What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

Staff get together for monthly "walk and talk" sessions in different parts of the North West, based around the company's services. It also hosted a "party in the car park", which it plans to tour around its services. Staff were encouraged to host a stall or a game and colleagues and service-users attended.

Quarterly socials, team lunches and company-wide holidays are all ways of bringing colleagues closer together and building meaningful working relationships, along with digital communications software such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. The firm also holds a 'Global Vision Conference' where employees are given updates on business performance and a 12-month outlook.

Employees and their families get engrossed in The Porsche Retail Group Annual Review. The glossy 108-page book with a gold leaf Porsche Logo on the cover is now onto its third edition. It contains a month-by-month review of the year, news highlights from the UK and beyond and Group and individual achievements.

Rated People encourages teams to get together and share experiences. After it launched a shadowing day, teams met and listened in on each other's calls. The result was an increased awareness of what each department deals with and the creation of new systems and processes. Drinks and presentations at the end helped to promote bonding.

A new contact centre fields all incoming calls to the business, taking pressure off individual offices. It helps staff work smarter and keep focused on their priorities. It also offers a way into the company for people with no industry experience.

More than 100 staff are part of the company-wide group chat, sharing inspiring and motivating words and offering thanks. There have been many virtual get-togethers – some for fun and others for essential Group updates and staff questions. These are in addition to the company-wide meetings all employees are invited to twice a year.

Being outdoors is proving a great way to get everyone together, encouraging staff to try something new and learn more about each other. This has included rounders matches, BBQs and even meditation in bell tents, getting everyone relaxed and focused ahead of employee engagement sessions.

The virtual kitchen has proved popular since it was launched. It gives all staff a place to drop in, hang out and build team morale. Daily huddles and weekly retrospectives have been introduced throughout the business to ensure good communication and information sharing.

Informal video conference meetings take place and "silent" video meetings allow teams to log on at the same time and work individually, but interact informally with other team members as if they were in the office.

Monthly wrap-ups are used to celebrate teams' successes and encourage communication about shortfalls and lessons learnt. These are vital to create a strong team, leading to robust bonds between teams and, ultimately, the entire business. Managers also benefit from quarterly meetings together, with interesting brain-teaser challenges thrown in for fun.