Top 6 Creative Virtual Team-Building Activities
Team-building activities often have a poor reputation. Rather than inspiring a boost in team morale, team-building activities seem to inspire only groans and resentment among team members.
And with the rise of the virtual team and virtual meetings, virtual team-building activities for remote teams might seem impossible to sell to your team members.
But worry not! Here is a guide to the best and most creative virtual team-building activities for remote teams.
Not only will these fun virtual team-building games inspire team engagement but also team bonding, communication skills, and brilliant company culture.
Why Are Virtual Team-Building Activities So Important?
Remote teams can leave your team members isolated from the business and other team members.
Video calls and virtual meetings are great tools for many things but not job satisfaction or engaging with the entire team equally.
Virtual team-building activities are a brilliant investment for any remote team. They can:
Connect Remote Team Workers
Connected team members tend to work better together. Whether your team has always consisted of remote workers, or if the virtual world is new to you, connecting scattered workers will remind them that they are valued.
Build Communication Skills
As with regular team-building, virtual team-building can help develop communication by improving collaboration and leadership skills.
Increase Positivity And Boost Team Morale
Virtual-team building activities for remote teams are a unique way to improve the workplace atmosphere.
These virtual team-building ideas are not just for developing skills but also about having fun and building a great company culture.
Boost Creativity And Productivity
Virtual team-building activities will challenge your remote team and test their problem-solving skills, getting them to think laterally and innovatively.
A virtual team-building game can go a long way to improving the creative aspects of your team.
Prevent Video Call Fatigue
Symptoms of video call fatigue include exhaustion at the end of the day, aching joints and muscles, difficulty concentrating, and increased irritability.
Doing a virtual team-building activity like an Escape Room might not seem like it makes sense here, but it is excellent for breaking up the monotony.
And what’s more is that virtual team-building games are much better than the online office games of the past, before the advent of the remote team and the virtual team-building revolution.
So, now you know that virtual team-building activities are the best tools for bringing remote teams together like an in-person team, it is time to go through some of the most creative and helpful virtual team-building activities.
1. Virtual Escape Room
A virtual escape room is one of the best remote team-building activities you can do – it is one of the best virtual team-building exercises for making your remote team feel connected and engaged.
In this fabulous team-building event, all the remote team members must work together against the clock to solve puzzles and complete challenges so that they can escape.
Virtual breakout rooms take the place of physical rooms for your virtual teams and using web apps and conferencing software virtual teams face an unravelling series of challenges and puzzles.
The games in this online team-building activity will test the communication skills and collaboration ability of each team member, and draw on a range of strengths and skills, so team members must delegate tasks accordingly.
The benefits of this virtual team-building activity include:
- A fun virtual team-building event that brings people together
- Remote team members learn to work better as a team
- Great icebreaker for new remote teams
- Develop organisation and trust among remote team members
- A fun way to improve creativity and innovation in team members
The virtual escape room is one of the best virtual team-building tools and one to include at your next remote team event.
2. A Virtual Treasure Hunt
As far as virtual team-building ideas go, surely you can’t get much more creative than this?
A virtual treasure hunt is one of the best virtual team-building games and a brilliant way to develop several skills in remote teams.
Your team must work together to unravel the mysteries hidden in secret locations and find the hidden treasure.
In this team-building activity, remote teams will race around the world using VR locations, historical and fictional information, cryptic clues, and intuition to solve puzzles and answer questions.
Remote teams must work together against the clock in breakout rooms, where they can discuss and delegate tasks, before returning to the main room to see which of the teams did best.
A sure way to inspire healthy competition even in remote teams!
Some benefits of this virtual team-building activity are:
- Learn to function as a remote team
- Improve communication and time management
- Encourage the entire team to get involved
- Improves cross-cultural awareness
- Develop leadership skills in each team member
So, if you want one of the best virtual team-building challenges for your team that will also develop skills beneficial for your business, look no further than this excellent virtual team-building activity.
