Best Team Building Activities for Remote Employees – Virtual Fun & Games for Corporate
Every remote manager understands how crucial it is to select the correct team-building activities for their team, as remote team building presents unique problems. Remote teams are spread across regions and time zones, resulting in fewer casual contacts than teams who share a physical workspace. Furthermore, distant teams may experience greater loneliness and isolation, focusing managers’ attention on team spirit and well-being.
Many managers will organize lengthy team-building activities and virtual happy hours to try to bring their staff together. However, these lengthy sessions are typically uncomfortable since they interfere with task completion and require remote workers to meet outside of normal working hours. Also, most of them are terribly cheesy.
Effective remote team bonding does not require entire hour-long Zoom meetings. The enjoyable games and activities listed below can be used at the start or end of regular team meetings, as well as in continuing Slack conversations.
What is Virtual Team Building & Why It is Important?
Virtual team building entails fostering human-to-human ties among your distant team members. Forming these relationships not only enhances team cohesion, but it can also improve communication and productivity.
Distributed team bonding is an extremely important topic for us. We offer a Team Playbook with exercises and seminars to help teams collaborate more effectively (not to mention a guide to hybrid meetings for when it’s time to get down to business).
It’s crucial to take time to connect while also having fun. And, as a firm of several thousand individuals spread across five continents, we’ve had several opportunities to serve as test subjects for both types of virtual team-building events.
Things to Consider Before Corporate Virtual Team Building Events
Time
You can’t expect your staff to work eight hours straight and then stay for another two hours for a team bonding activity. They are most likely exhausted and hungry, and their loved ones, who have been patient all day, need their attention. This is why you need to incorporate them into your everyday routine.
Resources
While you can have a fantastic team building exercise for remote teams without spending a dime, you must equip them with the necessary equipment. Platforms such as Skype, Zoom, Slack, Google Meet, and others can be extremely beneficial for video chats. Additionally, make sure you have good messaging tools because you will undoubtedly use them frequently. Try a few different ones to discover which one works best, and then pick one and stick to it.
The Attitude
Nobody likes change at first. Implementing something that needs your remote staff to communicate, sketch, or share personal information will not always be welcomed with excitement. If you truly want to reach your goals, you must assign a dedicated person to encourage involvement while also assisting your coworkers in relaxing and enjoying themselves.
Best Virtual Event Ideas for Remote/Hybrid Employees
1. Storytelling Topics for Virtual Meetings
There’s no better way to get to know your virtual team members than to hear their tales. Whether they realize it or not, everyone has a range of stories to tell—it just takes a little pushing. To get ideas flowing and everyone on the same page, make a list of suggestions or choose a few from this New York Times prompt list. For work, keep the topics light and fun so that people feel comfortable sharing their stories with coworkers. You can set a weekly or monthly prompt and plan video meetings with small groups of people from various departments to share their tales.
2. Organize for Live Coworking
If your virtual team is working on a project and does not have much time to bond, you do not need to prepare a specific theme or activity. Coworking, whether in person or online, is an excellent way for individuals to collaborate at the same time and have casual chats on the move rather than attending scheduled meetings. Host an open video call where individuals can log in and work at their leisure.
For teams working together, this is an excellent approach to receive immediate, candid answers, and for people across teams, online coworking is the most similar to colleagues working together in an office. Conversations will flow effortlessly, and relationships will develop organically.
3. Guess Personal Fun Facts for Virtual Team Members
No matter how well you know your coworkers, there will always be a few fascinating facts in their back pocket. Allow your virtual team members to contribute random skills, interests, or experiences to someone on your HR staff. Then, challenge your team to guess which person matches each fact. You may even have a competition to see who can guess the most correctly, or you can turn them into narrative exercises to allow staff to improve on their knowledge.
4. Moderate a Team Chat
Sure, you understand that the sales team sells your products and services, but what is the distinction between an account manager and an account executive? Your development team has been talking about a new project they’re ready to launch, but who works on what? When you’re immersed in your own work, it might be difficult to understand how everyone else contributes to the success of your organization. Host a discussion in which a specific team explains what they do and how each individual’s job varies.
5. Host a Digital Breakfast Club
Hosting a breakfast club, where individuals gather with their favorite meals to make light conversation and get to know one another, is an excellent way to begin the workday. This is especially enjoyable for remote teams because there are always a few people who go all out with their breakfasts. Limit these group video sessions to ten or fewer people from each department to ensure that everyone gets an opportunity to speak.
Conclusion
Want to foster true team bonding even if your team lives thousands of miles apart and has little opportunity to interact?
Maze Events and Experiences makes remote work feel less remote, allowing you to develop your corporate culture while keeping your workers motivated and organized.
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