Are you a remote team manager or member considering activities that would bring your team close from the comfort of their homes? Then, you have come to the right place. The current technology can help you conduct online team-building activities via platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams.
Remote team building activities help to build relationships, especially among remote workers. They also boost their team morale and improve communications as working alone at home may cause isolation, affecting productivity.
Therefore, here’s a complete guide on online team bonding activities at home for remote teams.
What is Virtual Team Building?
Virtual team bonding involves gathering remote teams, whether a family or work mates, to bond or achieve a goal. Therefore these activities help your team create deep bonds in a collaborative environment like home. Why?
Because remote work can drain your team to solitude after the emotional distance caused by the physical distance from each other. It is, therefore, crucial for you to create a safe work environment and a time of bonding for your remote workers.
Virtual Team Building Activities at Home
From online games like Bingo for team building to Jewel heist in and a virtual escape room, here are nine virtual team building events at home to consider for 2022.
1. Virtual Icebreaker Activities
Your online meeting can start with stiffness and awkward moments. Thus, icebreakers will go a long way in starting your online meeting and creating personal connections for your team members. You could use icebreakers to have an effective team-building session, whether a virtual conference or meeting.
Volunteer first, then say the name of the one who will go next on deck. Then ask fun questions like: what they eat for breakfast; are they morning people or night owls; tea or coffee; dogs or cats; their remote work experience on a scale of 1-10; where they consider home; etc.
These questions are easy icebreakers. You can have them answer the medium ones like their favorite online work, whether they have a pet, etc.
2. Having an Online City Tour
You can consider having a tour around the city virtually by the resident team member. You could also hire a resident of the city of interest who is not necessarily a team member, then have them take your team around the city from the comfort of their homes.
For instance, they may take you around Paris via zoom. They will show you the streets and the various sceneries. Here, they could use a slow-moving vehicle or a bike, live-streaming as they ride around the city. They can also show you around specific areas on foot. If you have a global team, you can choose one city at a time, and guaranteed, you will have the time of your life.
3. Have a Virtual Scavenger Hunt Online
A virtual scavenger hunt is easy to organize. First, you’ll have the team on a zoom call or any other platform of your choice. Then, you will issue a challenge whereby everyone should collect certain items from their houses within a specified time.
The fun starts where everyone runs to locate the stated items. The first one to bring the item back to the webcam, and they prove that they collected every stated item wins.
4. Virtual Bingos
Some people insist that bingos are for grannies. In remote working, sometimes it feels hard to be confident that you know the one you are talking to on the receiving end of your email discussions. Therefore, bingos are a good team-building activity, and the only materials you need are bingo cards for each member. You will easily get everyone involved, especially in their virtual happy hours.
You need to create the cards for your entire team before virtual bingos. Then create statements like “works in the HR,” “has dark hair,” etc.
Now call out your statements and have your team cross the box where they share the said statement with another member. The one who gets three statements in a row right or full house wins.
5. Virtual Team Bonding Themes
Most virtual teams spend lots of hours in Zoom or other meeting platforms, whether it is getting instructions or hanging out with each other via virtual break rooms. Therefore, consider having a themed work week. The virtual team-building tools you need are costumes only.
A theme week may sound like a boring endeavor, but it is a great opportunity for your team to laugh. You don’t have to have extravagant outfits. It can be something as simple as putting on your favorite sports team jersey. Here, you will share your week’s chosen theme with your team, then have your team help suggest and pick on the themes you want for your next team meeting. Thus, the one who dresses the best wins.
6. Create an Online Break Room
The chats of in-house teams in their offices among each other separate in-house teams from online teams in a big way. Moreover, they naturally flow among team members, and you may belittle their impact on team bonding. But these talks go a long way on team building as they are major team-building components.
What shall remote workers do with this vital block almost absent? You can create an online break room, thanks to modern technology. It’s a free platform where your team can log in over tea or lunch breaks allowing them to catch up as they would in an office.
Though the manager’s effort to create the platform may not work, you can encourage the team to use the virtual space. Please encourage them to make the space feel natural and become a community making the break room a normal event.
7. Introducing Sessions for Showing and Learning
Naturally, each team member presents with a talent or a unique skill. Therefore, the other team members could learn a few tricks if you introduce sessions to learn and show one’s skills.
You can create times to encourage team members to take turns teaching their fellows informally. This online team-building activity could be a fun activity during the virtual meeting and help your team bond. It can also help one another share their knowledge and skills.
It allows each member to appreciate the skills and knowledge of their fellow teammates. Think of it this way: it helps your remote team members learn who they could collaborate with for the team’s future projects. It will also help in sharpening each other’s problem-solving skills.
8. Sending Daily Snapshots
You can make your team bonding stronger by simple daily snapshots. You could encourage your colleagues to post pictures about certain themes. For instance, you can encourage them to post what they took for lunch or the new jersey they love wearing.
Then, you could have the team comment on the pictures. You could add more virtual team-building ideas to this. For example, you could have Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, or Facebook forums where your team can exclusively engage with each other.
This way, the team can engage in a non-work-related chat which helps foster team bonding. Here, the entire team does not have to send pictures daily. One picture a day could keep your team talking to each other. However, be sure to avoid boredom.
9. Virtual Cocktail making
You can send cocktail-making kits or have individual members have them individually in virtual cocktail making. You can have a professional mixologist instruct everyone virtually on several cocktail recipes.
Also, you could have that team member who’s knowledgeable about cocktails teach their fellow teammates. For the non-drinkers, you could include mocktail recipes so that every member can participate.
Wrap-Up
In conclusion, team building virtually helps you save on accessory costs like utility, office supplies, rent, and hiring team-bonding places. Also, your team is geographically unlimited. Virtual team building activities help foster a healthy balance for remote employees in all virtual teams.
Remote team-building activities help make virtual meetings fun through team-building games like icebreakers. What’s better for team bonding than fun virtual team-building challenges like show and learn sessions? Therefore, you can boost your team morale with these online virtual events.
