Top 5 Virtual Team-Building Activities for Remote Workers

by Kelsey Arrington on Mar 21, 2022

It’s no secret that the future of the global workforce involves remote work – with numerous companies migrating to hybrid or fully-remote work each day. But, how do workers adjust to a newly-remote environment? How can companies cultivate a sense of belonging in a workplace that doesn’t meet in person anymore or never has?

If you are ready to take your team-building strategy to the next level, you’re in luck! In this article, we will discuss the importance of team building, the benefits of bonding for remote teams, and the top 5 virtual team building activities to try in 2022! Just keep reading.

In this article:

1. What is virtual team building?
2. 3 Reasons Why Bonding is Beneficial to Remote Teams
3. Top 5 Virtual Team Building Activities & Games
4. Conclusion
5. Related Articles

What is virtual team building?

Virtual team-building is a planned set of activities, games, and experiences that offer remote team members the opportunity to bond, develop stronger relationships and connect as humans.

The specific activities vary for each remote team but the overall goal of most virtual team building is to foster relationships between colleagues.

3 Reasons Why Bonding is Beneficial for Remote Teams

• Encourages Collaboration
• Facilitates Diverse Friendships
• Decreases Loneliness

Virtual team-building encourages collaboration among colleagues.

Let’s be honest. Most workplaces depend on collaboration among colleagues. In a physical work environment, collaborative projects come up all the time and can be tackled by scheduling a meeting over coffee. However, for those who work on remote teams, collaboration can present quite a challenge – as the risk of misconstruing information and experiencing technical issues increases tenfold. The good news is that conducting a virtual team-building activity is one way to align your team members across time and space.

Virtual team-building activities bring colleagues closer because they encourage collaboration and help folks connect on a human level. After getting to know each other better, team members develop a newfound respect for one another and become more aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses – leading to more successful collaborative projects in the future.

Virtual team-building helps facilitate diverse friendships across departments.

When a company works remotely, different teams and departments can become siloed. This occurs, almost naturally, as folks tend to collaborate with the same individuals or depend on the same colleagues for project support week after week.

To be clear, there is nothing wrong with virtual teams that work in this manner. However, online team-building activities can present a unique opportunity for remote teams to facilitate diverse friendships across the departments and break down some barriers to communications. 

Simply put, engaging in online office games can lead to virtual team bonding between members of the company who rarely have the opportunity to connect. So, at your company’s team-building events, be sure to pair up people from different departments for virtual pub trivia or encourage employees to chat with other team members while playing virtual games – either choice is a fun way to get to know someone better!

Virtual team-building decreases loneliness and boosts employee morale.

Virtual team building activities help distributed teams of remote employees come together for a fun time. If done successfully, these virtual team-building exercises can result in more productive remote teams.

And for individual team members, engaging in remote team-building activities can be increasingly important. Wondering why?

In a nutshell, working remotely can be a bit lonely from time to time. So, whether your team is in planning a series of virtual happy hours or a virtual dance party; a team-building activity can be the perfect way to combat loneliness and ultimately boost employee morale. 

5 Virtual Team Building Activities & Games

• Online Office Games
• Virtual Dance Party
• Online Pub Trivia
• Virtual Campfires
• Virtual Coffee & Tea Tasting Class

📎 Online Office Games 🎲

Facilitating team bonding can be a challenge. One way to make sure your virtual or hybrid teams remain engaged is to play online office games together. These games can consist of a variety of activities such as typing-speed races among colleagues or paint-by-numbers spreadsheet art – the possibilities are endless!

💃🏽 Virtual Dance Party 🕺🏿

Hosting a fun virtual team-building activity requires a bit of creativity or at least some music. So, why not consider having a dance party for your next virtual event? Employees can contribute their favorite, safe-for-work jams to comprise the playlist and virtual team members can come together for some wholesome fun! 

Don’t want to dedicate a whole day to dancing? We get it – there’s work to do! But, don’t cancel this activity altogether. Dance breaks can become a part of any meeting! Think about it for a moment. Dancing is a great way to relieve stress, transition from an awkward silence, keep energy levels high and inject a healthy dose of fun into your team meeting.

💻 Online Pub Trivia 🥂

Virtual happy hours are one thing but what about online pub trivia? It’s not for everyone but if it fits your company culture, we encourage you to use this concept for your next virtual team-building event.

It’s pretty simple to set up. Just gather your staff, encourage them to pour their favorite drink(s), and queue up the trivia questions. Bonus points if you use virtual team trivia to make your entire team laugh or encourage team members to keep connecting online for fun virtual games.

🏕️Tiny Campfire: A Campfire Experience for Remote Teams🔥

Virtual team-building challenges don’t have to involve online team games – your company could opt for an experience instead.

Have you heard of Tiny Campfire? It is a company that offers immersive campfire experiences for remote teams. Before your event, Tiny Campfire sends the employee-participants ingredients to make s’mores along with a tea light (aka a tiny campfire). This experience also includes ghost stories, ice-breakers, friendly competitions, and a delicious s’more making experience, of course.

🍵Tea vs. Coffee: A Hybrid Tasting Class☕

Hybrid (half in-person, half virtual) experiences can be so much fun. Are you ready to try one with your team? How about a hybrid experience that helps with team cohesion and makes a virtual meeting fun? We have a suggestion.

Tea vs Coffee is a company that facilitates tasty coffee and tea experiences with actual beverages. A week prior to the virtual event, employees are sent a package with four special tea blends, coffee samples, and infusions in the mail – all labeled “do not open.” 

On the big event day, team members log into a virtual video call that resembles a cafe, a friendly barista facilitates the event with stories and virtual games then lead a tasting ceremony – an experience that is educational and engaging for all involved.

Conclusion

Leaders can use virtual team-building games, activities, and experiences to engage their remote teams and promote bonding – which is important in our expanding virtual world. Monthly or quarterly virtual events combined with regular check-ins, online water-cooler chats, and daily interaction with colleagues can lead to a very positive work culture – among other substantial advantages.

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