Activities To Promote Team Building For Remote Employees
Engaging your employees and fostering effective collaboration is a challenging task for most businesses. Now, imagine having to do that for a workforce that works mostly or entirely remotely. Despite the increased level of difficulty, it is still essential to make a serious effort to bring your employees together through virtual employee engagement activities. These will help them get to know each other better and develop stronger relationships. Achieving this will enhance collaboration and teamwork within your organization, allowing you to make the most of the diverse ideas and experiences of your employees. In this article, we will explore 22 virtual team-building activities you can implement to increase remote employee engagement, job satisfaction, and, in turn, retention and productivity rates.
22 Virtual Team-Building Activities For Your Remote Workforce
1. Two Truths And A Lie
Break the ice between employees who may not have met in person or seen each other in a while with a casual game of Two Truths and a Lie. Each participant submits three statements, two of which are true and one false. Then, the rest of the team votes on which one they think is the lie. You will be surprised by how many things you can learn about your colleagues through this game. You might even discover some common interests.
2. Virtual Coffee Roulette
For this activity, you need a random selection app that will pair two employees together for a quick virtual coffee chat. This approach effectively brings watercooler conversations into the virtual work environment, offering the added benefit of prompting interactions between employees who may not normally get the chance to communicate. This virtual employee engagement activity idea is perfect for improving collaboration and teamwork.
3. GIF Battles
This is a great way to bring some fun into your company's internal communication platform. It is very simple. All you have to do is give employees a prompt, such as "Monday mood" or "Christmas vibes," and encourage them to share a fitting GIF. Although this isn't a competition, you can choose to give a shoutout to the best response at the end of the day.
4. Online Escape Rooms
Escape rooms are not just entertaining; they are also a great way to promote effective collaboration, communication, and problem solving among team members. This experience can easily be adapted for remote employees through online escape rooms. Simply divide participants into groups of 6-8 people and allow them to solve puzzles together as they work towards escaping.
5. Trivia Games
This fun employee engagement activity can be quite versatile, making it suitable for an entertaining monthly company-wide event or a quick game to pass the time while waiting for everyone to join a Zoom call. However you want to use them, you can find numerous quizzes online or use AI tools to generate your own trivia questions about the company, its employees, or general knowledge.
6. Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are a fun and quick way to get employees excited during their daily routines. To organize one, start by putting together a list of 5 or 6 items that can be found in a common household. Then, set a timer and ask employees to search their homes for these items and show them on camera. Whoever is the fastest wins!
7. Online Drawing Games
Many of us are familiar with the game "Pictionary" and remember how fun it is to play with friends. You can create an online version of this game for your employees using an online whiteboard and take turns drawing and guessing. If you want a more organized experience, however, there are several online platforms that can generate prompts and provide a chat box feature to facilitate the guessing process.
8. Murder Mystery "Night"
Another virtual team-building activity that can transform a typical company gathering into an engaging and fun event is organizing a murder mystery. There are various platforms that set the scene and provide the rules for your team, and some even include live actors to bring the story to life. Your team can wear costumes to get in the spirit and work together to gather clues and uncover the culprit.
9. Virtual Yoga Or Meditation Sessions
Working from home can get a little lonely and even lead to feelings of isolation and burnout. To protect your employees' mental health and prevent these negative experiences, consider scheduling regular yoga and meditation sessions. With the help of a professional instructor, you can help your employees develop new healthy habits and decompress from their daily stresses.
10. Offline Fitness And Wellness Challenges
Physical health is as important as mental health, especially since employees spend a large chunk of their day in a sitting position. Motivate your employees to get their daily steps in by organizing a fitness challenge. For example, they can sync their smartwatches or share screenshots from their fitness apps to track who walked the most steps on that day. This will spark friendly competition among them while promoting their overall health.
11. Virtual Talent Show
Each employee has their own talents and passions that they may be happy to share with others. Give them the opportunity to do that by hosting a virtual talent show, where they will be able to showcase their talent in singing, magic tricks, or juggling. This activity can do wonders for employee engagement and team building, allowing employees to reveal different aspects of themselves.
