Keeping your team motivated and engaged is crucial to ensuring that your workforce remains productive. Engaged employees are not only emotionally connected with their jobs but also committed and accountable. One effective way to build a connection while working remotely is to have regular virtual team-building activities.
These online virtual team building games build rapport, enhance trust and cohesion, improve communication, and boost productivity. They also lessen the feeling of isolation, anxiety, and restlessness that the present pandemic has brought to many remote workers. During this trying time, it is vital to have a work-life balance that promotes sound mental and emotional health.
Here are some great online team-building activities/exercises that bring more fun for remote employees:
Create a ‘good news’ channel where everyone can share a non-work-related thing or event that makes them happy. It can be as simple as enjoying the fresh air in the garden or cuddling with a pet. This will also be good ice breakers for your team.
By giving your team members a channel to share good news daily, you can promote a sense of belongingness and good mood. They also become good conversation starters and make everyone feel good as they celebrate each other’s milestones.
Who doesn’t like to enjoy a cup of coffee while having a good chat with your colleagues? This activity will hardly require 15-30 minutes. It aims to bridge the gap between your remote employees, allowing everyone to have random talks with anyone. It’s like having small talk with everyone in the pantry during a break in the normal office but in a virtual meeting setting.
You can add fun elements to make it more interesting and fun. This helps employees to de-stress themselves, talk about anything, and regain energy before going back to work.
Learn new things every day by challenging your team to win the game of wit and get exciting prizes. Allot 20-30 minutes to do this activity.
Prepare questions about various topics like current events, culture, business, geography, as well as entertainment. Arrange a few lifelines where one can ask a friend or a colleague or request more clues. Make it a fast-paced activity to build up the excitement. This is one of the most effective team building events.
Everyone has a bucket list of things they want to experience and do within their lifetime. The things they list say a lot about their character and preferences. It could be something like their favorite book club, their favorite holiday destination, etc.
Create a daily activity where one of your employees presents his/her own list, including the completed events to inspire everyone. The others can ask fun questions or give their thoughts about the wish list. Ensure that you limit it to 15 to 20 minutes a week.
Promote a culture of wellness in the remote environment by creating flexible health contests, including completing ‘X” number of steps, squats, lunges, or push ups every day. By gamifying the health initiatives, you are gathering vital insights about everyone’s wellness status and thus, encouraging healthy competitions. Allot 20-30 minutes a day to promote or track down the wellness of your workforce.
Associate health challenges in your team-building exercises like joint meditation sessions or breathing exercises. Give exciting rewards that will motivate them more to keep up the healthy routine and lifestyle. Exercises release endorphins and raise the serotonin levels that can significantly improve the team’s productivity.
This is a fun icebreaker activity. Ask every team member to write three statements about themselves – two truths and one false. Allow everyone to guess what’s true and what is not. When everyone is done guessing, the speaker will reveal the lie.
Make a point system to find out who gets the most correct guesses. And, the winner receives a reward.
Another way to build a strong and dedicated team is to encourage everyone to share something every day. The snapshot can be something they do before work, what they cook the night before, the clothes they wear, or something that makes them happy.
Everyone can comment on the pictures and become the talking point of the day. Make it a routine of the day, either before the actual work or during mid-afternoon, to break the ice. You can even give a prize for the best picture of the day.
Appreciation and recognition boost the team’s productivity by increasing their dedication to complete the tasks quickly and efficiently. It involves mentioning one significant thing that they have done the previous week. In addition to this, you can acknowledge something that one of the co-workers has done for the team. This ‘kudos’ activity will make everyone feel proud of their contribution to the team while boosting others’ self-esteem by recognising their efforts.
Peer-to-peer appreciation is as meaningful as the boss’s recognition. It solidifies the bond of trust between the employees and management.
Work collaboratively via live work sessions with the help of video conferencing technology like Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, or Microsoft Teams. These tools make everyone connected with others, like the office environment. They help the teams communicate with each other in real-time and thus, finish tasks faster.
Use live work sessions to be social and crack jokes that make the tasks easier. If everyone misses going out for lunch together, organise a video conference over lunch where you can eat and talk.
Everyone looks forward to ‘Thank God It’s Friday,’. So, give your team a happy hour before the workday is over. Organise a virtual ‘drink and dine’ activity and share the fun together. You can even host the party by sending food and drinks to each member once in a while.
Create a virtual bar atmosphere over a conference call, allowing every remote team member to relax and talk about anything. Avoid work-related discussions. You can also create special events like hosting a face mask hour, a pajama party, or a Chinese food take-out food trip.
Virtual team bonding keeps the workforce connection strong and healthy. It fills the gaps that isolation and remote working bring, reducing the uncertainty and anxiety due to the pandemic. Regular team building activities and playing games make every employee feel valued and appreciated, making them more efficient, motivated, and productive. So, be more creative and make remote working more fun for your team.
Implement these online team building activities in your company right away!
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