In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, remote work has become increasingly popular, and with it, the need for effective online team building activities. But how can you create a sense of connection and unity among team members who may be scattered across the globe? Fear not, as we have compiled a comprehensive list of online team building activities perfect for remote and virtual teams everywhere. These activities are designed to foster collaboration, communication, and camaraderie, ensuring that your remote team or virtual team stays engaged, motivated, and productive.
From virtual escape rooms to online art challenges, this blog post will provide you with a wealth of ideas to help your remote team bond and grow together. So, let’s dive in and explore the exciting world of these online team building games and activities!
Key takeaways
- Online team building activities such as virtual escape rooms, online trivia games, remote scavenger hunts and more provide a fun way to connect remote teams.
- Creative ideas like collaborative playlists and DIY craft projects help foster collaboration among members.
- Prioritize regular communication, set clear expectations and encourage inclusivity for successful online team building.
Top online team building activities for remote teams
We will start by looking into the best online team building activities designed specifically for remote teams. These activities are designed to keep your team engaged, connected, and motivated, no matter where they are located. Some examples of the best virtual team building and activities include:
- Virtual escape rooms.
- Online trivia games.
- Remote scavenger hunts.
- Video conference icebreakers.
- Virtual workshops.
With these options, there’s no shortage of ways to engage your remote team and foster a sense of connection and collaboration.
Virtual team building is invaluable for fostering collaboration, communication, and unity among team members. Engaging in virtual team building games and using remote workers in team building activities can help your remote team feel more connected and motivated, thereby enhancing productivity and job satisfaction.
Virtual escape rooms
Virtual escape rooms offer remote teams a fun and challenging way to collaborate and problem-solve together. These online activities incorporate social elements, problem-solving skills, and teamwork, providing an engaging experience for everyone involved. Examples of virtual escape rooms include figuring out how to execute an art heist and escape, breaking out of a jail cell, or solving challenges to recover stolen jewels in a race against the clock.
Both free and paid options are available for virtual escape rooms, catering to different budgets and preferences. In addition to escape rooms, virtual murder mysteries are another popular choice for remote teams. These involve solving a mystery through online activities, a fun and familiar game allowing team members to engage in a thrilling adventure while honing their problem-solving skills.
Online trivia games
Online trivia games provide a competitive and engaging way for remote teams to bond and test their knowledge. These virtual trivia games can be easily set up and played through various online platforms, making them an accessible option for teams of all sizes. Springworks’s Trivia extension and TriviaNerd are examples of platforms that offer virtual live trivia games for teams online.
Another popular platform for team building using trivia games is Kahoot! It allows you to:
- Create engaging question-and-answer presentations that are relevant to your organization.
- Use a wide variety of question types.
- Offer an interactive and enjoyable experience for remote teams to connect and assess their knowledge.
Remote scavenger hunts
Remote virtual scavenger hunt and hunts encourage team members to explore their surroundings and work together to complete tasks. These interactive team-building activities can be easily set up and played through virtual meetings, providing a fun and engaging way for remote teams to connect. For example, in a Lightning Scavenger Hunt, remote teams can join a virtual meeting and complete clues within a given timeframe.
Another example of a remote scavenger hunt is The Amazing Online Race, where teams are divided and given a set of challenges to accomplish. They compete to finish online tasks and connect through video calls to monitor each other’s progress, with the squad that completes all challenges first being declared the winner.
Video conference icebreakers
Video conference icebreakers are a valuable tool for introducing remote team members and facilitating conversation during team meeting. These activities can help break the ice and create a relaxed atmosphere during virtual meetings, making it easier for team members to connect and collaborate. Examples of video conference icebreakers include:
- Virtual Team Building Bingo.
- Themed Work Weeks.
- Personality Quizzes.
- Virtual Hugs.
- Virtual Dance Parties.
- Werewolf.
- Virtual Diversity Bingo.
Engaging in these icebreaker activities helps remote team members to build rapport and lay the groundwork for effective communication and collaboration. This, in turn, can enhance the other team members morale and productivity, ensuring that your remote team remains cohesive and successful.
Virtual workshops and training sessions
Virtual workshops and training sessions provide opportunities for remote teams to learn and grow together. These activities can help team members develop new skills, stay up-to-date with industry trends, and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Examples of virtual workshops and training sessions include Remote Storytelling Workshops & Training, which focuses on enhancing staff productivity and performance, and tiny campfire, which offers a real s’more-making experience alongside ghost stories and icebreakers.
