20 fun team building activities for remote teams (2023)

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, companies were forced to adapt by experimenting with remote working. But for some, this new way of working is here to stay. That's according to the PwC Remote Work Survey83% of companies believe remote working has been successful for their business. Additionally, an Upwork report found this out26.7% of employees will continue to telecommute this year.

WhilehomeworkThe lack of personal time, which brings many benefits to companies and their employees, can also make maintaining company culture and team morale a challenge. When your "quarantine" is starting to feel the strain of working separately, it might be time for a good old-fashioned team-building activity.

We've rounded up 20 fun ideas to keep your team feeling connected, even when everyone's working remotely.

Team building activities for sales teams

In a remote environment where sales reps aren't collaborating, it's easy for agents to lose sight of team goals. CarryTeam building activities that focus on collaboration and engagementforStimulate the energy of your sales team.

1. Learn a new skill together

Learning new skills can help your team become more adaptable and personable., and group learning is a great way to build bonds.

There are two different ways a sales team can approach this team building exercise. Learn something new in a group, e.gNATO-Alphabet, which can be extremely helpful in sales pitches. Or have team members take turns teaching the rest of the group a new Zoom skill. Turning salespeople into teachers helps them shed their competitive nature and improve their speaking skills.

2. Virtual Volunteering

The sales environment is often focused on competition and profit. Let your team use this competitive advantage to band together for a good cause. You can host a telethon or contest to see which group can raise the most money for a nonprofit organization.

If you want to take a break from the competition, you can also volunteer remotely.building effectoffers the creation of care packages, care units and online training opportunities for remote groups.

These activities bond your team and make them more involved in the work. It's a win for everyone.

3. Give praise

Make a habit of starting a few virtual meetings by randomly calling team members and asking them to “kudo” another team member for something great they did that week.

The strategy here is twofold. When a team member knows it's possible their manager will post it, they get into the habit of looking out for cool things their co-workers are doing. And taking a minute to encourage another colleague can help reps remember that at the end of the day, everyone is on the same team.

4. Grill the vendor

Salespeople are used to handling tough deals and easily steering people in the right direction, but it's different when they're the ones in the hot seat. Build group camaraderie by allowing team members to interview each other via video call.

Choose one member to ask the interviewee a series of increasingly ridiculous questions (such as their position on the pineapple on the pizza), and let other team members ask their own questions as the interview progresses. This onsite quiz can teach you a lot about your peers.

Storage, a completely out-of-the-way Norwegian AI startup, swears by the trivia game and suggests using it¡Khoot!to get the best possible directions.

5. Make odds a team sport

Divide your sales team into smaller groups and see which group is performing best at the end of the quarter. Have the groups meet once a week for a video call to get to know each other and discuss strategies.

The key to making this activity collaborative and non-competitive is to change up the tasks each quarter. This gives your team the opportunity to work together towards a common goal.

Team building activities for customer service teams

Support agents get their fair share of human interaction as they are in contact with customers 24/7. However, what they might miss in a remote environment is sharing success stories and decompressing difficult customers. ThisActivities give members of your support team a chance to reconnect and empathize.one with the other.

6. Shake it

Dance is fundamentally a hybrid of art and movement, so it's not surprising that this is the casereduces stress. Hosting a quick virtual party is a great way to help your agents get through the day's challenges while you network with the rest of your teammates.

It's true that dancing with your colleagues in front of the camera can feel awkward at first. Consider starting this tradition by telling everyone that they can turn off their cameras if they want, but give out prizes for the best dance moves to those who leave their cameras on. As long as you keep the atmosphere conducive and upbeat, you should get more involvement over time.

If you're wondering how to satisfy everyone's music tastes, don't worry.Spotify takes care of you.

7. Share a victory

During team meetings, ask your agents to share a recently won client. It gives every employee a chance to speak and boosts morale. Even on the loneliest remote days, this activity can remind support agents that everyone is working together to keep customers happy, which can make all the difference in team productivity.

8. Take a personality test

When you understand the unique personalities of your team, you can support each other more effectively and work better together. This is key in a department that focuses on emotional intelligence and empathy.

Choose a personality testYou think you're a better fit for your team - theDiSC assessmentmiEnneagrammare popular options. Have each team member take the test privately, then get together to share the results and get to know each other on a whole new level.

9. Comply with outrageous requests

Conduct a video call where each team member writes a ridiculous customer complaint. It could be something they actually heard at work or something they made up. Some examples could be: "This software is very efficient" or "This product didn't make me look any better".

Then you take turns being the customer with a ridiculous complaint. Once the complaint is shared with the group, team members can interact with the "unhappy customer" to try to provide a solution. The task of the client, meanwhile, is to become more and more irrational. Support agents have a job: they can't laugh.

This game is silly and fun, but it's also useful for agents. They practice responding to customer concerns with empathy, even when they seem silly. And laughing together at the sometimes absurd nature of their jobs will likely bring their team closer together.

10. Relax with a virtual art class

AQuantum Study of the Workplacefound that a third of hourly customer service representatives are physically and emotionally drained from their work. During a pandemic, that stress can easily be compounded by renewed fears for your health and safety, not to mention the health and safety of your loved ones.

To help your support team relax, take a virtual art class.The search showsthat creating art can reduce stress and anxiety. Your art class can be as simple as a Zoom meeting where everyone works individually to create the same image. you can try tooteam consolidationvonPixel Recovery Challenge, where an Excel spreadsheet becomes your canvas.

