Is low morale putting a dent in productivity? Perhaps you’re finding it hard to motivate virtual teams. Whatever’s holding back your remote operation, virtual games, and activities are an effective way of energizing your team and getting everything back on track.
Looking for easy team-building activities for work meetings and online events? Whether you’re looking for 30-minute team-building activities or are focused on team-building for introverts, we’ve got plenty of ideas that will leave you feeling inspired.
Why Team Building Matters? Benefits for Teams and Businesses
Team-building activities are an effective tool for employee engagement. The more you invest in your team, the more loyal they’re likely to become. Perfect if you’re currently struggling with employee retention.
Team-building activities can also strengthen ties between coworkers. This will enhance team communication, avoiding administrative stalemates and driving productivity. By giving your teams a break from work-related activities, you’ll also raise morale with team-building sessions. This much-needed breather is useful for combating rising stress levels and burnout that can occur during busier spells.
What’s more, team-building activities bring the social aspect to working online. Team-building icebreakers will grant you insights into your employees as people, making it easier to understand what makes them tick. What’s more, collaborative games encourage coworker bonding, nurturing better working relationships and avoiding character clashes down the line.
How to Plan a Team Building Event
There are many ways your organization can implement team building. For best results, it’s a good idea to host dedicated team-building sessions loaded with engaging games and collaborative activities. To maximize productivity, you can even think about hosting these events during lunchtime hours.
Don’t have time for a full-scale team-building event? You can still leverage the potential of team-building activities by including them as part of regular meetings. Want to get everyone talking ahead of an all-hands meeting? Team-building games make excellent icebreakers and are perfect for introducing new recruits to an established team.
24 Easy Team-Building Activities for Work
Looking for fun activities you can use for team building? Below are some great ideas you can put to use right now.
Icebreakers & Get-to-Know-You Games
1. Two Truths and a Lie
Ask everyone to reveal three facts about themselves, with two being truthful and one entirely fictitious. It’s down to everyone else to guess the lie.
2. Human Bingo
Create bingo cards loaded with common character traits and quirks, then encourage everyone to talk among themselves to find matches for what’s on their card.
3. Scavenger Hunt
Virtual scavenger hunts are a great way to break the ice and get colleagues working together. You can conceal clues in hidden server folders or scatter
4. Team Name & Logo Creation
Before the games begin, assign participants to teams and have them collaborate to create a unique team name and log.
Communication & Collaboration Activities
5. Telephone Pictionary
Start with a random prompt, then get someone to draw it. Instead of whispering words from one person to the next, players must rely on their artistic skills instead.
6. Escape Room Challenge
Encourage your teams to work together to solve a host of brain-busting puzzles in a virtual escape room challenge.
7. Blindfolded Drawing Challenge
Split your team into pairs, with one person blindfolded and one person provided with a drawing prompt. The non-blindfolded player then has to describe the prompt in detail, while the others attempt to draw it.
8. Consensus Building Activity
Come up with a long list of items, then ask teams to confer on what they consider the most useful. Once discussions are over, bring everyone back together and ask teams to explain their choices.
Creative & Problem-Solving Activities
9. Build a Tower Challenge
Task teams have to build the tallest tower they can from everyday objects and materials.
10. Marshmallow & Spaghetti Bridge Design
Uncover who has a secret talent for architecture by challenging your teams to create a sturdy scale bridge made with only marshmallows and spaghetti.
11. Improv Skits
Put a fun twist on role-playing with improv skits. You can tie things to work or keep things loose with quirky prompts.
12. Storytelling Relay
One person starts by coming up with an opening line before the next person continues with their own sentence. Keep the relay going until everyone has contributed, then read back the complete story you’ve just created.
Virtual Team Building Activities
13. Online Trivia Night
A classic online team-building activity, online trivia can be played with groups of any size. You can create questions based on work-related topics, or focus on films, television, and music.
14. Virtual Pictionary or Drawing Games
Searching for fun Friday team-building activities? Drawing games like virtual Pictionary are a great way to close out the week in style.
Activities for Large Teams
15. Tug-of-War
For a remote-friendly twist on this classic team-building activity, look for online versions that rely on fast reactions and question-and-answer inputs from players.
16. Company Olympics
Bring together a multitude of team-building games for a special company Olympics event. Great for team building for large groups, you’ll need to split your workforce into teams, then award tournament points for each game they participate in.
Activities on a Budget
17. Board Game Tournaments
Stick to the classics with a virtual board game tournament. You can include these as part of a team-building event or host a dedicated games night.
18. Volunteer Together
Find worthy causes you can contribute to online, then encourage your teams to participate in volunteer efforts virtually.
19. Potluck Lunch & Team Trivia
Bring the social aspect back to online working with a lunchtime trivia session. For a potluck-inspired angle, ask everyone to send in their favorite midday menu ideas that everyone else can try whipping up at home.
Quick Team Building Activities
20. Compliment Circle
Get everyone together and take it in turns to offer up a compliment to a colleague. You can keep the chain going as long as you want.
21. Emoji Check-In
Encourage your team to think creatively by asking them an opening question in emoji form. They’ll then have to respond with their own emoji-based sentences.
22. Team Charades
Charades is a classic party game that works incredibly well as a team-building activity. If you’re hosting a get-together with a larger group, think about splitting things up into smaller breakout sessions to make life easier.
Fun Team Building Activities
23. Portrait Gallery
This drawing game is a great way of testing the artistic talents of your team. Challenge everyone to draw a self-portrait at home on a piece of paper, or make use of virtual whiteboards. When everyone’s done, it’s time to share your creations.
24. Celebrity Party
Assign each attendee the name of a celebrity, keeping them out of the loop. Everyone then has to mingle with the rest of the team, asking questions to find out which famous face they are.
Host Your Next Team-Building Session with Gloww
Is team morale at an all-time low? Are you finding it hard to engage a remote workforce? With team-building activities, it’s easy to energize your employees and boost productivity, wherever they’re based. Perfect for breaking the ice and forging strong working relationships, team-building activities can make your employees better communicators and more reliable colleagues.
Of course, you’ll need all the right tools to host team-building activities virtually. To get started, you’ll want a video conferencing platform loaded with features. A platform like Gloww has everything you need. You can create your own sessions quickly and easily, while our library of ready-made templates offers plenty of inspiration. Tailor your template of choice with all manner of team-building games and activities, multimedia content, and more.
You can get started with Gloww today. Want to learn more about our advanced features? Take a look at our premium pricing packages. If you still have questions about Gloww, why not drop us a message?