As remote work thins connections, Racery boosts employee belonging

Covid has receded, but its patterns remain: nearly 8 in 10 knowledge workers are remote or hybrid. As time passes, workplace connections are thinning, and morale is frayed. Many members GenZ have never experienced workplace culture. Shorter commutes don’t compensate for a loss of community, and Zoom and Slack are no substitute for a busy office’s lunch-time outings, hallway huddles, and impromptu friendships.

As we detailed in this recent Racery blog post about disconnection at work, employees are losing the sense that their workplace hosts a vibrant community.

Facing this crisis, Racery is very focused on creating a sense of belonging for our corporate partners’ employees. Powering a multi-week immersive social experience, Racery helps patch the social hole and missing connections that often are a side-effect of remote work.

What virtual racers experience

Clients and racers consistently report that Racery’s unique mix of competition and collaboration sparks new connections across remote teams and strengthens participants’ sense of belonging and shared mission.

A recent post-race survey of participants in a corporate virtual challenge highlighted multiple metrics of Racery’s success in fostering camaraderie among knowledge workers.

• 44% of respondents said they felt more connected to colleagues/peers
• 24% felt the company supports their health
• 32% reached out to colleagues about participating.

Asked to describe their experience in a recent race in five words, participants said:

How Racery boosts belonging and community

All our features are designed to increase participants’ sense of common cause and belonging. Ambient awareness in a shared virtual space combats WFH isolation!

The route

At the most basic level, working to complete a route that others are also traversing creates “common ground.” The feeling of communal effort becomes even stronger when the route reflects a race’s theme or a company’s geographic footprint. Some examples: a national accounting firm that Racery works with annually each July-August has done “Summer Tour” races in Italy, Ireland, France and the US; Nike salespeople worked together on teams to trace a route that hit various company showrooms; to commemorate Black History Month, Zillow teams competed on a route that toured HSBCU campuses; teams from a law firm raced from office to office over the course of a month.

Avatars on the map pre-race

When joining the race, participants are offered the option of locating their avatars on home-town on the shared map until the race starts. The resulting dense network of avatars stretches across the country (and sometimes around the world), reminding participants that “we may be spread out, but we’re a bunch of humans doing something together!”

Bling

Just as flags and bumper stickers signal membership in a social group, Racery’s multiple types of bling — digital bib, finish award, and badges — signal belonging. In addition to the racer’s name, number, route and distance, each piece of bling displays (when relevant) the team name and sponsor logo round.

Teams

In many of our most successful events, racers participate individually as members of teams. Racery also can roll all participant miles into one “super team” avatar, which creates an extra sense of collaborative endeavor. Participants see their personal efforts directly contribute to something bigger than themselves, creating interdependence, mutual investment in success, and a mission.

Leaderboards

Like the avatars on the map, the race’s individual and team leaderboards create another powerful sense of the presence of other people. Participants are not in the same physical space, but they’re clearly in the same mindframe and spirit.

Avatars on the route

A racer’s avatar on the map transforms abstract participation into a tangible, visual representation of a shared experience. The avatars transform individual fitness activities into a collective adventure in which everyone is traveling the same path together.

Quiz challenges

Racery quizzes, a premium feature, add another layer of competition to races. Built with software operated by our partner service Quizlab, quizzes both reinforce the theme of the race and, by letting participants compare their answers on each question to those of their peers, creates a sense of group presence.

Photogallery

Shared photos — whether of running friends or dog walks or flower garden views — boost participants’ engagement with other community members. Racery’s “healthy Instagram” stream gives remote colleagues glimpses other employee’s daily lives beyond Zooms and Slack messages.

#groups

Racery’s unique #groups feature lets participants join intimate sub-communities, for example, of employees from a particular city or running club or office floor or company division or age group. This ability to sub-associate is particularly important in a larger race with thousands of participants. In contrast to teams, racers can join multiple groups in a race, for example #beerdrinkers, #floor23, and #hoosiers.

Activity feed

In the race’s real-time activity feed, new activities continuously unspool as they’re submitted. This stream of shared experiences lets remote workers relate to colleagues’ daily journeys. Each log includes information like the type of activity completed, personal records (new streak, longest run, etc), as well as an optional location. Making the race even more real, each activity log includes a 360-degree Google Street View of the avatar’s newest virtual location after the activity submiion.

Social engagement

Racery’s social engagement tools—likes, comments, and message boards—serve as the crucial interactive layer that turns passive observation into serendipitous acts of giving and even relationship building. When employees can comment on a teammate’s impressive running streak, offer encouragement after a challenging workout, or celebrate someone’s personal record, they’re adding a stitch to the community’s social fabric.

What’s next?

What can you do? First, write team@racery.com to request our white paper about the hidden costs of remote work for knowledge workers and employers — it’s got additional information and links to foundational studies on the topic.

The next easy thing you can do is take a virtual race out for a free test drive. You can create a test race here.

Next, if your organization is looking to foster new joy and connections among employees, visit Racery’s corporate virtual race features and fees page. Check out some of our many pre-built virtual races and challenges for corporations, plus our new quiz integration with virtual challenges.

Finally, if you’d like more information about our virtual races, please request a demo!