Support Mental Health in the Workplace via Virtual Team Building Activities

Why should you care about the mental health of your remote team?

Sometimes it is difficult to see the whole picture until you evaluate all the in-favour reasons. To make your life easier, we will enumerate those for you:

Enhanced ROI

In case you don't know, ROI stands for Return on Investment. The more you invest in your virtual teams, the more you want to receive in return. However, the calculations won't be in your company's favor if your virtual team members are constantly dissatisfied, stressed, depressed, and overly anxious. According to the World Health Organisation, remote teams suffering from mental disorders costs various enterprises around a trillion dollars annually. Thus, the better your team's morale is, the less income you will lose—simple math.

Improved productivity

Some project managers still believe increased pressure will help their remote workers become more engaged and twice as productive. Recent surveys indicate quite the opposite. One in four people does not work well under constant stress, leading to frequent mental breakdowns. At the same time, productive remote teams present the best results when they are cared for and supported.

Improved creativity

Another highly underrated aspect of constant stress is a decrease in creativity. Should you be willing to help your entire team relax and unwind from time to time, it will ignite their creative sparks anew. That is one of the main reasons remote team-building activities are so popular and requested.

What is remote team building?

Before we proceed with actual virtual team-building activities, you may want to learn what the notion stands for. Remote team building is a type of virtual team bonding designed to replicate offline bonding and communication. Since most team members can't grab a coffee together, go for lunch, or discuss current project issues in person, an experienced team leader has to come up with a related online team-building activity.

Main features of remote team building

After discovering the basics of remote team building, you may want to learn more about the subject. Most remote workers seem to be quite self-absorbed and independent. Such an attitude is like a two-edged sword since any successful project is built on perfect co-worker synchronisation. Well-chosen remote team-building activities will ensure that your team operates as a single organism. On top of that, frequent team-building exercises will show the employees that they are treated equally. Thus, there is little room for rivalry, distrust, and unhealthy competition. Here's a list of the primary characteristics of successful remote team building:

Remote team communication

No matter how well-chosen your project objectives are, they can hardly be fulfilled if you don't bring them to your virtual team. The risk of miscommunication under such conditions is also great. That is why it is vital to figure out a few effective means of communication with remote teams. A virtual meeting is one of the most common ways of interacting with the team. However, if you overuse it, it may backfire since all the remote team members live by separate schedules, and the necessity to join a team meeting at a specific time can put them under constant pressure. That is where different software, emails, and other communication apps come of use.

Remote team engagement

Lack of in-person team building may result in less employee engagement, consequently decreasing overall productivity. So, apart from problem-solving skills, a dedicated manager would implement online team games and related virtual team-building events to spike the level of employee engagement. 

Virtual team trust

One more feature that virtual team activities can improve is mutual trust between the leader and remote employees. Trust is vital since it enables your cooperation. When your co-workers know they can speak their minds openly, they will be eager to express their worries and concerns, decreasing the risk of work-imposed stress and related mental issues.

Clear team expectations

You must consider your expectations whenever you plan a virtual call or a team meeting. If you don't communicate those expectations clearly to the team, the level of misunderstanding will keep growing, and their productivity will decrease. Team building exercises enable the manager to lay out their expectations in a non-threatening or overwhelming manner.

Virtual ream support

Being there for your team is one of the most superficial notions to grasp, yet it is one of the most challenging ones to fulfil. As you participate in various activities for remote teams, you should tell the members that you are on their side and they can reach out to you for support at any time.

Main reasons remote team building activities matter

Before you can proceed with practical virtual activities, you must realise why virtual team building is so important. There are a few critical points that stand out from the rest.

Improved team morale

Tight deadlines, heavy workloads, and busy schedules will inevitably lead to disengagement and, initially, total burnout. Well-chosen activities for remote teams will promote healthy team interaction and functioning. Whether these are virtual meetings, general discussions, virtual team trivia, or online games – either activity should bring positivity. Once you succeed with the task, you will promote the team's morale and confidence, which will affect the general productivity of each team member.

Enhanced workforce collaboration

No matter how great each separate part of the mechanism is, they have to work in sync to present the expected result. That is why if your team members lack mutual communication, they won't be able to see each other's progress, and conflicts will start. Online team-building activities for remote employees can improve their communication skills so that they work as a single organism.

Innovation boost

If you represent a competitive field, you must develop an innovative strategy that the competitors lack. That is another reason to implement virtual team events into the workflow. As all the remote employees interact with one another and potentially brainstorm a single idea, breakthroughs happen. Besides, such activities will improve remote team collaboration so that they can share their ideas and receive open and constructive feedback without having their feelings hurt in the process.

Better company culture

Most team bonding activities are aimed at positive company culture reinforcement. As your remote team members access the ongoing progress, they will become more accountable for what happens next. Such an approach boosts productivity, which is one of the pillars of a successful organisation.

How do you do team building virtually?

One of the most effective ways of connecting with virtual teams is to ensure they are seen and heard. Luckily, present-day technology offers a variety of means to achieve the goal. Team leaders that fail to schedule effective team meetings usually leave their remote workers feeling useless and invisible. Despite all the perks of working from home, people tend to get bored or lonely pretty fast. That is why most team-building activities for remote workers should aim to make people feel needed and valued. The higher the level of in-team bonding, the better the productivity.

