10 VIRTUAL TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES TO ENGAGE YOUR REMOTE EMPLOYEES
With the dramatic changes in how many of us are now working, companies are looking for effective ways to keep their remote employees motivated and working together collaboratively.
Whilst remote working has in ways challenged how teams best communicate with each other, virtual event technology has really stepped up to enable large-scale networking and exciting team building activities that can be carried out from home.
And we don’t just mean a game of charades or a Powerpoint quiz on a weekly catch-up — there are some brilliant interactive activities out there that can help you reward your teams and encourage desired behaviours.
IN THIS BLOG:
- What virtual team building can offer
- Exciting virtual team building ideas
- How to encourage team building virtually
WHAT CAN VIRTUAL TEAM BUILDING OFFER?
Virtual team building can offer the following benefits for small teams or employees company-wide:
- It can strengthen team relationships and give remote employees a chance to socialise. This is really important when staff are working from home, as it can help them to relax and communicate more productively.
- As well as benefiting employees, virtual team building events can reduce the costs and carbon footprints of running physical company events.
- Virtual events allow you to reach a wider audience, where people across branches can join from anywhere.
If you’re interested in connecting your remote teams, here are some of the fun interactive virtual team building activities we offer that can be customised to suit your needs.
EXCITING VIRTUAL TEAM BUILDING IDEAS FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT
1. VIRTUAL SUSHI MAKING CLASS
Test your teams’ creative flair with an energising sushi-making class.
The cooking class teaches attendees how to make a range of delicious sushi, including classic Maki sushi and different modern varieties.
We deliver the specialist ingredients to your employees’ doors ahead of the event. They will then be guided by a leading sushi chef, learning by live stream how to make sushi perfectly and how to expertly garnish their sushi creations.
This is a great activity if you want to give your team a unique virtual cooking experience whilst learning new skills. It can even be turned into a competitive team event to ramp up the stakes!
Duration: 1–2 hours. Group sizes: 3–50
2. A COCKTAIL MASTERCLASS AT HOME
A virtual cocktail making class is the perfect opportunity for your teams to relax and have fun. In this masterclass, your attendees will be treated to an expert mixologist who will show them how to recreate some cocktail classics, from mojitos to mai tais.
Like the virtual sushi making, we can add an interactive competition into each round where attendees are scored on their creations.
Duration: 1–3 hours. Group sizes: 5–500
3. VIRTUAL RACE NIGHT
Bring the thrill of the races to your remote teams, with a Horses for Courses live-streamed event!
Your employees place their bets and gather in private virtual VIP boxes to strategise and share laughs together, whether betting individually or in virtual groups.
This fast-paced experience gives attendees a few minutes to place their bets while the horses make their way to the start line. Bookies and industry experts share inside market tips and a professional compare is on hand for hosting and entertainment throughout.
Duration: 1–2 hours. Group sizes: 2–200
4. INTERACTIVE TEAM QUIZZES
We know that over lockdown many of us may be all quizzed out, but we have a number of ways to liven up the traditional quiz and create a virtual team building event for staff to connect, share knowledge and get competitive. The quizzes offer interactive employee engagement incentives that can be worked into your internal communications plans for remote workers:
The Virtual Pub Quiz takes place in your very own virtual pub, complete with a professional and lively pub landlord who welcomes attendees, sets out the rules and hosts the quiz.
Attendees can play individually or in teams, and rounds include classics like general knowledge, sport, music, famous faces and TV/ film. You can also opt for specialist/company focussed rounds on request.
Duration: 1–1.5 hours. Group sizes: 2–200
For something a bit less traditional, the Positivity Quiz-ity virtual event combines interactive quiz rounds, challenges and gameshows.
This memorable event brings out the silliness and is guided by a fun host to bring positivity and excitement to your teams. The online challenges are a great way to boost employee morale and create fun experiences for staff.
Duration: 1–2 hours. Group sizes: 2–200
For the ultimate virtual gameshow experience, your teams can take part in the Virtual Showdown, based on TV gameshow favourites.
This experience gives attendees the chance to play classic gameshows without having to shout the answers at the TV! Attendees will be challenged on a range of knowledge, reactions, listening, memory and creativity tests for an immersive competition.
The game shows are fully animated and custom-designed, with accumulative points shown and winners crowned at the end.
Duration: 1–2 hours. Group sizes: 2–200
5. ESCAPE ROOM CHALLENGE
Perfect for small groups, this virtual team building activity puts a unique spin on escape room games.
Attendees need to solve puzzles and challenges for their host to escape the room. Teams will need to instruct the host around the room, who will be in communication with them through a headset and cameras on a live video feed.
Games include an employee kidnap, a diamond hunt and a murder mystery, with exciting clues and tasks to decipher. There’s also an opportunity to customise the event and include branded items in the room.
