In-person team-building activities have long been a part of managing a team in a traditional office setting. But what about virtual teams?
The working environment has shifted dramatically in the last year, with many businesses opting for entirely remote working or even a hybrid model.
This new environment necessitates a fresh approach to employee management. In addition, when teams are geographically divided, it’s even more critical for leaders to find ways to bring people together—and virtual team-building activities can help.
Virtual Team Games and How it Helps in Team Building
Virtual team development has become crucial for firms that want their employees to work together as a team since the epidemic has hastened the trend to remote work.
Most employees who used to work in a typical office now work from home practically every day, missing out on the usual workplace banter.
This physical separation can lead to emotional detachment, negatively impacting their mental and emotional health. In other words, remote workers may feel alone and unsupported, making collaboration difficult.
If you do virtual or online team games, on the other hand, you’re reminding people that they’re not alone — they’ve got a fantastic team behind them!
Such efforts enable you to create a welcoming environment for your virtual team members, similar to how you would in a traditional office.
Best Virtual Team Building Activities for Remote Teams
Perhaps your dispersed team is still getting to know one another. Or they could be adjusting to not seeing each other every day at work. Conducting virtual team-building activities, in either case, can be difficult at first.
How to organise virtual team games?
You’re throwing a group of strangers or estranged co-workers together and expecting them to act like friends. This can make things awkward, which isn’t the point of virtual team development in the first place.
Keep in mind to take it slowly. Simple personality tests or icebreakers could be used to begin the first few sessions.
1. Virtual Clue Murder Mystery
You’ll need to use the Clue Murder Mystery mobile app to deliver a link to all of your employees for this virtual team-building exercise.
The programme will divide your team into two groups and assign a team leader to each group. Teams will be tasked with investigating clues, reviewing case files, and solving a murder.
If your team solves the issue promptly, you can rejoice and describe how you got there. To unravel the mystery, staff interact and pool their problem-solving talents in this team-building game. But first, they’ll have to learn how to collaborate as a group.
2. Virtual game show
Water Cooler Trivia, for instance, can serve as a platform for weekly pub quizzes automatically generated. In addition, your remote team members compete against each other in an online game show competition in this virtual activity.
Teams will work together to answer trivia questions from various areas, such as history, politics, and popular culture.
To see who can score the most points, they’ll have to race against the time. To supply the correct responses, your staff will have to brainstorm together, which will help them grasp the benefits of cooperation.
3. Online Bingo
In this entertaining exercise, you can make an online bingo board (or utilise a template) with numerous locations for action items or successes.
Then, you can send it to your team via email, and they can print a copy or sketch it on a notepad for themselves.
For example, one spot could say, “wearing pyjama bottoms to a video meeting.” Another spot could say, “had a family member or pet interrupt a virtual team meeting.” If you’ve done something, you cross off that spot.
The team member who completes all of the spots on their board first wins. This is a fun approach to loosen up your team and have a few laughs in the process.
4. Two truths and a lie
Team members go round-robin, revealing three exciting things about themselves, one of which is untrue. This is a classic party game made now virtual via video conferencing.
The other members try their hardest to distinguish between fact and fiction just revealed to them. This is an excellent way to de-stress while also getting to know your teammates on a more social level.
5. Desert island survival prep
Teams are trapped on a desolate island in this entertaining game, and they can only choose three objects from a list of 10. So you’ll need to come up with a list of unusual objects that will test your squad to the max. Examples are a Swiss army knife, a fishing net, a lighter, sunscreen, and other items.
They will be challenged to plan and utilise critical thinking to make and explain their decisions in this manner.
With Zoom breakout rooms, you can divide your co-workers into small groups and let them collaborate online on which products to choose. Then, after all of the mini discussions are completed, everyone can join the main team video chat to discuss the outcomes.
6. Virtual MTV Cribs
Each team member reveals their residences to the rest of the squad in this game, based on the iconic MTV television show Cribs.
Employees tour their homes via video call, offering a tour to the rest of the company and discussing their favourite things, design preferences, and so on.
You’ll gain a greater understanding of each employee’s personal life this way, and it’ll be an enjoyable method to get to know one another. However, keep in mind that this exercise may not be acceptable for all employees.
For any company to succeed, it is necessary to develop a strong team. A strong team can aid in improving staff motivation, encouraging collaboration, and fostering employee trust. While getting your virtual team together may appear complicated, it is simple with the correct online team games.
Check out the exercises discussed above to discover which ones will work best for your group. Remember, the goal is for your employees to relax, get to know one another, and, most importantly, have a good time. Check out CodeQuotient blogs for more ideas on recruiting and teambuilding.
If you’re a recruiter, drop us an email at info@codequotient.com for any queries regarding tech hiring and training.Â