Participation in virtual workshops and training sessions enables remote team members to enhance their skills and forge stronger relationships with their colleagues. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Creative virtual team building ideas
Having explored the best online team building activities, it’s time to delve into some inventive virtual team building game ideas to cultivate a fun and collaborative environment for your remote team. Here are some activities to consider:
- Online art challenges.
- DIY craft projects.
- Collaborative playlists.
- Virtual book clubs.
These activities are designed to inspire creativity and collaboration among team members, ensuring that your remote team remains engaged, motivated, and productive.
Engaging in these creative virtual, team bonding and building activities will not only help your remote team to forge stronger relationships but also cultivate a sense of unity and camaraderie. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Online art challenges
Online art challenges present an opportunity for remote team members to showcase their creative talents and collaborate on artistic endeavors. These challenges can range from creating digital art to designing a logo or even constructing a virtual mural. Participation in online art challenges allows remote teams to nurture relationships, stimulate creativity, foster collaboration, and ensure that your remote team remains engaged and motivated.
Some examples of online art challenges include the popular Inktober drawing challenge, where artists are encouraged to create ink drawings based on daily prompts throughout the month of October, or collaborative design projects where team members work together to create a piece of digital artwork. No matter the format, online art challenges provide a unique and engaging way for remote teams to bond and express their creativity.
DIY craft projects
DIY craft projects offer a fun and engaging way for remote teams to work together on a shared project, fostering teamwork and creativity. These projects can range from constructing a virtual art gallery to assembling a virtual scrapbook or even devising a virtual game. Engaging in DIY craft projects allows remote teams to not only forge stronger relationships but also cultivate a sense of unity and camaraderie.
One such activity is the DIY Craft Challenge, a 30-minute surprise activity where each participant has the opportunity to construct something from materials available at home within a 30-minute timeframe. This challenge encourages team members to think creatively and showcase their crafting skills, while also providing a fun and engaging way for remote teams to bond and collaborate.
Collaborative playlists
Collaborative playlists enable remote teams to share their favorite music and discover new tunes together, fostering a sense of connection and unity among team members. These playlists can be created on streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music, allowing each team member to add their favorite songs to the playlist. The entire team can then come together to listen to the playlist, creating an enjoyable, team-building experience and allowing for conversation around the selected songs.
To ensure the playlist remains inclusive and appropriate for a workplace setting, it is recommended to establish some general guidelines, such as prohibiting explicit content and limiting each team member to adding two to three songs to ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute.
Sharing music and discussing the playlist enables remote teams to bond over shared interests and cultivate a sense of camaraderie.
Virtual book clubs
Virtual book clubs promote regular communication and intellectual engagement among remote team members. By participating in a virtual book club, team members can read a book and then discuss it with the team via a video conferencing platform or chat applications, fostering a sense of connection and unity. Virtual book clubs can be organized through various platforms and websites, allowing members to join from any location.
Engaging in virtual book clubs allows remote team members to:
- Share thoughts and insights on selected books.
- Foster a sense of unity and camaraderie.
- Increase engagement, motivation, and success within the remote team.
Large group virtual team building activities
For remote teams with a large number of members, finding a team building activity that caters to everyone can be a challenge. However, there are several large group virtual team building activities, including team building games, that can help foster a sense of unity and connection among bigger teams during a virtual team building event here.
We will delve into activities like online office games, multiplayer online games, virtual town hall meetings, and remote team challenges, all tailored to accommodate larger remote teams.
Engaging in these large group virtual team building activities can help your remote team to not only forge stronger relationships but also cultivate unity and camaraderie. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Multiplayer online games
Multiplayer online games provide a fun and interactive way for large remote teams to bond and compete. These games enable multiple players to engage and interact with one another via the internet or a local network, accommodating a large number of players simultaneously and often containing persistent virtual worlds. Examples of multiplayer online games include massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and online multiplayer video games.
Participation in multiplayer online games can help remote teams to not only strengthen relationships but also foster unity and camaraderie. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Virtual town hall meetings
Virtual town hall meetings offer a platform for remote teams to discuss important topics and stay connected. These company-wide events are hosted online by members of upper management to facilitate connection and communication with the entire workforce. Virtual town hall meetings typically involve sharing content, engaging the audience with interactive features and video call, and allowing employees to participate through polls, questions, and feedback.
Hosting virtual town hall meetings allows remote teams to ensure everyone is informed about the organization’s objectives and aligned on the same page. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Remote team challenges
Remote team challenges encourage friendly competition and teamwork among large remote teams. These challenges typically involve team members working together to solve problems, complete tasks, or achieve common goals. Examples of remote team challenges include virtual escape rooms, online trivia games, remote scavenger hunts, and more.
