Virtual team-building activities help make your team feel closer together. It also helps you learn how to better communicate, get to know new team members, and most importantly, take a break from work to have some fun. The best part is that everyone gets to play from the comfort of home. Some games are free, but others will require a registration fee that varies based on the size of your group.
1. Virtual Escape Rooms
Escape rooms have been a popular team-building activity for years, but now the popular activity has gone virtual. For instance, Virtual Escape Games hosts games for 4 to 400 participants. You can even book a free one for up to eight people, though these are made mainly for just friends or family members. Play Live Escape has also created a special virtual escape room.
There are a variety of free and paid escape room adventures to play via video chat or standard chat. Some of the best options are listed at:
- Country Living – 8 Virtual Escape Rooms
- Simple Most – 10 Free Virtual Escape Rooms
- Team Black Rose – Free Escape Games (also has links to MIT puzzle hunts)
2. Trivia Time
Trivia is fun, easy to play virtually, and one of the best virtual team-building activities. Categories can be on anything. Your team can break off into small groups or play against each other. It’s a great way to discover each other’s interests, learn new things, and see who gets to be the trivia champion until the next game. Employees will actually look forward to this, so it’s well worth trying out for your team.
Water Cooler Trivia is one of the most popular platforms for teams of all sizes, with plans starting at $10 per month for ten people. There are discounts if you pay annually. Plus, there’s even a four-week free trial. You get thousands of great questions every week to host weekly games.
3. Story Building
One of the simplest virtual team-building activities is story building. It’s free and all you need is a video chat platform like Zoom or Google Meet. Gather everyone together and start building a story together.
Set a few rules first, such as how long each person’s contribution should be at a time. Also, let your team know what topics are and aren’t allowed. For instance, you may not want the story getting too racy or violent.
If you’d like to keep your story for everyone to view later, assign someone to type up the story on Google Docs. If you’re having a hard time coming up with the initial story idea, there are endless prompts online. Writing prompt generators like The Story Shack and ServiceScape’s Writing Prompt Generator work well, too.
4. Role-Playing Games
There’s a good chance someone on your team may already have experience with role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder. RPGs also make great team-building activities. The good news is you can play them online now, too. Roll20 is one of the best places to put together a game and invite your team to play along. While it’s free, there are premium features as well.
Everyone gets to create fun characters and immerse themselves in a fictional world as they work together to solve various challenges, quests, and more. It’s a great escape while still bringing your employees together as a cohesive team.
If your team prefers board or card games, you can play a variety of board games online as well.
5. Murder Mysteries
Much like escape rooms, murder mysteries were a popular team-building activity already. Of course, these have adapted to the new virtual norm. Now they work great for virtual team-building activities, too.
There are both free and premium varieties available that put your team to work trying to solve a classic murder mystery. They have to collaborate to find clues and figure out who did it. It’s fun, makes everyone forget about work, and they get to know more about each other. Team Building Online has a great list of twenty-eight online options to try with your team. Or, if you’re feeling extra creative, you can put together one of your own.
Part of learning to manage a team remotely is knowing how to help your team work better together. Also, you need to know when to encourage your team to just relax and have fun. Try a combination of the above activities. Have some other great ideas? Share them in the comments below.