9 Virtual team building activities for employee engagement
By: Natasha Singhania
Tags: Remote Team, Employee Engagement, Remote Team Building

9 Virtual team building activities for employee engagement

In present times, employees are not just confined to basic pays and promotions. The scenario has taken a completely new horizon where the focus of the employees is to experience personal development plus look out for various opportunities that offer them growth. In short, the employees of today are looking for employee engagement. Employee engagement is not an easy job as it requires a lot of effort to plan and plot things. It can be practiced by organizing various activities and programs. However, for effective employee engagement team building activities are a must. But due to the pandemic, the team building activities cannot be done with a physical presence. So in that case virtual team building activities should be conducted for employee engagement. Thus given below are various virtual team building activities that can be performed for employee engagement.

Have a dedicated talk space to create interaction

For keeping employees engaged and helping them create a team, you should create a specific space where people can have informal interaction. This can be done by creating a WhatsApp group where memes and funny videos can be posted. With this kind of platform, employees will interact with others and will understand each other in a better way. To the more, these will keep the atmosphere light-headed and because of this, it would be easy for the employees to be one team and work together. As a boss, you should initiate conversation as in starting people won’t turn up on their own. So make sure you push people to develop personal relations.

Organize community Coffee Breaks

A community coffee break is a simple yet effective method to catch up with your team members. You must schedule a thirty minutes break at least twice a week for your team members. In that break, people can join the video chat held via your team management software. In those thirty minutes, people should enjoy their cup of coffee and talk. The conversation in that time period can be regarding anything, literally, it can be work-related or they can be just for fun and entertainment. The point is to bring people together and let them interact with each other. It’s just like coffee outings you have with friends but here it is conducted virtually.

Organize gaming session

To keep the team in the loop or for creating healthy relations among the employees you must organize gaming sessions. At the beginning of the week, you should ask people what game they want to play. The one with the maximum votes should be plotted for the gaming day. The gaming day should be allocated during the weekends as at that time people are most;y free and they can come online without any stress. The could basically play matches that are set and enjoy. It would also serve as a great relaxation plus would help them know about their colleagues. It would be a great way to develop connections as while playing also people make a team. Thus it would be a great initiative to turn different people into one composed unit.

Spread knowledge

This is one of the best virtual team activities that you can organize for your employees. In this, no equipment is required. It’s just that all members are present and they actively take part. Before you start up with this activity, you can ask your employees to give you details about the special learning they have which they would like to share among their peer groups. Once they sent you a document related to the same, you can randomly select some of the submissions and ask those particular employees to share it with all the members present the very next day. This would be a great session as employees will share their learning and through this activity, other employees will ask questions and learn something new. Even the one who is speaking experiences self-improvement as his fear of facing people gets reduced. It is not just about sharing ideas but it will also make them respectful towards each other.

Going for a lunch break together

Socializing with colleagues quite a vital element for ensuring healthy workplace relationships. The most important thing which the employees miss while working from home is that they are not having lunch together which was certainly the best way to socialize. However, this gap can be filled by organizing meetings over lunch via video conference. It will make the employees feel good as they can catch up with each other over lunch even if it’s virtual they can discuss any issue which they are facing or simply can chit chat to enjoy the break. You should make sure that such meetings are frequently organized as this will help their remote team members to stay connected to each other.

Ice-breaking sessions

Normally the employees are working with each other for a long period of time and they know some part of each other’s personality. But then if you talk about knowing each other in detail, nobody would say a yes for their peers. To the more, there are chances that due to remote working you might have admitted some new members to the office. So in that case it is important to understand who are those members. Basically organizing ice-breaking sessions is a good option as it will help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of the members present plus you would have great knowledge about the personality of people present in the company. This activity should be a part of all the companies as it will help you understand your colleagues and through this, you can build better connections.

Peek into someone’s space

This is another interesting activity where employees can feel connected to each other. In this activity, the members are supposed to show their homes or maybe a specific area of their house which they like. Along with this, they can show their favourite things which they enjoy. It could be their favourite book or a mug. Even in this, they could show their pet to the people present. This would be a great way to understand the members of your team and know about their likes and dislikes. It would help people to know about their colleagues in a better way and build connections. However, if the team comprises a great number of members then you can plot this activity once in a week where one or two members can show their space. This way it would not puzzle the audience and people can actually enjoy it.

Picture sharing activity

Picture sharing is a great activity with which your employees can know about each other in just a few seconds. This activity can lead to laughter and surprising responses from the other team members. So in this begin with, in this activity, you need to set aside a specific time where you will ask the team member to share one personal photo which has no connection with their work. This photo can comprise pets, hobbies, gadgets, family members, etc, basically, it is a picture that explains about the thing which the employee likes the most. After showing the picture the other members have to explain what they felt about the picture. Once they are done, the employer who showed the picture will speak about the picture and why he feels connected to the same. With this, they would develop a better understanding of each other and with no time will get close to each other.

Share your bucket list with other employees

This is another team building activity where people share their bucket list that is the list of things that they want to experience in their lifetime. This is a great way to know about the personality of the person. Each week, you should give the opportunity to one person to share their bucket list. You can mention the number of activities which a particular employee can mention. While discussing the bucket list the employee can elaborate a little on it that why he wants to experience it. Once the list is over the other employees understand that person and care relate to it. Even it would be a great way to find a partner who wants to do the same kind of activities. Thus those particular people can join in and perform the activity which they want to do.

Thus to conclude remote working is a good option but the biggest concern associated with this practice is that employees feel disconnected when they don’t get proper attention from their colleagues as well as the managers. Thus to ensure proper working, organizing online team building activities from time to time in this scenario is quite important. The virtual team-building activities mentioned above will certainly help you fill the gap and bring the employees closer. You can organize any of these activities separately or club a few of them as it will be a great way to engage your employees and experience a virtual team building program.