Remote Team Activities: How To Have Fun When You Wfh
There are many different options and strategies for engaging a remote group, and will vary according to the technology that you are using. The options at your disposal will vary along this spectrum, but the principles of using them successfully are consistent all along the range. When it comes time to design your session, you can choose strategies that fit with the technology you already have, or choose your technology to line up with what you want to do. Other challenges also include poor communication, social isolation, and unhealthy company culture.
For that reason, even for remote employees, you should always try to get the team together in person whenever possible. It also helps employees feel empowered and share their skillsOpens in a new tab, which increases overall productivity among many other advantages. HR experts generally recommend at least one structured team-building activity per month, with lighter connection moments — virtual breaks, recognition shout-outs — built into weekly routines. Regular connection programs are directly linked to lower voluntary turnover rates.
Taking the time to articulate and define these items ensures that everyone in your group is seen, understood and valued, and that you have a shared language for moving forward. Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure. You can help a group of people understand how they work together and identify changes that they can make to improve group performance. All members of the group diagnose current relationship patterns and decide how to follow up with action steps together, without intermediaries.
Set Up Ice Breaker Activities
Matter empowers leaders to effortlessly build a culture of appreciation, connection, and engagement. Try Matter for free today and discover how easy it is to boost remote employee engagement—because when your team thrives, so does your business. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about remote employee engagement activities to help you successfully engage and support your remote workforce. Friendly group challenges encourage teamwork, healthy competition, and camaraderie among remote teams. Working remotely can often feel isolating, especially when employees lack regular interaction with their peers or leaders. Engagement activities like virtual coffee breaks or team chats create opportunities for connection and conversation.
Virtual Scavenger Hunts
Office Trivia is a fun, low-stakes way of helping your team get to know each other better while also reviewing key company information. Try throwing in some questions about KPIs or company values to bring these things into employee awareness. Mix in some lighthearted questions about your team members and some general knowledge and the result is great for any team building session. For this team building method, ask each participant to prepare a presentation including three things that have shaped who they are as a person. Encourage creative thinking by asking teams to use simple drawings and words to visualize their presentation too. Particularly with new teams or groups that aren’t used to team building, keeping it simple with a tried and tested method can be your best bet.
Improvements in satisfaction over time, correlated with regular team building activities, can underscore the positive impact these initiatives have on team morale and camaraderie. Participation rates serve as another vital barometer of the success of your team building activities. If you notice that participation is consistently high, it’s an indicator that the activities are resonating well with your team. The first and most direct way to measure the success of your team building activities is through feedback surveys.
Members can take turns choosing a book each month, and then the club meets virtually to discuss thoughts and takeaways. When teams are distributed globally, cultural differences are likely to surface. These differences can potentially lead to misunderstandings or communication gaps if not adequately addressed. Additionally, providing a tech support system or platform where team members can quickly get help when they encounter difficulties can greatly ease this hurdle. Project management tools like Jira and customer service software like Zendesk are great options for managing and addressing tech-related issues efficiently. Start by scheduling a recurring, optional meeting dedicated to these showcases.
Instead of a live event, participants record and submit short video responses to a set of questions. This format allows team members to participate on their own schedule, fostering inclusivity while adding a creative, personal touch to a favorite team-building activity. Virtual team building activities have emerged as essential tools for fostering connectivity, collaboration, and camaraderie among remote team members.
Virtual Codeword
Give each describer an image or concept to communicate, but restrict communication by banning certain common words. Share the card at the start of your Zoom call, then give everyone minutes to find colleagues who match each description. You’ll be crying with laughter watching someone try to draw a “customer retention strategy” with basic shapes! These shared moments of hilarity create connections that carry over into your regular work interactions.
- Use this tool to go deeper with your team to understand more about yourselves and each other on personal and professional levels.
- While many of the icebreakers above can be adapted for any group size, these activities are especially effective when working with groups of less than 15 people.
- Zoom’s whiteboard feature is perfect for this online team-building game your team can play on Zoom.
This is one of the most effective activities that build teamwork because it simulates a high-stakes project, demanding clear communication, logical thinking, and efficient task delegation under pressure. This activity boosts critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, encourages teamwork, and provides an opportunity for team members to communicate creatively and strategically. Practical team engagement activities are key to keeping remote workers connected, collaborative, and motivated. Whether solving puzzles, brainstorming ideas, or sharing meals, these activities build trust, strengthen relationships, and create a positive virtual work environment. Your teams will participate in a series of virtual challenges and earn donations for the charitable cause of their choice. This virtual team building activity boosts teamwork and morale while making a positive impact together.
Virtual meetings for remote teams are incredibly common and remote workers will likely attend many virtual meetings every week. These might include daily-stand-ups, all-hands meetings, discussions and more. Like all meetings, virtual meetings should have a clear reason for being run and a specific goal in mind. This is one of the most flexible virtual team building activities for global teams, as it bypasses the need for timezone coordination. It fosters a sense of shared experience and reveals hidden talents or hobbies, strengthening personal connections. Companies like Slack and Figma use these challenges to showcase their team’s creative side, with themes ranging from pet photos to unique design prompts.
Standing in a circle, group members reach across to connect hands with different people. The group then tries to unravel the “human knot” by unthreading their bodies without letting go of each other people’s hands. Sometimes pictures are better than words when it comes to helping a team get to know one another. Creative games like this one can also be especially effective at helping introverts or distanced teams share with the group. With thoughtful leadership, virtual team challenges can be effectively managed, resulting in a cohesive, high-performing team that can excel, irrespective of where its members are located.
Hands-on activities like origami, candle making, or painting, where participants create something together. Kits can be shipped so everyone has materials, and the finished products serve as physical reminders of https://asian-feels.com/login-and-sign-up-guide/ the experience. They’re a good option for teams interested in wellness without requiring athletic ability. Tools like Donut for Slack can automate the matching, building cross-functional relationships over time without requiring a formal event.