Business

Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

By Christy Bella | March 8, 2024

Team building activities have been known to play a big role in keeping the team’s spirit up and improving its productivity. They are also a good way to relieve stress, especially when the team is busy and tensions are high.

Companies and teams that work remotely can still benefit from organizing such activities, but organizing them may be a bit more of a challenge. This article will go over some engaging and fun team-building activities best suited to remote teams. The goal of the exercises is the same as that of teams that work on-sight: to bring those involved closer together.

Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

Random Meetups on Slack

The concept and the tech behind this activity is simple enough. An app randomly matches two employees and adds them to a private Slack channel for about 20 minutes or so. Such apps are free and easy to use, and it’s possible to set up additional parameters based on which the users can match up.

This exercise aims to get the employees to know each other. It’s especially useful in large teams with a lot of turnover, as it allows new employees to meet their new coworkers and settle in.

Trivia Quizzes

Trivia quizzes are a fun way to engage the employees and have an interesting subject to chat about throughout the day. Trivia questions can be sent to the employees’ emails or Slack channels, and there are many ways to set up daily tasks so that the employees can compete against each other or collaborate in teams.

There are countless online resources for coming up with the questions – both free and subscription-based and team managers can choose between categories and difficulty levels. Some apps also allow the users to add questions of their own.

Crypto portfolio Analysis and Predictions

As the crypto market is booming these days, many of the employees have already invested in crypto. Some of them were in Bitcoin, others were XRP, but we have those who bought meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

One activity could be everyone sharing their experience in crypto, their portfolios, and the history of their investment – how much they have gained since they started investing. On the other hand, if someone is new to the crypto world, the most experienced ones can chat and give some pointers and even explain what blockchain even means.

Also, those that are keeping with the newest hottest coin, should explain a potential investment that might mean in the short-term and long-term. Be sure to get all the newest info about cryptocurrencies and visit this website to browse different news and guides about the cryptocurrency world.

Share Coffee Breaks

Regular coffee breaks aren’t just about taking the time to recharge during office hours. In a physical office, there is also the time for employees to chat, get to know each other, and share moments. There’s no reason for this not to be the case with remote offices as well.

Slack channels can be used to schedule a coffee break in a common channel, and the employees can join in at the scheduled time. That way, the employees can share a coffee break and use it to talk about anything but work, as they would in an office.

Swapping Recipes

Cooking is one of the most creative, sustainable, and lucrative hobbies a person could have. It’s also a great way to share one’s culture, learn, and embrace others. Setting up a recipe-swapping channel for remote teams also proves to be a great team-building activity.

A lot can be done with the concept, from simply having a common chat group to share the recipes to having themes and challenges that will make the exercise more challenging and interesting. For instance, everyone can try to make a dish from a certain culture or national cuisine. There’s also no harm in showing the results once in a while.

Movie Night

Online movie nights are a great way for coworkers to bond and spend time together outside of work. Every employee can watch the movie on their own, with a common streaming channel to share everyone’s reactions in real time (or afterward).

Picking what movie to watch can also be a bonding exercise, as it allows everyone to showcase their interest and taste. The simplest way is to have a poll and have the employees vote or submit the options beforehand. There’s a lot of wiggle room for themes within that.

Drawing Together

There are many apps made for online drawing that have collaborative features. Businesses have found that this can be an engaging and fun activity for the teams to do together. It’s especially useful for those who do mundane tasks, such as talking on the phone, so they can keep busy while doing so.

Apps for multiplayer drawing can be used on mobile devices such as tablets for the best effect. It’s a creative game and doesn’t have to be competitive as long as everyone contributes a little bit and shares the fun.

Creating Collaborative Playlists

Simple and inexpensive apps such as Spotify allow multiple users to create their own playlists. It can be a way for a remote team to work together on a project outside of work. Each employee can add their songs and genres to the playlist and therefore show off their interest and taste and possibly expand the tastes of others.

Consider rotating the themes, artists, and genres once in a while to keep the exercise interesting and always to have good vibes at the virtual office. It’s also possible to set restrictions along the same lines, depending on the mood of the office.

Icebreaker Questions

Ice Breaker questions are best suited to businesses with many new employees. The game is simple enough; the employees take part in a communal chat or an online meeting and answer icebreaker questions that will help them get to know each other better and feel more comfortable within the team.

Virtual Happy Hour

Virtual Happy Hour works the same as online coffee breaks with the obvious difference that instead of coffee, drinks are served. Drinks after office hours are usually the best way for the employees to unwind.

For remote workers, happy hour provides an opportunity for everyone involved to choose their own pace and drinks of choice, but otherwise, it would work the same as if they were to meet at a bar. These meetings should be held after hours and possibly on Fridays to allow workers to recoup afterward.

To Sum Up

Remote teams can also set up team-building exercises and use them to create strong bonds, work, and relax together. As is the case with the team buildings organized offline, it helps to find creative, interesting, and innovative activities with these goals in mind.

All of the activities on our list can be done by some or all of the employees and are suited to teams that work together for a long time as well as those with new members.