Team Building Activities For Remote Teams

With the effects of the pandemic lingering, remote work may stay. However, just because your remote employees work in different parts of the globe doesn’t mean they can’t bond professionally.

If your remote team feels drained or unmotivated, it is the ideal time to engage in a few team-building activities. Team building activities should keep your remote employees connected regardless of the distance. 

Although there are a variety of activities available to remote employees, below are 10 team building activities that your remote team can engage in to stay connected:

1. Remote Pictionary 

Pictionary is forever a fun game, and it gets even better when players engage remotely. Remote employees can play remotely, where one individual has to draw something on their computer, and others guess what it is.

The remote employees have to use fun digital drawing tools such as Paintbrush and MS Paint for remote Pictionary. 

And like whiteboard Pictionary, remote Pictionary can result in funny drawings. Remote Pictionary is a fun and straightforward team-building activity that your remote team can play to lighten the mood. 

2. MTV Cribs But the Remote Edition 

There is a good chance that most of your remote employees may never meet in person, especially outside work settings. But, this doesn’t mean that they cannot open up their homes to each other.

Your employees can participate in an MTV Cribs-style series where everyone gives a tour of their home and properties, similar to the classic 90’s show. 

This exercise is an excellent way for your remote team to glimpse everyone’s individual lives and personalities. This virtual team-building activity can lighten employees’ moods and help them understand their colleagues even better. 

3. Virtual Campfire 

Many people love camping because it provides cheap vacations and incredible scenery. However, meeting up and going camping can be challenging when employees are located in other countries.

A virtual campfire is a great team-building activity where your remote team can recreate a camping experience without agonizing over planning, lousy weather, mosquitoes, and other challenges of outdoor camping.  

For a virtual campfire, the host should have a campfire background on their screen, and all the other employees should come packed with their favourite campfire snacks such as cinnamon roll-ups, kiss pies, banana boats, and s’mores. 

During a virtual campfire experience, your employees can share haunted ghost stories, engage in fun competitions and play icebreaker games. This game is a great way to bring the remote team together and share good memories. 

4. Fitness Challenge 

Physical fitness is a great way to reduce stress and tension. It makes you feel better. Engaging in a fitness routine is a great way to keep your remote team connected before everyone begins their day’s work.

You can start by settling on a shared fitness goal that every employee must participate in and complete in a set period. You can also create several plans for employee sub-groups.

For instance, you can plan to have every team member cycle 50km in a month. The team-building activity becomes even more connective when the employees use a shared platform to track progress digitally for credibility.

Since your remote employees spend most of their time sitting, engaging in a shared fitness goal is a great way to get everyone moving and stay fit. 

Fit and healthier employees are more likely to be productive and alert in work processes. Additionally, a shared fitness goal will bring the whole team together and foster healthy competition in the long run. 

5. Virtual Happy Hour 

Everyone loves happy hour as it breaks the week’s redundancy. While it may be challenging to meet with all your remote employees and grab a drink together, you can always opt for virtual happy hour.

This remote team-building activity involves grabbing your favourite drink and conversing with your colleagues over Zoom or video call. 

Virtual happy hour is best reserved for Fridays when the entire team has completed the week’s project. It can be a great way for remote employees to socialize without dressing up. Plus, your team can avoid the inconveniences of a crowded bar.

During a virtual happy hour, remote employees can talk about everything happening in their lives. Casual conversations over drinks usually make it easier for employees to engage comfortably with their colleagues and managers. After some time, this will foster a better flow of ideas and conversations among team members and boost productivity. 

6. Icebreaker Questions 

Icebreaker questions are always an excellent option for people who don’t know each other well. Consider starting your next virtual meeting with a few icebreaker questions to get your remote team talking. Even though your remote team has been working together for years, there is always interesting information they can learn about each other. 

7. Waffles or Pancakes 

This is a fun game that can help your remote team bond—the rules and mechanics of the game focus on unanimous decision-making. Every participant has to renounce one of two almost equally similar things. 

It begins with the question, ‘waffles or pancakes?’ Members have to decide which among the two they will keep, and the item they didn’t pick gets eliminated. For instance, if you choose pancakes, waffles are eliminated. 

The next round will, for instance, ask, ‘pancakes or cheeseburgers?’ The game becomes more interesting with every turn. 

8. Messy-Desk Photo Contest 

When working in a physical office space, most people keep their desks clean and tidy, free of coffee mugs, used tissues, or leftovers on the desk. However, when working remotely, workers don’t feel the need to uphold these hygiene standards. 

Therefore, you can start a messy-desk photo contest with your remote team and see who takes the title for the untidiest workstation. 

9. Who Da Baby?

People love baby pictures because they’re cute and sometimes hilarious. Ask your remote employees to send their two- or three-year-old baby pictures for this game.

Then post these pictures in a shared document and let the team members guess who the baby in the picture might be. You can gather the answers and grade the scores to decide the winner. 

10. Two Truths and a Lie 

It is undoubtedly one of the most popular virtual team-building activities. Every team member gets a few minutes to tell their two truths and a lie for this game.

The other team members will then try to guess which one among the three statements is a lie. The trick behind this game is to make every idea sound crazy to make it hard for every participant to guess correctly. 

Summing Up 

Remote working doesn’t have to feel lonely for the team. As the employer, ensure that you develop creative team-building activities for your remote team to keep everyone connected and happy.