Virtual team-building activities are also known as remote team-building exercises. They not only create an engaging environment but also encourage the remote workforce to communicate openly in a virtual setting, helping to build stronger relationships within teams.
There are a bunch of activities for remote employees to play in a virtual environment, but we have come up with a few, and quite great activities that will not only make your workforce excited to play, but also help create a cheerful atmosphere.
There are different types of virtual team-building activities available online. You can choose these activities as per your needs:
1) Virtual Jeopardy
Virtual Jeopardy is a fun and exciting game to bring your remote team together. This activity consists of three or four Jeopardy social trivia rounds covering a wide range of themes. The best part about this game is that each round, your team will participate in a social mixer activity meant to help participants get to know each other better and have some laughs together. A virtual Jeoparty is perfect for bringing your remote team together, fostering camaraderie, and igniting their competitive edge.
2) Virtual Team Wellness Challenge
Virtual team wellness challenges are an amazing engagement initiatives that encourage remote employees to participate in friendly challenges. Those challenges can typically be multi-day or one-time events. The goal of completing challenges is to earn points in order to reach the top of a leaderboard. Most of the challenges focus on mental health and physical activity.
Here are some virtual employee wellness challenges to try:
- Step challenges
- Nutrition challenges
- Sleep challenge
- Medition challenge
- Yoga challenge
- Gratitude challenge
- Reading challenge
3) Water Cooler Trivia
Water Cooler Trivia is a fantastic game to start conversations among your co-workers. It aims to spark conversations and build camaraderie among remote teams. Each week, Water Cooler Trivia sends a new set of trivia questions to participating teams, making each challenge fun and engaging.
4) Virtual Karaoke
If you want to take your team-building session to the next level, allow your virtual team to enjoy music and chill out a bit through a virtual karaoke session. For that, use the Karafun platform that offers a wide selection of songs and music quizzes. Ask employees to choose a song or its associated karaoke track. And get your entire team to sing along so everyone can enjoy it together.
5) Aaptiv Fitness Challenge
Bring your remote team together and achieve a small fitness goal with Aaptiv Fitness Challenge. Allow teams to compete against each other every Monday and encourage them to achieve specific fitness goals, like weight loss, muscle gain, and more. After your team completes the fitness challenge you gave them, award points to each team, and at the end, declare the winner with the most points.
6) Virtual Campfire
One great way to bring the remote workforce together is with a virtual campfire, which mimics the environment of a real campfire. Use a Tinycampfire platform, which is specifically designed for team-building. It features Gourmet kits, camp games, and ghost stories are all included to make for an entertaining and captivating team-building activity.
7) Jackbox Games
Jackbox Games is a series of party games that includes various games such as Quiplash, Fibbage, Drawful, Trivia Murder Party, and more. Plus, they’ve created 10 different party packs that will each contain five original games. You can choose one that suits your team’s humor and interests for a fun-filled game night. Remember, one player has to buy Jackbox in order to host the game.
8) Virtual Escape Room
A virtual escape room is an amazing team-bonding activity to build trust and foster a sense of collaboration among distant teams. This game typically involves a group of people working together, solving puzzles, and searching for clues to “escape” a room before time runs out. Virtual escape rooms are the ideal game for encouraging creativity and teamwork.
9) Virtual Murder Mystery
In order to make your team-building event interesting and thrilling, a virtual murder mystery is a great way to go. These games are full of mystery and challenges, ideal for groups of all sizes. To solve the case, you need to collect a set of evidence and catch the killer.
10) Skribble
A scribble game is a multiplayer drawing and guessing game. One player draws a word on the whiteboard, and others guess what is written. The player with the highest points when the game wraps up will be honored as the winner!
11) Digital Card Games
Digital card games are a list of games that are played online with friends, colleagues, or teammates. PlayingCards is a great platform for playing classic card games like Crazy Eights, Go Fish, Checkers, and more. To get started, a player must first create a room and then choose a game. If you want others to join your room, you have to share your room code with them. Once everyone is in the room, you can start playing the game.
Final Thoughts
Virtual team-building activities and games play a vital role in fostering team communication and collaboration in a virtual setting. It removes the geographical barriers, allowing remote teams to connect, build rapport, get to know each other better, and have fun together. Whether your team size is ten, a hundred, or more, incorporating team-bonding exercises into your next virtual meeting or conference can help you bring them together, build relationships, and have fun time with each other.
FAQ
Virtual team building refers to activities, exercises, and strategies designed to enhance the cohesion, collaboration, and communication among members of a team who work remotely or are geographically dispersed. Virtual team building is crucial as it cultivates a sense of connection and trust, boosts communication, and plays a vital role in shaping a positive team culture.
- It promotes easy, open, and frequent interactions, which enhances team communication and collaboration
- Team members connect with colleagues on a personal level, which strengthens their trust in each other
- Team-building exercises create fun and positive experiences that energize teams and increase their engagement
- Remote employees get to discuss innovative ideas and concepts with colleagues, which boosts creativity among team members
- Team-building activities promote positive mental health, which reduces workplace stress
Virtual team-building activities create opportunities for shared experiences and informal interactions that improve communication between remote teams. Some activities create a lively environment that encourages natural conversation, which in turn improves their rapport.
Yes, there are various team-building activities for large groups, such as the escape game: remote adventures, two truths and a lie, human bingo, an online scavenger hunt, a virtual codebreaker, and more.
The frequency of team-building activities depends on the team size and the specific needs of the organization. However, if you want to maintain team unity and foster collaboration among them, try holding team building exercises once or twice a month.
The duration of team-building exercises depends on what games you are playing; they typically range from 10 to 30 minutes, and some can last even longer than that.
