Over the years into the pandemic, many employees continue to work remotely. While most workers want to continue working remotely full-time, and remote working will not end with the pandemic, this creates issues for managers: how do you increase employee engagement, develop company culture, and evaluate performance when everyone is remote?
Happy hours over video chat are becoming redundant, so managers have tried introducing new ways to connect employees virtually. Fortunately, LEAD.bot makes connecting employees a breeze, so all you need to do is implement a few activities to keep virtual team-building activities fresh.
Why Is Virtual Team Building Important?
Low employee engagement is a serious problem that remote businesses face because employees can become actively disengaged. That leads to low sales engagement, poor organization, and potential injuries. We all know how costly that can be.
When remote employees don’t perform their tasks well, they don’t engage with other coworkers enough. That lack of engagement leads to a 20% reduction according to John Hopkins. On the other hand, when engagement drops so does loyalty – causing staff to lose productivity and potentially leave for a competitor.
Virtual team building shows new hires that your company is committed to a fun work culture. This can help you retain new talents while increasing engagement with existing employees. Even if you don’t struggle with these issues, virtual team building can help prevent burnout and fatigue.
Here are some of our favorite remote team-building activities.
Our 8 Favorite Virtual Team-Building Events
Ask Me Anything
What it is: Similar to the popular page on Reddit, Ask Me Anything lets you ask your coworkers or employees anything! This game works great at the beginning of weekly meetings as it provides a remote team-building opportunity.
How to do it: Before the scheduled meeting, have one team member in the meeting come up with a question. At the beginning of the meeting, the question chooser then presents the question to the group. Each team member then takes a turn answering the question.
Virtual Tea Tasting
What it is: Have you ever wondered what makes some teas so special? You and your teammates can find out with a tea-tasting class — all virtual, of course. Materials are sent to your employees ahead of time, so everyone should be ready on the day of the event.
How to do it: You’ll join a virtual video call with a tea expert who will walk you through everything you need to know. During the call, you’ll be required to brew your own tea, so be sure to have hot water handy.
Sugar Cookie Decorating Kits
What it is: What’s a great way to do some remote team building while enjoying a tasty treat? Cookie making, of course! There are plenty of kits that provide everything you need to make cookies from scratch (even if you aren’t an expert baker).
How to do it: You can either find kits online or let employees know what to purchase for the event (offer to refund them for the supplies). From there, bake the cookies, get out the decorative materials, and get creative with your treats. Conversation happens pretty naturally during these types of events.
Remote Bingo
What it is: Great for new employees or workers that don’t interact often enough, remote bingo works like regular bingo, but every space is related to remote working. Have you ever forgotten to unmute yourself while presenting? Have you met any of your coworkers in person? These are just some of the potential spaces for bingo.
How to do it: Do some research within your company and online to think of interesting prompts for bingo. Then send out the card to the employees. The first person to completely fill out their bingo card wins, so this event can last for over a full day. This activity is great for keeping employees engaged beyond a single meeting.
Share An Item At Your Desk
What it is: Just as the name describes, employees share an item at their desks. Show and tell has been a classic for years, but employees rarely get a chance to open up about things important to them. This remote activity works particularly well for new employees or employees matched through LEAD.bot.
How to do it: This quick 10-15 minute activity lets employees choose something at their desks to share and talk about. Be sure to let employees know that you’ll do this activity beforehand – you never know when an employee decides to clean their desk!
Team Trivia
What it is: From Jeopardy to random trivia websites, team trivia is a favorite among employees at businesses worldwide. If you want, you can select a specific type of trivia (including trivia about your business) to test your employees’ wits.
How to do it: If your goal is to promote team building, match employees through a resource like LEAD.bot to promote team building across different channels. Keep a score and offer a small prize to the winner. If trivia is a hit, consider making it a permanent fixture each quarter, adding to your company culture.
Virtual Coffee
What it is: Remember when you would get coffee with employees and coworkers? Well, you can now enjoy virtual coffee! New hires, team members, and employees that rarely or never interact benefit from this great activity.
How to do it: LEAD.bot connects employees over Microsoft Teams and Slack for virtual coffee LEAD.bot will take care of everything for you! LEAD.bot is one of the best integrations for Microsoft Teams and Slack for developing a fun company culture by encouraging remote team building. You can learn more about LEAD.bot here.
In fact, LEAD.bot can match a group of people (instead of just 1:1) to play any team-building activities mentioned above. Install LEAD.bot today within 3 minutes with 3 easy steps.
Setting up LEAD in Slack: Frequently Asked Questions | LEAD
Setting up LEAD in Microsoft Teams: Frequently Asked Questions – LEAD.bot for Microsoft Teams | LEAD
