It doesn’t matter if your staff is remote or based in the workplace. Commencing a day with a fun-filled activity can get your employees to be more active, learning and collaborating with others. It could be an excellent opening to a fruitful day.
Team building activities and games are how companies encourage communication and teamwork, especially within teams of remote employees.
But it is to be taken into account that virtual team building is not very similar to regular team building. Virtual team building activities have to be more fun, engaging, and comprehensive than “trust falls”.
So, the experts at Jambar Team Building have hand-picked and listed several virtual team building activities sure to be hit at every virtual team meeting.
But before we move on to the activities, let us know a little more about virtual team building.
Virtual Team Building
When it comes to forming a virtual team, it’s all about establishing sentient ties amongst your team members. Not only can creating these relationships enhance team coordination and unity, but it can also improve communication and raise performance efficiency.
You should put high value on team unity. Teams are so important, that we have an entire staff dedicated to building a comprehensive team playbook of activities and training exercises to help teams operate more efficiently. We have tested virtual team-building activities in our workforce and have achieved commendable results.
How should you do team building virtually?
Making the remote employees feel recognized and acknowledged in a physical sense and tackling the issues of a remote workforce is the most effective method to build bonds within the team.
Working from home has several challenges, including perceiving that your work is “unnoticeable,” getting limited communication and access ability to your superior or manager, etc.
The actual isolation of the employees was the consistent theme that ran across several of the problems. Employees were getting lonely while working from their homes as they lost the possibility to create social bonds and establish confidence within the themes of co-workers. These problems lead to the contribution of poor performance.
But how can companies deal with such difficulties and hurdles?
Well, the answer might not look as simple, but it is – engaging Team Building exercises.
So, let us now look at a few of the top recommended suggestions for team building exercises that are very effective to encourage team bonding and teamwork.
The top 7 team building activities and games
1. Old but yet still gold: Icebreaker questions
Tools required: video conferencing
You could use this activity regularly before every team meeting. It is a great way to energize the team before you start discussing the more serious topics. It also discloses interesting things about your co-workers which you might have not known about them.
You could choose a particular theme to talk about or ask different questions to each other such as;
- What is their daily morning routine?
- Where did they grow up?
- What is the current music they are listening to?
2. Virtual Escape Room
Tools required: video conferencing
Here, a heist is planned to take the valuable collection of precious jewels. Before time runs out, you and your squad must recover these valuables. As your team works together to unearth hidden clues and tackle mind-boggling obstacles, Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist will inspire more cooperation, creative problem-solving, and brainstorming.
3. Online lunch dates
Tools required: video conferencing
This is a simple yet relaxing way to improve team bonding and chemistry. You could set up a date once a month when all employees of the team could gather on video conference from their favorite restaurants or from home and eat lunch together.
4. Murder Mystery
Tools required: video conferencing
Teams will compete against the clock to uncover the mystery surrounding a murder. Their problem-solving abilities, cooperation, analytical thinking, and communication are all reinforced as they explore clues, research case files, and play detective. This is an amazing and fun virtual team building activity that you should attempt.
5. A Peek Into the future
Tools required: video conferencing
This is a quick and enjoyable activity.
Ask the team to identify ten headlines from an e-newspaper or magazine that could be relevant to the organisation in the future.
Examples of headlines include “World’s best place to work” and “How this corporation transformed the world.”
This enables you to comprehend each employee’s objectives and expectations from the organisation. You may also compare and contrast each option to see if there are any differences in commitment or priorities!
6. Two facts and one lie
Tools required: video conferencing
A typical icebreaker activity is to tell two truths and one lie.
Each team member makes three personal assertions, two of which are true and one of which is untrue. After that, the group can take turns determining what is true and what is false. After everyone has guessed, the speaker reveals their falsehood.
A points system, which can be tracked digitally or by the manager with a pen and paper, can add some healthy competitiveness to the game.
The person who correctly predicts the most times wins!
7. How about some GIF battles
Tools required: any messaging or chat app to create a group chat or video conferencing
This game is an awesome way to increase interaction as well as a little competition among the team members. It is especially engaging for the new tech-savvy gen.
Make the game consist of more than at least three rounds and set a theme for each round. Then you can ask the team members to submit gifs related to the themes and let the participants vote on each round’s best entry.
The ultimate champion is the guy who wins most rounds. Just imagine the glory and fun that awaits!
Do you have any more suggestions for great virtual teamwork activities? Tell us about them.
