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There is no doubt that COVID-19 has changed the working environment in pest control and lawn care. Due to the 2020 pandemic, the way we interact with others has changed, and businesses across all industries worldwide are taking preventive measures. These measures include providing hand sanitizer and face masks to employees who must work on-site, scheduling flexible hours and staggered shifts, redesigning workspaces to maintain 6 feet of social distancing between employees, encouraging personal hygiene practices such as hand washing, and minimizing business-related travel.

In the pest control industry, companies have continued to operate, incorporating social distancing into technicians’ regular routes. We have also seen a decrease in regular in-person meetings between management and employees. In addition, companies are limiting when technicians can come to the office to pick up supplies. All of these practices are great; however, how do you overcome the drawbacks of remote work, especially the reduced productivity and lack of community that come with it? The key is engagement. Employee engagement is crucial to a company's success, as it fosters retention, productivity, and profitability. When employees are engaged, they are more likely to invest in their work, resulting in higher-quality work.

Although, as of 2020, working remotely and social distancing were new concepts to most people, they have become the new norm. As with any decision, businesses must weigh the benefits and drawbacks of remote work to serve their employees and operate efficiently, effectively, and professionally. Working remotely can make it difficult for employees to manage their work, create more distractions, and complicate communication. However, by implementing team-building and bonding activities during these times, you can see results in engagement, including higher productivity and improved retention. You can also combat feelings of disconnection and isolation by engaging in a few fun activities with your employees each week.

Whether your team is working remotely or distanced, in a big team or a small team, try these fun ideas to keep them engaged:

Fun Events & Games

Make a Company Crossword:
- Test the knowledge of your team by creating a crossword puzzle filled with random company trivia prompts. Use crosswordlabs.com to easily start building your puzzle.
Host a trivia night.
- Gather your employees for a socially distanced trivia night over Zoom and have them take a guess at random company trivia questions. We recommend using Kahoot.com for easy question setup and fun multiplayer gaming.
Someone say game night?
- There are numerous virtual multiplayer games available, including spin-offs of classic titles. Here are some of our favorite virtual games to play over Zoom:
  - Head’s up
  - Pictionary
- Check out more fun online team-building games.

Free Food and Bonding

Treat yo’ employees:
- Our friends at Blades of Green had lasagnas for their team to pick up, so they had an easy family dinner.
Support local restaurants:
- Purchase a GrubHub credit and buy from a local restaurant for the next distance meeting. To ensure social distancing, consider offering curbside pickup as a way to show your appreciation for employees.
Themed Meals:
- This one is for those who miss eating lunch with everyone in the office. Hop on Zoom for your lunch break or after work hours and spice things up with themed sessions. These are some of our favorites:
  
  • Taco Tuesday
  • Bring your pet to lunch
  • Happy Hour
Tiny Campfire:
- Bring your favorite outdoor activity inside and over a Zoom call, and enjoy making S’mores together. Give your team members a tiny campfire kit:
  
  • Graham Cracker
  • Hershey’s Chocolate
  • Mini Marshmallow
  • Toothpick
  • Match
  • Candle

Other Fun Activities

Crafternoon:
- Get crafty! Search Pinterest for some fun bug-related crafts. We love all the ideas from Adam’s Pest Control in their weekly Thursday craft day posts.
Host a Talent Show:
- Highlight individual employee interests by hosting a show-and-tell on Zoom. This can happen after hours or over lunch! Make it enjoyable and have employees guess one another’s hidden talents by releasing a list of what everyone plans to do in the talent show before the performances.
Themed Meetings:
- Although every day might seem like pajama day right now—yes, we know you have on PJs when you are on Zoom—mix it up with some fun-themed meetings. Here are some of our favorite ideas:
  
  • Mission Impossible Monday
  • Marvel Monday
  • Tie dye Tuesday
  • Wild West Wednesday
  • Wacky Wednesday
  • Throwback Thursday
  • Flannel Friday
  • Spirit Week
  • Christmas in July
  • Celebrity look-alike day
  • Crazy hat day

Engage Employees By

Asking for feedback:
- Make employees feel valued and heard by asking for their feedback on current business processes. Surveys are a great way to gather this information. Bonus: provide an incentive to take the survey.
Establishing a mentorship program:
- Engaged remote employees need to feel a sense of community in the workplace. Onboarding and retaining employees, especially when working remotely, can be challenging. To address this, consider implementing a mentorship program to promote mental health and foster stronger employee connections.
Giving shoutouts:
- By highlighting different employees on social media, you not only make them feel valued and appreciated but also create more engaging content. This idea serves as a win-win. We believe Arkadia has done a great job during the quarantine period.
Encouraging peer-to-peer recognition:
- Utilize internal employee communication software, such as Slack, to your advantage. Create a new channel (#highfive or #youareawesome) where anyone can give a short, clear shout-out to another team member and tag that person. Everyone else watching the channel can celebrate with emojis and praise.

Get to Know Your Team

Personality assessments:
- Increasingly, companies are implementing company-wide career personality assessments to understand how and where employees excel in their roles and how to communicate effectively with one another. Your results might surprise you! Below is a list of some of our favorite personality tests:
  
  • 16 Personalities (aka Myers-Briggs Test)
  • Enneagram
  • Communication styles
Get to know you surveys:
- Create a survey with random questions, preferences, and other relevant topics to share with your employees. Gather your data and share the results internally with all employees to identify commonalities and discover fun facts about one another.
Icebreaker questions:
- When in doubt, a good icebreaker question always helps get to know your employees. Check out this list of virtual team-building icebreaker questions.

Looking ahead, the pandemic is likely to result in a significantly changed work environment and landscape. Experts believe businesses may begin reevaluating which jobs can be transitioned to a full-time virtual setting. Based on the way the pandemic has progressed, remote work might stick around longer than you think. A pandemic might be present, but your community and family of employees are strong enough to withstand it. The question is, are you prepared with ideas to keep your remote team engaged? Be sure to try out some of these ideas and have fun doing them!