3. An Online Improv Class
An online improv class is a unique and exciting virtual team-building activity, perfect for getting the creative juices flowing in remote teams while developing several skills.
Remote workers struggle to kindle the type of spontaneous creativity found in the workplace. An online Improv class is the perfect online team-building activity to remedy that and get virtual teams operating on the same wavelength.
Remote teams will have fun using quick thinking to create hilarious situations while improving their listening skills, remote teamwork, and cooperation.
This virtual team-building activity also teaches remote team members how to overcome novel physical and mental challenges, such as those that the business world might throw at them.
And the pressures and stresses of improv are excellent for team morale as they develop a sense of solidarity even in large remote teams.
You could have your virtual team improvise things such as:
- Future business scenarios
- How a remote team might handle a tricky client
- How to market a ridiculous product
- Project management in a dysfunctional virtual team
Including a virtual Improv class in your upcoming virtual team-building activities will inspire team engagement and is sure to make virtual meetings fun!
4. Virtual Murder Mystery
If you need virtual team-building ideas, the Virtual Murder Mystery is one of the most creative virtual team-building activities and is sure to inspire suspicion in future virtual meetings.
Your remote team will watch a murder mystery unfold before their eyes and engage with a series of scenes with roles as characters and witnesses – meaning each team member will get involved and tap into their inner creativity.
This game is one of the most fun virtual team-building activities, focusing on building relationships through teamwork, creative thinking, and problem-solving – making it also one of the best virtual team-building activities.
The Online Murder Mystery is also one of the best remote team-building activities for a large remote team, as the format allows for so many roles and so much variation – and every team member must be involved.
Additional benefits of this virtual team-building game are:
- Remote workers engage in a creative storyline, encouraging outside-the-box thinking
- Encourages communication and collaboration in all remote workers
- Develop role-playing, acting, and improvisation skills
- Great for remote team-building and team bonding
- A fun way to develop problem-solving skills
5. The Online Amazing Race
Who knew online office games could be so fun? The Online Amazing Race is a testament to the creativity of virtual team-building activities.
Virtual team-building activities have a reputation for being dull, but an Amazing Race certainly is not. Remote workers must work together and compete on a globetrotting mission from the convenience of their workspace.
Along the way, the virtual team will explore, learn, and be challenged at every opportunity as they visit (virtually) some of the most spectacular and exotic locations.
There are many benefits of remote team-building activities such as this one, including:
- Learning new and interesting things about world locations
- Gaining cross-cultural awareness
- A brilliant tool for team-building, even in a large virtual team
- Encourages entire team participation, even in a large virtual team
Solving challenges, decoding cryptic clues, and working as a team, the Murder Mystery is one of the best virtual team-building activities for creativity and innovation and a sure way to get team members engaged!
6. Virtual Trivia Games
Creative remote team-building activities do not have to be overly complicated. Sometimes it is just a case of doing the simple things well.
Trivia and quiz sessions are some of the best team-building activities you can do, virtual or not.
With virtual team-building activities, there is even more scope for trivia than in the real world. For example, one of the best virtual team-building exercises is the Virtual Gameshow team-building event.
Who hasn’t wanted the opportunity to appear on their favourite game show? Teams must compete against each other in the spirit of healthy competition and team-building.
The Virtual Gameshows on offer include:
- Jeopardy
- Wheel of Fortune
- Family Feud
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire
The selection is highly flexible, and you can tailor questions to suit your company. “When was the company founded?”, for example, or “What is our best-selling product?” might be questions.
An online game show is a brilliant remote team-building game for any virtual team that is guaranteed to get all your team members involved and using their brains.
Creative Virtual Team-Building Activities For Remote Teams
Team-building is critical for any business. Therefore, good virtual team-building is crucial for success in the modern world of the virtual team.
Despite their bad reputation, virtual team-building activities can be very creative and engaging and a brilliant way to develop camaraderie and trust in a virtual team.
So, to develop a high-performing team between remote workers, look no further than these excellent virtual team-building activities!
