In the office, team bonding happens almost effortlessly. You’re surrounded by your colleagues for at least 8 hours a day, chatting while using the photocopy machine, sitting in the same office or having lunch together. You get to know each other’s quirks, likes, dislikes, and hobbies, which makes collaboration easy. When you need something, you know exactly who to ask, allowing the team to perform optimally.
But when your team works remotely, building and maintaining these relationships takes a bit more effort. The physical distance can sometimes make team members feel isolated and disconnected, which can affect their well-being and even lead to higher staff turnover rates.
That’s why building a strong team spirit is important, especially when your team is scattered across different locations. Whether you’re just building your remote team or just need a fresh approach, there are plenty of fun and engaging team-building activities you can do virtually.
Here are ten activities that will bring your remote team closer.
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Create Time for Live Co-working
Live co-working is a perfect solution for keeping your team connected while they work. Whether you’re in-person or online, co-working lets everyone get stuff done together and have those spontaneous, casual conversations that make work fun.
Send out a meeting invite, where everyone turns on their cameras to work for a couple of hours. It’s a great way for teams to get quick, candid answers and for individuals across different teams to feel more connected, just like in a physical office. This way, conversations will flow naturally, and relationships will form organically.
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Host a Virtual Book or Movie Club
A book or movie club gives your team something exciting to discuss and is a great way to get conversations flowing. You can start a virtual book or movie club as a team-building activity. When team members haven’t met physically it can be awkward to join a Zoom call without a clear topic. But give them a book to read or a movie to watch, and suddenly, there’s plenty to talk about! You can also host a virtual movie night.
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Create a Fun Group Chat for Your Team
Pictures really are worth a thousand words, and sharing them can bring your team closer together. Create a dedicated group chat where team members can share pictures, funny videos, or memes. This space can be used to showcase favourite memories, travels, closest friends, loved ones, pets, or even their remote office setups. Encourage your team to have non-work-related conversations in this chat. Employees will naturally gravitate toward people with shared interests.
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Virtual Happy Hour and Coffee Breaks
Coffee breaks are a great way to allow team members bond over a shared love of coffee (or tea) and start the day with a bit of camaraderie. Also, while working from home has its perks, many people miss grabbing after-work drinks with colleagues. The virtual happy hour is a way for remote employees to unwind and engage in casual conversation with their colleagues, just like they would at a local bar. This way you’re achieving team building, one sip at a time!
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Start a Lunch and Learn Series
Many people love looking at their screens while having lunch, and this presents an opportunity for companies to create an engaging activity around it. Organisations can set up a Lunch and Learn session as a separate time from the regular work lunch schedule. Employees get to have an extra break to enjoy a meal or snack while learning from other team members who have volunteered to share their expertise.
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Set Up a Team Playlist
Many people enjoy listening to music while they work. What you can do to shake things up is to create a team playlist where everyone can add their favourite songs. Encourage everyone to share their go-to songs and discover new artists through each other’s recommendations. You can spice things up with a weekly theme like “Motivation Monday” or “Throwback Thursday” or keep a running list of your team’s ultimate jams.
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Play Games Online
Find online games like Kahoot, Online Scrabble, Chess or even CandyCrush that just require team members to own a smartphone or computer and sign up. You can also pick a topic and host a trivia event with questions on a team-favourite TV show or band. Ask the people who are self-proclaimed experts on the topic to create the trivia questions and host the games.
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Random Guess Fun Facts and Ask Me Anything Questions
Even if you think you know your colleagues well, there’s always something new to learn. Randomly challenge the team to guess which facts about one another. To add more fun, you can include an Ask Me Anything session. This way, you get to learn surprising things about each other and learn more about your team members. It’s a playful and personal way to build stronger connections!
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Organise virtual workout sessions
Working out is a fantastic way to bond. When you’re working from home, it’s easy to let fitness slide as not everyone has the luxury of a home gym. Seeing that staying fit is important, you can make it a fun team-building activity. Host virtual workouts where your team can break a sweat together. It’s completely free and super easy — just pick a favorite instructor on YouTube and take an hour to get moving.
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Take personality tests
Building connections while working remotely might not be easy, but understanding each other’s personalities can make teamwork easier. Have everyone take a personality test, share the results and form groups of similar profiles to chat and connect. Later, mix it up to see how different personalities can work together. It’s a great way to learn more about yourself and your teammates, making collaboration smoother and more enjoyable.
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Wrapping Up
Before COVID-19 and the popularity of remote work, it seemed impossible for a team to work together without being in the same building. Yet today, some of the most popular SaaS companies have been and are being built by teams who have never seen each other physically. With these 10 team-building activities, bringing the team together is as easy as it can be and you can strengthen team bonds, enhance collaboration, and create a more cohesive remote work environment.