Engaging in remote team challenges can help remote team members to not only forge stronger relationships but also foster unity and camaraderie. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Tips for successful online team building
To ensure the success of your online team building efforts, implementing certain strategies and best practices is crucial. In this section, we will explore tips for successful online team building, such as:
- Prioritizing regular communication.
- Setting clear expectations.
- Encouraging inclusivity.
- Evaluating and adjusting strategies as needed.
Implementing these tips can help you foster strong relationships, enhance communication, and boost morale among your remote team members. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Prioritize regular communication
Prioritizing regular communication is vital to keeping remote team members engaged and connected. Regular communication helps to ensure that team members are aware of the objectives, progress, and any issues that may arise. Remote teams can facilitate regular communication by scheduling frequent check-ins, hosting virtual team meetings, and utilizing communication tools such as Slack or Zoom.
Maintaining regular communication can help remote teams to enhance collaboration, leading to higher team morale and productivity. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Set clear expectations
Setting clear expectations for team building activities is essential to ensure that all participants are aware of the objectives and that the activities are effective. Expectations should include the objectives of the team building activities, the duration for completing the activities, and the duties of each team member.
Setting clear expectations helps remote teams to ensure everyone is aligned and that team building activities are successful. This, in turn, can lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Encourage inclusivity
Encouraging inclusivity is crucial in fostering a sense of unity and belonging among remote team members. Inclusivity involves considering the diverse needs and preferences of all team members when planning activities, ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate and contribute.
Promoting inclusivity helps remote teams to:
- Create an environment that respects all perspectives and ideas.
- Lead to more effective problem solving and decision making.
- Lead to a more engaged, motivated, and successful remote team.
Evaluate and adjust
To continuously improve and adapt to the needs of your remote team, it’s important to evaluate and adjust your team building strategies. Assessing the team’s current goals and progress can help identify which strategies need to be evaluated and adjusted. The effectiveness of team building strategies can be evaluated by measuring the team’s progress towards its objectives and gauging the team’s engagement and satisfaction.
Evaluating and adjusting your team building strategies can enable continuous improvement in your remote team’s performance and ensure ongoing engagement, motivation, and success.
Summary
In conclusion, virtual team building activities play a crucial role in fostering collaboration, communication, and camaraderie among remote team members. From virtual escape rooms to collaborative playlists, there’s no shortage of engaging activities to help your remote team bond and grow together. By implementing creative virtual team building ideas and following best practices, such as prioritizing regular communication and setting clear expectations, you can ensure the success of virtual team building game for your remote team.
With the tips and activities provided in this blog post, you now have the tools to create a thriving remote team that remains engaged, motivated, and productive. So, go ahead and start planning your next virtual team building activity and watch your remote team flourish!
Frequently asked questions
What are good remote team building activities?
There are many great activities that remote teams can do to foster collaboration and build relationships, such as creating a virtual break room, holding virtual company events, setting friendly challenges, introducing ‘show and learn’ sessions, or sending ‘daily snapshots’. Alternatively, there are also activities like watching 30-minute shows, writing bucket lists, setting up collaborative playlists, and connecting over global travels.
How to do online team building?
Engage your team with online activities such as Digital Card Games, Donut Meetups on Slack, Water Cooler Trivia, Kahoot!, Online trivia, Coffee Breaks and Happy Hours, Houseparty Games, Recipe Swap, Something in Common, Rose/Thorn Virtual Icebreaker, Crime Junkie Virtual Icebreaker, GIF Wars Virtual Icebreaker, Department Quiz Battle Virtual Icebreaker, Quick Virtual Icebreakers, Snapshot Virtual Icebreaker, Escape Room Virtual Icebreaker, and Ice Cream Float Virtual Icebreaker. You can also create accountability groups for a more lasting bond between remote employees.
What are some virtual activities?
Karaoke, a virtual dance party, scavenger hunts, improv sessions, online office olympics, wellness sessions, classic games, DIY craft challenges, and miniature campfires are all great virtual activities to keep morale high and stay connected with team members.
How can virtual team building activities benefit remote teams?
Virtual team building activities can foster connection, collaboration, and communication among remote team members, leading to higher engagement, motivation, and productivity.
Are there any virtual team building activities for large remote teams?
Yes, there are virtual team building activities for large remote teams, such as multiplayer online games, virtual town hall meetings, virtual trivia game, and remote team challenges.