Beyond the convenience and flexibility, remote work has a couple of big risks: without face-to-face interaction, people can feel lonely, and without team cohesion, productivity can drop: 86% of managers consider lack of cooperation the main reason for failures at work.

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That means managers of remote teams need to pay special attention to maintaining morale and engagement. Virtual games for team building can help.

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In this article, we'll give some general tips on running them and then describe ten of our favorite games.

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Benefits of remote team building

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Companies that encourage collaboration and communication reduce employee turnover by up to 50%. Attention to team cohesion:

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• Improves mutual understanding. Team members get to know their colleagues better and see them in fun, low-stakes contexts. This can help reduce conflict.

• Increases engagement. According to Gallup, highly engaged teams average 23% greater profitability, 18% greater productivity, and 70% greater employee well-being than unengaged teams, and they see less turnover and absenteeism.

• Improves emotional well-being. When employees collaborate and feel that they’re on the same page with each other, the risk of burnout falls.
• Improves overall performance — in particular, by facilitating knowledge sharing and trust.

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Many factors go into fostering team cohesion, and it’s not enough just to make sure that work processes are smooth. “Extracurriculars” are important, too.

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General tips for virtual team bonding activities

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• Acknowledge people’s interests. Which topics (sports, trivia, wordplay) and meeting formats (quizzes, workshops) do team members like? Get feedback and pay attention to it.

• Help everyone be comfortable. Teams usually have both extroverts and introverts. Don’t put undue pressure on the latter.

• Be prepared. Just because it’s for fun doesn’t mean you can improvise. Plan things out and have materials ready to go, and appoint someone to watch the time (or even to run the activity).

• Set a tone of mutual respect. The activity should help people get relaxed, but not too relaxed. Remind everyone they have the right not to answer uncomfortable questions.

• Don’t make the activity a burden. Virtual team events should take place on the employer's time and dime. Consider ways to sweeten the deal (for instance, by letting the team order food).

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Ten great virtual activities 

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The activities below can be either one element of a call or the centerpiece. Quick and fun team-building activities can be incorporated into regular meetings to lighten the atmosphere and take a break from thoughts about work, or dedicated virtual team engagement activities can be held occasionally.

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1. Birthdays

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Team size: Any

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Activity ideas: 

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• Have everyone collect facts about and photos of your colleague and put together a slide show that can be sent to them personally or shown at a meeting.
• If you already know a lot about them, you can design a game with them in mind — for instance, a quiz about what they’re interested in. And let them win!

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2. Touch Some Grass team walk 

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Team size: 2-10

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Activity ideas:

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• Everyone grabs their phone and goes out for a walk around their neighborhood, taking turns to show their colleagues local sights. 
• Another option is to send one person out at a time. For instance, each Friday, one team member gets to leave work early and give their colleagues a mini-tour of their favorite part of the city. The others watch while sipping tea (or not tea??) at their desks.

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3. Quick icebreakers

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Team size: 3–10

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Game options:

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• Someone starts a story and others take turns continuing it, one word or sentence at a time. You can add restrictions like having to choose words from a list or avoid a certain letter.
• Collect bizarre photos from the internet and ask the team what titles they would give each for an exhibition. 

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4. Virtual scavenger hunt

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Team size: 3–10

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Activity ideas:

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• The facilitator assigns participants one item from a list or opens a book and finds the name of an object at random. The first person to find that item and show it to the others (either on camera or by sending a photo to a group chat) gets a point.
• Instead of finding items, participants can look for images that match a theme. The first to send one can be the winner, or people can vote on the funniest.

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Note: Of the games tested by Cambridge Ahead's Young Advisory Committee, this was participants’ favorite.

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5. Workshop using kits

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Team size: Any

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Activity ideas:

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• Each participant receives a kit containing necessary items in advance, and during a team call they use them to make something artistic (collages, flower arrangements, paper crafts, etc.).
• To make things more interesting, you can give instructions piece by piece, requiring people to guess riddles or perform tasks first.

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6. Explain like I'm 5

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Team size: 4-10

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Activity ideas:

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• Each participant takes turns explaining a complex concept in simple words, so that even a five-year-old would understand. The concept might be related to what your team does, or you can look for other ideas on the Explain Like I’m Five subreddit.
• You can also do things the other way around: someone gives a simplified explanation, and the others have to guess what they’re talking about.

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7. AI Innovation Day

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Team size: 3-15

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Game options:

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• Choose a niche AI application to study and test in advance. The facilitator describes the technology. Participants discuss it in teams, decide how they want to apply it, then test the tool and share the results.
• The facilitator prepares several tasks. Some of the participants perform them on their own, the rest using AI. Then everyone comes together, compares the results, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the AI tool.

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8. Jeopardy

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Team size: 4+ (minimum 2 teams of 2)

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Activity ideas:

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• Prepare questions in a number of categories (work-related or not) and create a board on a site like JeopardyLabs. Have people compete individually or in teams. Consider including music or movie rounds — play a few seconds and have people guess the song or film.

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9. Virtual book club

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Team size: 3+

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Activity ideas:

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• Participants read the same book, then discuss it. To add interest, you can brainstorm alternative endings or have a contest asking people to summarize the book as a haiku.
• If team members have different interests and don’t want to read the same thing, each can give a presentation on their favorite book.

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10. Role-playing games

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Team size: 10–20

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Activity ideas:

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• Participants are on a spaceship. They perform creative tasks and solve problems using space maps, station diagrams, and technical documents with encrypted data.
• Participants are divided into teams and puzzle out an encrypted message on an ancient manuscript. The knowledge they get at the end of the game might be a useful resource for work: a knowledge base, a collection of AI prompts, or a book.

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These team building activities for remote workers can be especially helpful if you have a blended team and need to encourage cooperation between full-timers and contractors.

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Mellow is always ready to help companies that work with contractors by simplifying management, payments, and international compliance. To learn more, contact us or request a free demo.

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