10 Virtual Team Building Activities Remote Teams Love in 2023

Team-building exercises are a must for both on-site and remote teams, but especially for the latter. On-site teams see each other most days of the week and can socialize in the office. Remote workers miss out on this, so it’s easy for their performance to be affected by feelings of loneliness. 

In this article, we’ve provided a list of ten virtual team building games and activities you can try out to boost morale while working remotely. So, if you’re looking for ways to bring your remote team together, read on!

 

 

Why Are Virtual Team Building Activities Important?

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, more companies than ever have made the move to remote working. There are a lot of benefits to this business model, for sure, but it also comes with some downsides—namely, your employees can easily become demoralized and lonely at work.

 

A virtual team building event can be a great solution to this problem. It gives your team members a chance for some much-needed socialization and helps them build bonds, making them a stronger and more effective team. 

 

 

Top 10 Online Team Building Games and Activities

While there are obvious obstacles to team-building with remote teams, there are far more options than you might think. During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies had to get creative and find ways of doing things online. This resulted in a ton of virtual team building activities for work—many of which businesses continue to use!

 

Below, we’ve included ten ideas for virtual team building. Some you might arrange outside of work hours; others would make great team building activities for conference calls at work. . The possibilities are endless!

 

1. Fun Trivia Quizzes 

A classic trivia quiz is always great fun, and can be a good distraction from the stresses of work, as well as a good virtual team building exercise. While providing your team members with a bit of much-needed fun, it also lets them learn a little bit more about one another. 

You don’t need any fancy software to hold quizzes; they can be fun team building games on Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams. Whether you host a general knowledge or pop culture quiz—or quiz your team members on the history of your company—you’re bound to have a blast!

 

2. Online Escape Rooms

Online escape rooms are one of the best virtual team event ideas. Not only are they super fun, but they’ll also get your team members to work together, helping to boost morale and their collaborative skills. 

In an online escape room, you’re given the task of solving puzzles and riddles within a set time. These puzzles are great creative team building activities because teamwork is essential for their completion, meaning your employees will have to communicate with one another. A lot of escape rooms have their own fun theme, too!

 

3. Virtual Wellness Sessions

When working alone, it’s easy to become lonely. If you’re looking for a work-from-home team building exercise that will help improve the mood and overall well-being of your team members, then a virtual wellness session might be worth considering. These wellness-based quick virtual team building activities are beneficial for so many reasons.

Virtual wellness sessions are usually guided by a professional. They might open the session with a guided meditation before leading into some breathing exercises. Short virtual team building activities with a focus on wellness can give your employees the tools necessary to manage low mood when working alone.

 

4. Get Cozy With a Tiny Campfire

When the pandemic kicked off, the team over at teambuilding.com decided to offer a new type of team building exercise for companies to use—the tiny campfire. This activity promotes virtual community building in a unique way. 

Teams are sent gourmet s’mores kits and asked to join an online camp. Over the next 90 minutes, team members will take part in games and activities led by a “Camp Counselor.” This unusual virtual team-building activity will be sure to bring your employees closer.

 

5. Include Some Fun Icebreakers in Meetings

If you’re looking for virtual team-building activities you can incorporate within the working day, you might consider asking a few icebreaker questions during team meetings. Asking a few fun, light-hearted questions can be a great way of getting your team members to bond.

Ideas for remote team-building exercises based around icebreaker questions might include two truths and a lie, quick questions, or “Would you rather?” These fun games provide employees with the chance to get to know one another and make for ideal 5-minute team-building activities, virtual or not. Fun ideas like this can even be incorporated into meetings for on-site teams to get to know one another.

 

 

6. Hang Out in a Virtual Happy Hour

If you’re looking for sales team-building activities to try out outside of work, a virtual happy hour might be exactly what you’re looking for! These are pretty much exactly like they sound: set a time and come together online for some easy chatting, games, and even a few drinks, if you’re into that!

An online happy hour is a great choice for virtual corporate team-building, as it provides team members with a laid-back environment where they can hang out and blow off some steam.

 

7. Virtual Book Club

Do you have any bookworms on your team? Then a virtual book club might be a good choice when thinking about team-building in a virtual environment. Set a book for your team to read and arrange to meet up every one or two weeks to discuss it. When your team has a book on the go, they’ll always have something to talk about and bond over.

If you like, you could let a different person in the group suggest each new book. That way, everyone gets to feel involved and your team members get to know one another better.

 

8. Play Some Fun Party Games

In a list of online team-building experiences, we’d be remiss not to mention online party games! There are a ton of fun apps out there for you and your team members to try, each with a different selection of games to keep you entertained.

Jackbox Games is a collection of party packs, each with a variety of games for you all to try, from fun quizzes to personality tests. Jackbox and games like it saw a massive boom in success during the pandemic when people were stuck at home and unable to see their friends. Why not use them in the workplace?

 

9. Set Up Accountability Groups

While this item on our list may not be as fun and exciting as some of the other virtual team-building activities here, it can still be a massive help to your team. Try setting up accountability groups between team members—groups who can check in on each other to see how everyone’s doing. They can even keep each other company in video calls while working, if that helps keep them on task. 

Accountability groups can help establish a feeling of camaraderie and togetherness, even when workers are apart.

 

10. Bingo

Bingo is a good option if you’re looking for quick 10-minute team-building activities to run for your team. Everyone knows how to play this simple game, but it can still be a whole lot of fun!

Online, you can find customizable bingo sheet templates. You can use these to create a game personalized to your employees. This can be a good way to bring everyone together for a laugh and some easy fun while getting to know a bit more about each other.

 

See the Difference Using Fun Virtual Team-Building Activities Can Make

If you run a remote work team, you should consider running remote team-building activities and virtual games to help bring team members together and increase morale. While such efforts may seem like something small, you’ll find that regularly running virtual team-building activities not only provides a boost to everyone’s mood, but will also improve your company’s performance.

Still not convinced? Why not give one of the items on our list of 10 not lame virtual team-building activities a shot? We’re sure you’ll notice the benefits immediately!