quarter of all professional jobs will be performed remotely by the end of 2022.
This trend includes the legal space, with an increase in firms hiring fully remote associates or creating “hybrid” arrangements for new hires. Given the federal nature of immigration law, and the multiple tech tools available that not only allow you to work with clients remotely but to run your administrative tasks remotely as well, many immigration lawyers are embracing fully remote law firms, whether they are starting as solo practitioners or expanding their teams.
If you are working remotely as part of a team, or are just bringing in some new members, you may be wondering how to build a company culture where people feel connected and can work well as a team. Such a culture involves elevating each other’s strengths, solving problems creatively, and fostering an environment of cooperation over competition.
But before you schedule another 6pm wine and cheese Zoom webinar, consider some great tools that are built specifically to help remote teams foster company culture in today’s remote world.
Here they are.
The rise in virtual work environments has brought a rise in team-building tech tools you can use to connect with your teams remotely. With free and paid options that include both games and team building exercises, opportunities to connect with your teammates outside of case questions can help build coworker relationships while having fun in the process and even picking up some skills along the way.
These six websites help you create games based on multiple topics, and personalize them to include theme songs and company identifiers such as logos. There is a mix of free and paid options here, with some being more customizable than others. Let’s dive in.
Available for iOS, Android, and on your web browser, Triviamaker gives multiple options to create highly customizable trivia games, either for onboarding, continuing education, or just for fun. You can set your game to four different styles: Multiple choice, Grid, List, and Wheel. You can also add categories and your own questions and answers, but Triviamaker already has a bank of previously created quizzes if you want to try a pre-made one from the website.
There is a basic, free version of Triviamaker, and two paid versions: Premium and Enterprise. The free version is quite limited in what you can access, and doesn’t offer customization, so it may be a good option to give Triviamaker a try and see if you need a paid subscription. The Premium version is paid yearly and offers game options for up to fifty teams; as opposed to the free version, which only allows two teams.
One highlight of Triviamaker’s work is their commitment to charity: 10% of the company’s proceeds go to a specific charity; their current one focuses on access to clean water in sub-saharan Africa.
If you are looking for a platform specialized in activities that help foster communication between new and existing team members, you may want to look at Quizbreaker, an “icebreaker-specialized” platform.
Quizbreaker is a great option if you’re in a growth phase and adding team members that are fully remote. To get you started, Quizbreaker has 100 icebreaker activities you can use for quick team-building activities. With two-minute lightning rounds, this could be a way to start team meetings in a different way that helps the team connect. You can also send quizzes on a schedule of your choice where your team has to guess who answered in which way, which is another way to see how much your team knows each other! Quizbreaker also allows team members to use comments and emojis to communicate with one other.
You can try Quizbreaker for free for 21 days, or choose a paid option for $3/user/month for monthly billing, or $2/user/month on the yearly option. The paid versions allow you to create multiple teams within your account, adding custom questions, and email support available.
If you’re looking for a platform to host an “extra special” event, Quizcoconut could be a great option.
Canada-based Quizcoconut is a service that allows you to run virtual team-building events for your team.
Quizcoconut runs game-show style events that you can customize to your firm’s needs. Some of the options you can customize your event to include game shows, “name that tune” contests, interactive challenges, and trivia with general knowledge questions.
Given the custom nature of this service, pricing starts at $750, depending on the size of the event and the date and time. Each event is priced based on individual characteristics, and you can contact Quizcoconut directly to get a quote on an event that truly fits your needs.
If you want a teambuilding platform that is always available, and always free, check out Random Trivia Generator. You may just need to bookmark it after your first try.
About as simple and accessible as it can get, Random Trivia Generator provides multiple categories you can choose from to build your own trivia. In addition, you can assign different people to become hosts and track results, taking your team-building exercise beyond the trivia game itself. This could be a small opportunity to delegate within your team and encourage people to take the lead on organizing.
To get started, simply click on a category to see sample questions start building your next trivia game.
Want to try something more hands-on than trivia? Consider a scavenger hunt. Let’s look at some scavenger hunt platforms, starting with Scavify.
If you want to create a teambuilding activity that your team members can join in from anywhere and includes more creative problem solving than asking general knowledge questions, a scavenger hunt can provide a fun challenge, especially if everyone in your team is in a different location.
Scavify runs on an app, making it completely mobile. Each person participating in a game completes challenges, tracks progress, and earns rewards on the app. The app verifies all completed challenges independently, and you as an administrator can enable features like a community board, where you can see pictures of team members completing challenges, a leaderboard, where team members can see their rankings as challenges are completed, and rewards and badges that are visible as team members complete challenges.
Scavify has different pricing structures, depending on the level of involvement you want to have in creating your experience: DIY, designed by the Scavify team, or ready-to-go experiences. Pricing also depends on the type of organization, and whether the scavenger hunt will be virtual or in person. You can see the different options for customizable scavenger hunts on Scavify’s website and reach out to create your own experience.
If you want to give your team members more say and variety on the activities they choose, team building, self-care, or otherwise, Thriver offers a variety of options.
With curated activities beyond the traditional team-building exercises, Thriver offers a variety of experiences to help you create a sense of community amongst your immigration law firm team members, and incorporate different activities that help support your firm’s values among its staff. Activities available include traditional team-building exercises and interactive entertainment, but take options to the next level with volunteering opportunities and creative options such as arts and crafts, cooking and drink classes.
With Thriver, you can open the choice to your team members so they are participating in an activity that they’re genuinely interested in and committed to. Thriver chooses their experience providers based on previous user feedback and referrals and may include large and small businesses. You can look at a catalog of services offered on the Thriver website; some are priced per person, and some have flat rates per activity. Thriver could be a great way not only to foster team-building, but to also show appreciation for your staff by allowing them to choose from a variety of activities beyond the typical virtual game or teambuilding exercise.
Building a strong law firm culture, whether it’s with 4 people, 40 people, or 400 people is important. Once you’ve done that, it’s also important to have the right tools in place to help the firm run smoothly and interact with clients effectively, especially if you’re fully or even partially remote.
That includes a case management platform that all team members can collaborate into and access relevant information when needed. Enter: Docketwise.
With our full library of immigration forms, easy-to-use client questionnaires and industry-leading API integrations, Docketwise helps you stay up to date on all your immigration cases, communicate easily with your clients, and otherwise build and manage your immigration law firm as you and your team grow with it.
If you want to learn more about Docketwise, schedule a demo at the link below, or sign up for our Immigration Briefings newsletter for daily and weekly immigration updates!