12. Collective Office Playlists
Employees often enjoy listening to music while working. Wouldn't having everyone in the office collaborate to create a playlist be a great bonding and engaging activity? Share with team members the intended mood of the playlist, such as relaxing or energizing, and encourage them to contribute their favorite songs. This activity will help remote employees feel closer to their colleagues as they listen to each other's music recommendations and explore different musical tastes.
13. Remote Team Painting
Virtual team-building activities can also encourage employees to express their artistic talents. Imagine surprising everyone by sending a painting kit to their homes and inviting them to a virtual team painting event, where they will follow an online instructor together. At the end of the activity, you can compare the paintings and even create a collage of everyone's creations to commemorate this enjoyable event.
14. Remote Happy Hour
A remote happy hour event is a fun way for employees to unwind. It's quite easy to throw together, too. You can either send employees a box of ingredients or send them a list of items they should gather beforehand. During the event, assign someone to share a recipe for a cocktail (or mocktail, if it's during the day) and prepare it together. Employees can comment on the drink and enjoy a break from work while socializing with their colleagues.
15. Virtual Comedy Show
Nowadays, it's not necessary to visit your local club or theatre to enjoy a comedy show. Companies now have the option to hire comedians who can perform live for their remote employees via a virtual call. These stand-up shows can be interactive and tailored to meet your specific needs, making a great virtual employee engagement idea.
16. Virtual Book Or Movie Club
Books and movies are things that almost everyone can relate to. Why not turn this into a fun virtual employee engagement activity by scheduling a monthly online book or movie club? Employees can agree on a book or movie and then meet up to discuss their thoughts and opinions. It is best to keep the reading material as short as possible to encourage participation and keep everyone engaged.
17. "Day In The Life" Videos
Vlogging has become a very popular trend in recent years with the rise of social media. However, apart from online content, it can make for an interesting and fun activity to help employees connect with their colleagues. These short home videos, typically just a couple of minutes long, can present the employee's work-from-home setup, introduce the pets that keep them company every day, and showcase some parts of their daily routines.
18. Building A Story
This free virtual employee engagement idea is easy to implement and requires no preparation. All you have to do is give the starting sentence of a story; for example, "Nick woke up in the morning to prepare for a job interview." Then, each employee must contribute a complete or incomplete sentence to continue the story. By the time everyone has had a turn, the initial prompt will have turned into a silly, funny, or crazy tale, entertaining everyone while promoting collaboration and creative thinking.
19. Who's That Baby?
This is a straightforward online activity that will warm everyone's hearts and provide some good laughs. To play "Who's that baby?" you must ask employees to provide baby pictures of themselves. Then, you create a slideshow and invite team members to vote for the adult they think each baby picture corresponds to. If there is a clear winner, you can reward them with a gift certificate for their keen eye.
20. Conduct A Messy Desk Contest
Working from home can make keeping your workspace tidy harder than being in the office, as no one can really see it. And while many of us may feel ashamed of our cluttered desks, the truth is that we are not alone in this. Encourage your employees to celebrate their messy desks by sharing pictures on a dedicated channel on your company intranet. Who knows? This might motivate them to be more organized moving forward.
21. Find That Tune
Everyone likes music, and it is a great way to establish a connection with colleagues who share your music taste. Make Zoom calls a little more musical by playing the first seconds of a song and having everyone guess what it is. Choose 5 to 10 songs to keep this virtual employee engagement activity brief, allowing you to then move on to the rest of the agenda.
22. Read My Lips
This game is a great choice to help employees decompress and laugh with each other. While up close, this activity requires one of the players to wear headphones so they can't hear what the other one is saying; in a virtual environment, you only have to mute your sound. Then, your colleagues will have to decipher what you are trying to say only by reading your lips. Perhaps you can set a theme to provide some clues and set a timer so that the game doesn't drag on.
Conclusion
The fact that your employees are working remotely doesn't mean that they can't be given opportunities to interact with each other in an informal setting. With the right virtual team-building activities, you can help them foster meaningful relationships, enhance their collaboration, and boost overall employee morale and productivity. Use the ideas we explored in this article as inspiration for your next team-building event, and make sure to prioritize your company culture in 2025.
