9 Unique & Fun Virtual Team Building Activities
Imagine if your remote team performs twice as fast and produces double the amount of high-quality work. With some proper team building and collaboration, this is absolutely possible!
Why is virtual team building critical for successful remote work?
Team building exercises are often associated with cheesy icebreaker questions or boring games. So, it is no surprise that team building is usually not a favorite workplace activity among employees. This lack of excitement is especially common for virtual teams who already have a sense of disconnect between team members. If your team building activities are for lack of a better word, lame, then it’s probably time to put your idea hat on and spice things up. Providing memorable experiences will help your remote workers feel excited about their responsibilities and their contributions to the collective group. Therefore, you will thank yourself in the long run for changing up the routine and organizing activities that make team bonding different from just another day in the office.
In this article, we’ll share the benefits of organizing virtual team building activities. Additionally, we will include 9 team building ideas that will help improve workplace morale, productivity, and communication skills among remote workers.
Team building helps:
Maintain a sense of camaraderie
Improve communication
Build trust
Boost productivity
Improve engagement
All of which are essential for a strong team to function at its best.
When working from home, maintaining a strong team culture can be more of a challenge. You simply can’t grab a cup of coffee in the break room or enjoy watercooler chats with your colleagues. With today’s workforce becoming increasingly more remote, it’s increasingly more difficult to bring everyone together in the same room to take part in fun activities.
Luckily, there are many remote work games and activities that your team can benefit from and enjoy.
9 of the best Team building activities for virtual work
1. Virtual Escape Room
A virtual escape room is challenging and adventurous! In this activity, your team receives a set of puzzles and tasks to solve together within a certain time frame.
An escape room game can be played over Zoom, and you can receive directions and clues from a digital dashboard or the virtual game host. Your team will need to collaborate and work together through multiple levels until you collectively ‘break out’ and complete the mission.
This virtual game is perfect for team bonding because it encourages communication, problem-solving skills, and a sense of camaraderie.
2. Virtual Trivia
Who doesn’t love Trivia?
Trivia is a team building activity you can host easily on Zoom as a one-off event or via email over a few day periods. It’s entertaining and conversational and asks participants to put their thinking caps on! With trivia, you can design the questions as you desire, meaning they can focus on whatever topics you would like! You can host a traditional game of trivia and craft questions about numerous topics and time periods, or you can host a game of trivia focused on something more niche such as TV shows, sports, or movies to name a few. You can make the game even more enticing with a prize for the virtual trivia champion!
3. Virtual Show & Tell
Before you associate this idea with elementary school, think again. Virtual show and tell is one of the most popular team building activities among remote teams.
Huge tech giants, like Facebook, often use these activities as ice breakers and conversation starters.
Companies like Facebook employ workers from all over the world, so teammates are often from very different backgrounds and nationalities. Moreover, virtual shows and tell a great way to learn more about everyone’s cultures, backgrounds, and interesting hobbies.
Each team member should be allotted 1 minute to show and tell about something. This item should be out of the ordinary, whether it’s a favorite cocktail recipe, a snack from your home country, a pet, or a new hobby. Then once the presentation is over, the team should have some time to chat and collaborate.
This activity is great for empathizing with team members and building stronger, more trusting bonds.
4. Virtual Happy Hour
Not even a pandemic can stop teams from celebrating happy hour. Sure, it’s over Zoom, but it can be just as fun!
Hop on a video call at the end of your week to meet your colleagues and recharge for the weekend. Some teams do virtual wine tastings, while others include fun games and conversation starters. You can even enjoy a hilarious online comedy show. The options are endless!
5. Virtual Coffee Sessions
With the growing amount of remote teams in today’s workplace, coffee sessions might not look like your traditional meetup in the office kitchen. Therefore, many teams have blocked time on their calendars for a chat over coffee (or tea, whatever your preference might be). This activity can be optional - those who want and are able can hop onto a video call together and have a good ol ‘cup of joe together.
Research shows that employees take fewer breaks when working remotely, which can negatively impact productivity and efficiency. As a result, many team leaders have started prioritizing these sessions as short breaks so remote workers can not only recharge but get to know their coworkers a little better.
6. Virtual Bingo
Bingo is a fun and familiar game for all. Start with a bingo board that has accomplishments or a set of action items on it.
You can either create the bingo board yourself and add items like:
‘…. has joked about how ‘long’ the commute was.’
‘… wears pajama bottoms in online meetings.’
‘… always on mute without realizing.’
‘… had a meeting interrupted by a family member.’
Or you can find a premade bingo board on the internet to utilize! Either way, bingo is easy to play and a good way for your employees to relax and have some good laughs.
7. Paintball in VR
Paintball is a strategic and tactical game that brings out players’ competitive nature. It is also a great form of virtual team building because it:
Relieves stress
Promotes problem-solving skills
Develops leadership skills
Encourages teamwork & communication
Now, you might think, ‘how in this world will my team play paintball while working remotely!?
The answer is virtual reality! In VR, you will feel like you’re in the same space as your teammates when in reality, you are distributed all over the country! Plus, your entire team won’t have bruises all over their bodies the following day, which is a plus.
8. Tower Defense in VR
Another popular VR team building game is Tower Defense. In this game, your entire team is transported to a world where they must work together to protect their ‘castle’ against orcs and dragons. It gives the team a sense of “us against the world” and genuinely bonds everyone around a common goal.
Tower Defense is a unique VR experience that encourages better communication, boosts teamwork, and builds a sense of accomplishment.
9. Puzzle Races in VR
In the workplace, there’s no better feeling than completing a challenging task together as a team.
Completing a team puzzle race evokes this same feeling of accomplishment! Team puzzle races encourage teamwork and include multiple obstacles to overcome as a group. Additionally, team puzzle races can be molded to your liking - you can either design your own set of challenges over a video call or transport them into VR and experience a fully immersed experience! Host a team puzzle race for your next team building activity and watch as your team collaborates and uses their critical thinking skills to solve a common objective.
Wondering how your team can enjoy fun team building games in VR?
Today, The Freedom to Choose Between Remote and In-Office is Priceless. See How Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Will Change the Way We Work and be sure to check out 10 more Exciting Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Employees.
Remio VR is the #1 virtual team building platform and has many VR experiences available (many of which are mentioned in the list above) for your next team bonding experience. Once you set a date for your virtual event, Remio delivers pre-configured VR headsets to each team member and our event concierge will help usher you through the most mind-blowing experience your team has ever encountered.
What are you waiting for?
The metaverse awaits!