Team building activities for new remote teams

If remote work is relatively new to your company, your team may feel disconnected from their old office culture. TOCaltrics-Studiefound that new remote workers are 30% more likely to report declining mental health than workers in other work environments. To ease this transition and provide additional support, considerTeamwork activities that mimic personal experiences.

11. Build a virtual campfire

To recapture that long-lost pre-pandemic Kumbaya feeling, host a virtual bonfire with your crew. Make it your own with a Zoom meeting where the host has a campfire story and all team members are fireside cooked with their favorite snacks.

If you want to improve your game, consider goingsmall campfiremake accommodation. The company's virtual campfire includes Icebreaker games to bring co-workers together, ghost stories for entertainment, and little s'mores kits to get in the mood.

12. Play remote work bingo

Bring a little lightness into your work environment at home with aIronic remote work bingo game. This can help your remote workers see the fun side of their "new normal."

To increase engagement, consider giving a prize to whoever gets bingo first, with the caveat that you should share the events leading up to the win. For example: "Phil said 'can you hear me?' three times in the first two minutes of our team call this morning."

It might seem like an odd way to get your team to interact, but the ease makes up for it. An article about UC BerkeleyGreater Good Magazinfind somethingHumor in the workplace can lead to greater job satisfaction and strengthen social bonds.

13. Do a fitness challenge

One of the best ways to keep your remote team engaged is to encourage them to start a fitness routine. Regular exercise canreduce stress and improve your mood, and working in the middle of the day is a benefit of remote work.

To encourage your remote workers to move,Memory hosts virtual fitness challenges. Team members agree on a trackable fitness goal for a specific time period (e.g. number of steps taken each day) and the winner receives a prize. This activity puts employees in healthy competition and encourages them to explore the world outside of their home office.

14. Host a virtual coffee chat

If you and your team miss your ritual meetings around the coffee pot in the office, integrate coffee time into your virtual meetings. Host an optional 15-minute "virtual chat" each week to give people a chance to unwind from work and socialize informally over coffee. You can also set up a "coffee chat" Slack channel so employees can take a quick breather and chat.

Take a look at a unique experiencehas against cafe, a tea and coffee tasting event related to TEAm training. The company sends each employee several samples of tea and coffee before the event, after which the presenters tell stories and enlighten the group about where the samples came from.

15. Take advantage of VR technology

To reduce Zoom fatigue, consider upgrading your software so you can host a virtual reality (VR) meeting instead of just another video chat. VR meetings can give a big boost to brainstorming sessions where you can use a whiteboard for collaboration. They're also useful in situations where it's beneficial to see a person's whole body, e.g. B. during a demonstration.

Several VR-based meeting platforms, such asThe verb,Space, miMeetingVR- arose in the wake of our distant new world. They could be the meeting mode of the future.

Team building activities for experienced remote teams

At the start of the pandemic, teams that have always worked remotely didn't have to adjust to setting up a home office to compete for WiFi bandwidth or to be with their pets or children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But a pre-COVIDbuffer reportfound that many remote workers struggle with feelings of loneliness. So instead of focusing team building activities on completing a task, get team members to meet individually.

16. CallMTV cribs

help exploretested a unique opportunity for employees to "meet" virtually a few years ago.Your own version ofMTV cribs. Because the company has a fully distributed workforce, many employees will never meet in person and therefore have no idea how their colleagues live.

The initiative was a surprising success, with many team members volunteering to film tours of their own homes to help their colleagues get to know them. While spying on coworkers' homes might seem like an odd way to build a team relationship, looking at what they're doing the other 16 hours of the day can lead to some great conversations.

17. Take a virtual pub crawl

Host an online pub crawl to help longtime remote workers come out of their shells. Create multiple themed rooms on Zoom, each exploring an interesting place to discuss over drinks. Change room assignments about every 10 minutes so different people can be together and visit a new place. If you need website inspiration, check out BuzzFeed's list21 Super Cool Websites.

18. Play "Where the Hell Are You?"

This is a simple activity that can be done via a Zoom call, Slack, or even an email. Have each team member take a photo of their home office window, anonymously share the photo with the rest of the team, and have the team guess whose window it is. It's a fun, interesting, and easy way to start conversations and connections about hobbies, home decor, and places.

19. Host random water dispenser chats

To make the virtual workspace feel a little smaller, set up random chats where employees get together for a few minutes each week for a casual (non-work-related) chat. If your organization usesfree day, that isdonut extensionYou can easily set up these meetings for yourself.

20. Start a recording channel

Even professionals who work from home need to check in from time to time. To track the mental health of your employees and open a line of communication during the pandemic, create a check-in channel in Microsoft Teams, Slack, or any other tool you use to communicate as a group.

Invite team members to reach out daily by sharing a single emoji that reflects how they're feeling. This might sound silly, but for someone uncomfortable with being vulnerable, posting a scowl is usually a lot less intimidating than saying to a group, "I'm really down today."

One important note: if a team member has the courage to post that they're not feeling well, make sure those around you are receptive and understanding. Open the conversation and continue to support the employee to ensure they get the help they need.

Teamwork isn't dead, it's just evolved

There is no question that the workplace has changed in 2020 and will likely never be the same again. But that doesn't mean that teamwork is no longer possible. Think outside the box with theseTeam Bonding Activitiesto encourage camaraderie, maintain a sense of collaboration, and increase engagement no matter where your employees work.