10 Virtual Team Building Activities for Your Employees

10 Virtual Team Building Activities for Your Employees

Are you in search of some virtual team building activities for your remote employees? For a business, it is not an easy task to manage employees who are from different locations around the world. Many business owners find it hard to manage employees with time differences. If you are a business owner with a team of remote employees, here are some virtual team building activities.

10 Virtual Team Building Activities for Your Employees

Before You Start

If you want to know how you can conduct team building activities, you can read this article for inspiration: How to Facilitate Team Building Activities in Your Workplace?

Alright, let’s go!

#1. Social Networking (Private Groups on Social Media)

Social media/networking sites have become a necessity these days. Now, most people are active social media users. When it comes to virtual team building, creating a private group on Facebook or Linked in is a good idea. This will help your virtual team members interact with each other by sharing their knowledge and ideas. Arguably, this is one of the easiest ways for interaction.

#2. Have Virtual Office Tours

Employees who are virtually working with your company might not have seen your office before. For this reason, you can have a virtual office tour that guides them through your office. With a webcam and Wi-Fi on a laptop, you can allow your virtual employees to see your main office and its surroundings live. You can also ask your employees to do the same with their remote workplace.

#3. Ask Icebreaker Questions

For successful team building, it is vital to learn more about the personality types, beliefs, and working styles of your remote team members. Preparing a set of powerful and selective icebreaker questions will help you learn more about your virtual teams.

Here are a few sample questions you can try:

  • What do you think is your greatest strength?
  • What do you think is your major weakness?
  • Where would you like to spend your vacation if money is not a problem?
  • Which meal would you prefer when you go for dinner with your family?

#4. Photo Sharing

You already know that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Ask your virtual employees to share their photos with their teammates. Instruct them to share something unique or something related to their routine; for example, drinking morning coffee, sitting in front of the computer, driving a car, etc. Well, this may sound funny, but this is a great way to get familiar with each other and nurture relationships.

#5. Schedule Virtual Happy Hours

Every employee wants to get rid of work stress and have some fun. Moreover, they want to connect with their colleagues outside of their work roles. Scheduling a virtual happy hour every day or week will help your remote employees have some fun with their colleagues. This will also help them get to know each other on a more personal level. Usually, this can be achieved through chats, conference calls, or online meeting tools. This is one of the popular virtual team building activities.

#6. Host Online Team Celebrations

You probably celebrate different events with your office employees. Why don’t you celebrate the same with your virtual employees too? Virtual employees also want to have a feeling of belongingness. Thus, you need to consider them as well when you are celebrating an event. If your virtual team has done something remarkable for your company, you can just organize an online team celebration. This can also be conducted on special occasions like Christmas, New Year, Birthdays, Work anniversary, Company anniversary, etc.

#7. Reward and Recognition Programs

At times, virtual employees feel isolated and unrecognized. Reward and recognition programs are the best way to motivate your employees and appreciate them for their hard work. This is not only applicable to your office team members but to your virtual team members also. Sending a surprise gift to a high-performing virtual team or a team member is a good idea. You can do this electronically or through snail mail.

#8. Play the Team Building Game ‘Two Truths and a Lie’

Two truths and a lie is a popular team building game that allows team members to know each other on a more personal level. Well, you can try this game for virtual team building as well. Start by asking your virtual team members to write two truths and a lie about themselves. Each member needs to write something believable. Then, they need to share it with their teammates. Now, the team members will need to find which one is the truth and which one is the lie by asking different questions to their partners.

#9. Appoint a Virtual Team Leader

Remember, many of your employees are eagerly waiting for a chance to display their leadership skills. For this reason, it is a fair idea to appoint a virtual team leader from your remote employees. You can assign various responsibilities to this leader such as planning team building activities, scheduling team meetings, organizing various events, etc. You can also rotate the leaders on a monthly or quarterly basis if you want. This will help each employee get a chance to show their leadership skills.

#10. Virtual Team Feedback

Finally, you need to understand how well your virtual teams are performing. This is why weekly or monthly virtual team feedback is required. For this purpose, you can set up a few questions for your virtual employees. This will allow them to share their problems, challenges, communication issues, suggested improvements, etc. within the team. Once you receive their feedback, you can take necessary corrective actions.

Conclusion

The above virtual team building activities can motivate your remote employees and direct them towards your business goals. Once done correctly, you can turn your virtual employees into high-performing teams.

Like this article about the virtual team building activities for your employees? Feel free to share your thoughts.

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