The virtual escape room game requires a collaborative team effort and could be a strong addition to a virtual conference or staff training event.
Duration: 20–50 minutes. Group sizes: Small teams to 45+, max 15 people per room
6. THE GREAT VIRTUAL BAKE-OFF
Ready, set, bake! This virtual edition of the famous bake-off allows teams to show off their precision and creativity in a fun contest designed to boost mental wellbeing.
Attendees will be ‘treat’-ed to a cook along with a leading Patisserie chef, who will guide them through making some spectacular bakes. Though there’ll be no taste scoring (and no Paul Hollywood), the design, presentation and visual techniques of creations can be scored to challenge teams and crown a winner.
Special baking kits are delivered to their doors ahead of the event with pre-weighed ingredients to take out some of the hassles of a messy kitchen. This therapeutic task will teach attendees how to bake things like profiteroles, soda bread, or cakes with sugar roses from scratch, and be rewarded with delicious results.
Duration: 2 hours. Group sizes: 3–50
7. MUSICAL BINGO
Test your employees’ musical knowledge with a fast-paced game of musical bingo.
Attendees will be split into teams and put into virtual breakout rooms, where they will be tasked with four rounds of music challenges that correspond with their bingo cards. Rounds include; listening to songs and guessing the artists, working out riddles, and taking part in fun icebreakers in between.
Other challenges to break the ice can include a Eurovision Dress Up Round, Musical Shopping and the Fastest Image games, with the points from these challenges being added to the teams' scores.
Duration: 1 hour. Group sizes: group sizes of 8 ideal
8. A MURDER MYSTERY EXPERIENCE
Challenge your teams to an interactive virtual murder mystery, guaranteed to provide entertainment and intrigue.
An online host guides the event as attendees use their pre-delivered special packs to get into character, reveal clues and review evidence. Attendees must find clues and assess the crime scene with a mix of player interaction and on-screen scenes, voice recordings and videos.
The event is created by a professional writer and themes, evidence, characters, plot and branding can be customised.
The aim of the challenge is to submit accusations for the murderer, weapon and motive. Popular themes include Masquerade, Great Gatsby, Peaky Blinders, Bond 007, 80s Kids TV, 90s nostalgia, Christmas, Halloween, Hollywood and Swinging 60s.
Duration: 1–2 hours. Group sizes: 6–50
9. CHOCOLATE CHALLENGE
The chocolate making challenge is a delicious team building activity that will be sure to create lasting memories, connect your teams, and boost morale.
Teams will be entertained by an experienced Chocolatier and provided with the finest fair-trade chocolate, to learn new chocolate making skills, and create tasty sweet treats — all from the comfort of their kitchen.
From creating chocolate bars from beans to making decadent ganache and tempering chocolate, teams can take part in an interactive activity that inspires creativity. The chocolate challenge would be ideal as part of a virtual away day, and we can include the element of a sales pitch and presentation to amp up team interactivity.
Duration: 30 minutes to 2 hours. Group sizes: 3–100
10. VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Using our in-house platform, you can create a multi-day experience that can extend to a global audience.
Your virtual festival can feature virtual performances, summits, panels, awards and more, with leading musical artists, influencers and experts able to present.
A virtual festival would work well as part of a product launch or a wide-scale company update, to highlight inspirational messages and new developments.
Duration: can be a multi-day experience. Group sizes: up to 200+
For any more information on these virtual events and for more inspiration, feel free to contact us here.
HOW TO ENCOURAGE TEAM BUILDING VIRTUALLY
- Keep the session interactive: encourage people to ask questions and comment throughout the event with chat tools, polls or quizzes. Increasing opportunities for interaction can keep attendees engaged and take away key messages. You may need to have a moderator on hand to monitor the comments and questions.
- Ensure the visual display of the event allows for accessibility: check that the language used on any visual material, fonts and displays can easily be read and understood on virtual presentations or other material. You may need to use a higher contrast for screen visibility, and captions for audio and imagery.
- Having the right level of technical support on hand to attendees is key. People may not be familiar with some of the technology and you may need to help them navigate their connection and other technical issues before, during and after the event. Providing a guide to distribute beforehand and having answers ready for common FAQs will allow issues to be addressed more smoothly.
- If you have global teams joining in, think about the best time to reach the widest audience conveniently. For example, right now we’re planning a virtual summit from 2 pm to 12 am to accommodate attendees from the UK, US, Hong Kong, and Germany. Also double-checking the date for any conflicts in each area will be useful to gain maximum attendance.
- Social media is vital! There are many ways to promote your event on social and keep up the team building buzz — streaming certain parts on Facebook Live, using event hashtags, and communicating via live-tweeting, can be a simple way to gain feedback and encourage engagement.
For any more information on these virtual team building activities, including pricings, please head to our Contact page. We’re more than happy to discuss any bespoke requirements you may have.
