Not many employers recognize the importance of team building with remote employees. This is a common project management problem: you assign tasks, set deadlines, and start production. But you’re always busy and there is no time for team-building activities.
Team building helps boost employee productivity. These activities promote confidence, better work relationship, and improved interaction, leading to faster processing of tasks that might not be as effective if undertaken alone.
Creating a strong company system is heavily dependent on team building.
Team building for remote employees or a dedicated development team is also relevant because it helps your team grow closer, work more professionally and without friction as a team to reach the organizational goals.
8 Team Building ideas for your Remote teammates
1. Compile a Group Spotify Playlist
Who doesn’t love music?
Music can elicit responses from the most stoic of individuals. It can also create a bond between groups of total strangers. Team building where you have people working from all over the place is tricky because a lot of events require being in the same place at the same time. However, Spotify is a great way to get people to engage and know more about their coworkers. This is a way to get everyone familiar with each other’s music preferences and the general vibe of people who work in the office.
2. Online Scavenger Hunt
Having a monthly scavenger hunt for your remote staff is a great way to engage them, raise morale, and integrate teamwork. A scavenger hunt is a fun activity, especially when done online.
Physical scavenger hunts are just too time-consuming and require too much coordination. But if you take the physical idea and transform it into online team building activities, it is so much easier to accomplish.
So, instead of coordinating a physical event -using technologies like Meetup, Google Hangouts, or Skype- participants will journey around a virtual town in search of clues that lead them to their next destination. The participants could be from different cities or even different countries.
A Scavenger hunt is an amazing way to build team spirit while also teaching some new skills. No matter your age or industry, a little competition can go a long way!
3. Make Virtual Chats More Fun With Zoom Backgrounds And Filters
When you are video conferencing with your virtual workers, having fun things to do during the meeting will help keep everyone engaged. One good example is to give them time to create some fun “zingers” that everyone can share during future conferences. Zingers include fun images and quotes that will delight your work from home staff and keep everyone on the same page during meetings.
You can also motivate remote teams to liven up zoom and messenger chats with funny backgrounds and filters.
Workspace background and filters are among the many interesting tools that make Zoom stand out from the rest. With these tools, you can create a unique atmosphere during your zoom teambuilding activity for a more enjoyable and memorable team bonding experience.
4. Play Games Online
Playing games online during work might sound like fun and games, but did you know that there are companies that are actually doing this on a regular basis with their virtual team?
No matter your company’s size, games can be an effective tool for improving engagement and partnership. Of course, distractions are normally something to avoid at all costs because it interferes with work. However, when trying to get your virtual staff to work better together, distractions can actually help create synergy between these individuals while they work.
5. Organize a Bucket List Challenge
What are some items on your workers’ bucket lists?
Organize an online conference and give your staff five minutes to think about what they want to go on their bucket list. People can then share their lists with each other. There is no better way to persuade your staff to work together than to challenge them to do so. Doing a marathon is a great example of this.
If your remote workers live close enough to one another that they can hold each other accountable for finishing, encourage them to do so. Having each other as a motivator and checking in on each other’s progress helps them succeed.
6. Movie Night Streaming
Movie Night Streaming is a great activity to accomplish on Friday during your office’s movie night. All you need for this is a projector, a streaming device (hooked up to your computer), and a code that you can paste. The team will watch the movie together in real-time and interact with each other by means of instant messaging or voice calls.
The goal here is to bring together all or most of your remote employees into a single room without leaving their houses. With Cloud technology and a little effort, you will be able to host company events over video conferences.
Encourage employees to watch movie nights streaming. It is an opportunity to come together, interact, share a few laughs, and bond as a team.
Use a video conference call to have employees vote on which movie they want to see, and then stream the movie to them over the video conference call. It’s important to keep the instant chat session available so that team members can share their thoughts while watching the film.
7. Send Daily Snapshots On Slack
The ‘daily snapshot’ idea is a great way to strengthen teamwork. Encourage your remote teams to share a photo of something they’re proud of every day, whether it’s their lunch or a new dress they just bought.
The pictures can then be used as a starting point for group discussions. This is an easy method to have a non-work-related talk with your coworkers, and it helps to build a sense of community among the team members. Also, bear in mind that not everyone on the team needs to share a picture every day, but at least one should be posted to ensure that this topic is frequently discussed.
The more you do it, the more enthused you’ll be about what you’re going to share next!
8. Virtual Workout Sessions
The fitness craze is an unstoppable force, with more and more people taking steps to live healthy lives. If you run a business where your employees are frequently remote and working hard on their 9–5 jobs, most of them may not be getting enough exercise to meet the daily recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week.
This is not good, given that prolonged sedentary behavior (aka sitting on your butt) is associated with several chronic diseases like obesity, coronary heart disease, and diabetes.
One strategy you can use to get them out of their chairs and into the game is by organizing virtual workout sessions. This can be another one of the fun team building activities on zoom
The concept of virtual fitness classes has existed for a while in the workforce, where employees who work remotely schedule “workout” sessions with their remote colleagues to improve morale and collaborate.
These sessions may range from remote yoga to a round of GoKart racing. If your business function is based in a remote work environment, you will probably find the same level of efficiency, motivation, and productivity by scheduling regular virtual workout sessions.
Final Thoughts
If you want to foster a creative environment and keep your remote employees happy, active, and engaged, it is important that you invest in business expansion and dedicated teams building. Team building activities can help you achieve these goals in a fun, engaging manner.