What are virtual team-building activities?

Virtual team-building activities are ways in which you can bond with your virtual employees and make them feel part of a team. When working virtually, it can be very difficult to feel a bond with your coworkers as you may never have actual interactions. A lot of virtual workers will go months without seeing their coworkers, or perhaps will even never meet them outside of email.

This is why having virtual team-building activities is so important. When workers feel part of a team they are more motivated to work hard and will be likely to keep working for the company for a longer period of time.

It can be easy for virtual workers to move from job to job, without having any bond with the company they work for. This type of behaviour can be time-consuming and expensive for the organization; virtual team-building activities can assist with that.

Continue reading for some amazing examples of team virtual building activities that you can try with your team. 

Related: Mastering the Art of the Engaging Team Meeting

10 Virtual team building activities

Here are ten virtual team-building activities that you can try.

1. Trivia Night

One of the more popular virtual team-building activities is Trivia Night. This can become a regular activity if your team enjoys it enough. Before you start the event, choose someone to be the host as you will need someone to read out the questions and keep track of points. The staff should also be broken down into smaller teams that can be placed into breakout rooms while discussing the question.

Encourage players to have fun while participating in this virtual team-building activity by having it in the evening and allowing participants to drink and eat during the trivia. Also, try to make the groups have participants from different departments so that people who may not work together get a chance to get to know each other.

2. Pancakes vs Waffles

This virtual team-building activity allows for fun conversations to be had while keeping the topics light. In Pancakes vs. Waffles, you announce that either pancakes or waffles are going to disappear from existence and your team has been chosen to make the decision on which one stays.

For this virtual team-building activity, you can discuss the issue and voice your opinion without getting into anything serious. If the team decides that they’ve made a final decision about pancakes vs. waffles, they can move on to another debate, or this can be used as a shorter icebreaker before a meeting. Either way, the team will have fun and be able to get to know each other better.

3. Two Truths and a Lie

This is a great game to play if you are working with a new team or if the team hasn’t been able to bond well previously. Each person tells the group two truths and a lie about themselves and the group has to decide which one they think is the lie.

This virtual team-building activity can be done pretty quickly in a small group and is a great way to get to know the other people you are working with. You not only get to know things about each other, but you might also be able to find out who is a good liar which is always a funny thing to know.

4. Murder Mystery

Murder Mystery is a classic party game, where everyone gets a role, including the murderer and victim, and the group has to help solve the mystery. This type of virtual team-building exercise might need some preparation, so you might want to find some outside help. There are plenty of companies online that you can choose from if you decide to participate in a murder mystery, though if you are very keen, you could also do it yourself.

Your team will have fun trying to figure out who the murderer is and you might even see some pretty funny acting from your colleagues.

5. Karaoke

You don’t really need a bar anymore to do a karaoke night. With a few techies on your team, you can easily set one up for a fun virtual team building activity.

Each participant can be instructed to prepare their best Karaoke song before the event and the night would go just like any other Karaoke night might go, where one after another will belt out their song to their virtual audience.

You could also up the stakes by making it a competition, where participants are encouraged to dress up and put on a bit of a show from their living room. Anything, where people are laughing and cheering each other on, will surely be a great virtual team-building activity.

6. Personality Tests

To do this virtual team-building activity, take some time to research different personality tests that you can find online. Once you’ve figured out which one you like the best, you simply email the link to the test to your team and invite them to the event.

The event is very simple, as you will just be talking about your different personality types, but it is a great way to find out about your team. People can bond over their similar personality traits or even debate whether they think the results are accurate to their own personality. This type of virtual team-building activity is easy and cheap as most personality tests you can find online are free.

7. Virtual Show and Tell

You can do this virtual team-building activity one of two ways. One is by telling your team about the event beforehand so that they have time to choose an item and decide what they want to say about it. This will allow your team to get to know each other and what is important in their lives. Also, this version of the virtual show and tell allows your team to work on their presentation skills.

The other version of this virtual team bonding activity is where you do not tell the group beforehand what they will have to do until you meet. Then everyone is told to pick something that is within arm’s reach of them and tell a story about that item. People have to think on their feet in this version of the game, which can be very funny for all to watch.

8. Wellness Challenge

A wellness challenge is something you can do over a month with your virtual team. You can have different activities that people can participate in on their own time and then record their results on a shared calendar.

For example, you could have a walking challenge where you see how many steps you can take in a month. Each participant would have to record their daily totals on a shared document and it could come with a small prize at the end for the person with the most steps.

This type of virtual team-building activity is a great way for people to bond and stay healthy, which is a wonderful way of showing your team how much you care.

9. Recipe Swap

Having a recipe swap is a great way to bond with your virtual team as you will get to know each other through food. One way to do this would be to have each participant share their recipe on a shared document and you can have them teach the rest how to make the dish, almost like a cooking show.

The others can either watch and take notes or actually cook at the same time as the presenter. This version of the virtual team-building activity might take a while to get through, but would be a lot of fun for the foodies in your group.

The other way of doing this activity is more like a potluck, where everyone brings their own dish to show the group and the recipe can be found on the shared document. Each person would get a small amount of time to talk about the dish and why they liked it. It would be then up to the individual to try the recipes if they choose.

10. Who Is This?

This virtual team-building activity can be a lot of fun for a team that has been working with each other for a while. Each member is asked to send a picture of themselves as a baby/toddler to you. At the event, you put the pictures up on the shared screen and everyone has to guess who is in the photo.

Make sure to warn everyone to not react to their own photo so that they can keep the secret. This is a fun way to get to know more about your workers and see just how much everyone has changed.

These ten examples of virtual team-building activities are all great ways of getting to know your team while at the same time having fun. We encourage you to try them out with your team!

Related: 11 Tips To Effectively Manage Remote Employees (With FAQs)