It is a challenge to find ways to bring our virtual team closer together. I tested more than 100 virtual team-building activities (ideas) and have selected only 10 among them that must help deepen bonds within the team and increase productivity for remote employees.
Believe me, these 10 virtual team building activities (ideas) will work for any company with remote employees. Cheers!
Employees will not feel any loneliness and disconnection from their colleagues when they work virtually. This can remind remote workers of all the fantastic individuals who are behind them.
Virtual team building for remote teams is much different from in-person team building.
In this article, we'll explore how these 7 activities can benefit your team.
Just keep reading.
Virtual team building activities ideas:Informal virtual meetups:
You can organize a virtual meetup twice a month. Invite your remote employees to participate in them and may organize different team-building games like “Guess Whose Desk Is It”, picture-sharing rounds, etc.
Team members will feel that they know each other even if they have not met face to face.
Happy hours on Zoom:
You can schedule a happy hour on Zoom each week.
It is a time when your remote employees can just chat about things other than work. In this way, team bonding will increase.
Two truths and a falsehood
It’s a classic icebreaker activity. Each member of the team will make three statements about themselves. They will make two statements about themselves that are true and one will be intentionally false.
The group can then take turns identifying what is true and what is a lie. After that, the speaker reveals their lie.
You can make the game more competitive and even more fun with a point system. Those who identify the statements (true or false) accurately will get points that will be recorded digitally.
The person whose guess is more accurate will win. This virtual team-building activity (idea) can keep the minds of the remote employees strong.
Record the company’s events:
It is true that remote employees are unable to attend important company events most of the time. As a result, remote employees may feel left out.
Besides this, they are unable to see the different team performances and their contribution to the company.
This can lead to dissatisfaction and less productivity at work.
Now, how can you fix this for your remote employees?
Just record company events and upload them to the employee channel.
For example, your organization is planning to set up a booth at an event in order to attract more customers. To show your virtual team members what's going on, record the event or provide a live video stream.
If you achieve a large success, make a video call to celebrate it and be sure to congratulate the contributing team members on their efforts.
Your remote employees will be able to monitor how their efforts contribute to the company's progress. I think it’s one of the great ideas of virtual team-building activities.
They will not feel left out. Rather, they will be motivated to put more effort into their future company’s work. Cheers!
Daily snapshots:
It can be one of the best virtual team-building activities (ideas). This is one of the easiest ideas to make your virtual team stronger. You can encourage your team members to post a picture daily and bond with them through a regular insight into their lives.
It can be their lunch picture or the new dresses they are wearing or loving.
Team members will comment on those pictures and get a conversation going. It's a quick and easy approach to have a non-work related conversation daily with different team members.
Virtual team building games:
We can discover teammates' hidden skills and thinking processes in a fun and unique way through virtual team-building games.
If you work hard, then play harder. I think games are fun and engaging ways for teams to get together with a little friendly competition.
An online office game can be a great break from the workday, and it is an opportunity to show off the creative side and encourage out-of-the-box thinking.
An online office game can connect the different team members with fun.
There are lots of opportunities to play virtual team-building games online that already have built-in social spaces. You can help your team members to navigate challenging levels.
It's a great way to grow "helping mentalities" within the virtual team.
Remote team dinner:
Can you do it? Yes, you can do it with your remote teams.
Trust me; it’s a great stress-busters. Hosting team luncheons, dinners, and other events is an excellent way to get to know your remote team members.
Simply gather your team members on a video call for a meal and chat while eating. But your chatting should be non-work-related. It’s an excellent way to relax and bond with them.
Some frequently asked questions about virtual team building activities:
Q: What is virtual team building?
Answer: Virtual team building is a set of activities to keep teams connected in a virtual environment. These activities include bringing unity to the team, building trust among team members, and making employees forget they’re not physically together.
Q: How do virtual team building activities work?
Answer: Virtual team building activities help to create human-to-human connections amongst the remote employees. It helps to increase remote employees’ productivity and communication among them. These activities also promote team harmony and help minimize the negative impact of online workplace cultures.
Q: What are some challenges to forming a virtual team?
Answer: There are some common challenges you may face at the time of implementing virtual team building activities (ideas). Such as, you may face a problem scheduling a meeting across different time zones. Beside this, unreliable technology, lack of participation and engagement are the common challenges.
Q: How to start a virtual team building activity?
Answer: First of all, you need to have a deep understanding of how to make virtual events successful. Secondly, you need creativity, some good ideas (you can follow the ideas that I have already shared in this article) and reliable technology and then you can start.
Q: What indicators will tell me that my virtual activity was successful?
Answer: A survey can be a great tool to measure. Request participants to provide honest feedback and use that feedback to improve future events.
There is another indirect indicator that you can use. You can gauge this by observing the participation and engagement during the event.
Conclusion:
If you apply one or more of the tested activities that I have covered in this article to your virtual team, I am sure; you will be able to bring your virtual team closer. All of these are proven virtual team-building activities (ideas). Any company can apply these, and they will see guaranteed success: no more loneliness, no more disconnections, and no more stress.