15+ Remote team-building activities & ideas

The circulating opinion is that most virtual team-building activities are limited to an online team meeting or video call. You will be surprised at how much more you can do to boost the productivity of your remote team!

• Online break room

• Remote working location tour

• Launch a virtual event for the company

• A 'good news' session

• Launch a recognition platform

• Challenge system

• Initiate "show and learn" lessons

• Regular snapshot exchange

• Revive the Friday vibe

• Introduce remote workshops and classes

• Online workout sessions

• Create a virtual book club

• Joined lunch and dinner sessions

• Joined meditation

• Introduce personality tests

• Promote DIY activities

• Play online games

• Try live coworking

• Launch a virtual trash challenge

Remote team-building games:

• Revealing quiz

• Picture of your life

• Classy games

• Three truths and a lie

• Bucket list challenge

• Aliens have landed!

• Virtual scavenger hunt

• Hot seat

• Samen Drawkcab

• Dinner party

• Word association

• Object memory

•  Dog, rice, and chicken

• Meeting Roulette

• Articulate

Team building questions for remote workers:

• Virtual ice-breaker

• Unusual ice-breakers

• "If you could" question session

• "Would you rather…?"

• Individual ice-breakers

• Adventure-themed trivia questions

• Food trivia

• Pop culture question trivia

• Hobby questions

• Debate trivia questions

Team-building tools for remote teams:

• Gomada

• Gatheround

• YourFlock

• Thursday

• Rising Team

• Veertly

• Scavify

• ‍Kahoot!

• Playmeo games

• ‍ Good & Co Teamwork

• Workplace

• ‍Heads Up!

• Pingboard

• RallyBright

• Cluetivity

• Huddle

• Miro

• HeyTaco!

Online break room

Countless tiny and barely noticeable things make team efforts more effective, and lunch chats in the office break room are among those. Such worker interactions happen on their own without much reinforcement. People discuss their projects, ideas, and personal lives in a break room. You can try to replicate the experience in the online world. A virtual break room can be an all-access chat that your remote workers can log in to over lunch or tea time. The critical point to making the online team building activity bring results is correctly encouraging remote workers to join in. Don't try to pressure them into joining, rather, showcase the positive results that other people have already gained through the experience.

Remote working location tour

People with the same thoughts, views, and interests are more likely to cooperate harmoniously. However, when you work with a virtual team, there are fewer opportunities to bond. That is why asking each team member to take a short video of their working location is a great practice, pointing out things and elements that make them work better. While some employees are proud of their vinyl collection, other team members may be dedicated bookworms or online game fans. In either case, such an approach will help your team paint a complete picture of who is who. Aside from the bonding perk, such a virtual team-building activity will brighten the workday.

Launch a virtual event for the company

Company events play a significant role when it comes to team building. Surely, you can set your imagination free with physical events since the range of possibilities is unlimited. However, a virtual team-building event can be just as fun and exciting. Ask your employees to dress up, set a theme, invite a host, send a bottle of champagne for each, etc.

A 'good news' session

Working from home can get a little dull and boring, but a 'good news' portion will brighten up the routine and promote increased productivity. Thus, it helps to create an online "good news" channel. The channel's primary aim is to ask every team member to share some positive things that have happened to them recently. Maybe, their toddler took the first steps, or they started up a new hobby, read an exciting book, or figured out the best mindfulness practice – as your co-workers share this news, others will respond, and the bonding will start.

Launch a recognition platform

No matter what some people claim, everyone wants to be praised for contributing to the company's success. Thus, it would help if you strived to come up with a healthy way of praising your team members in such a way that it inspired others too. Such an approach will help the team bond. Besides, sometimes genuine recognition from co-workers matters more than that from the boss. A dedicated online platform with a reward system will make your team's effort more effective.

Challenge system

Giving out rewards for no reason isn't the best virtual team-building idea. However, if you create a list of friendly challenges for everyone to participate in, you will have an effective team-building activity. Think about a fitness challenge. There are hundreds of those available all over the Internet. As your remote employees start to do push-ups on a daily basis, they will feel competitive, but in a healthy way.

Initiate "show and learn" lessons

Another practical and fun virtual team-building activity is a "show and learn" session. The chances are that everyone on the team is good at something other than the ongoing project. Some people play musical instruments, others cross stitch and crochet, and some bake delicious cakes. Your goal is to let your employees exchange their knowledge and experience with one another. Let them take turns and show the team what they do. The activity will help different people master something new and bond with others over a shared interest.

Regular snapshot exchange

Every day brings something new and exciting into our lives. When people work in an in-house environment, it is easy to show off a new jumper, manicure, haircut, or anything anything that makes them tick. You can try to implement the related routine in your remote workspace. All it takes is to ask your team to take a daily shot of something that has made them happy. Whether it is a misty morning, a gorgeous bouquet, or a sunrise – it does not matter as long as people feel free to share it with the rest of the team. This part of virtual team building is important because it will make people involved feel excited about what they will share tomorrow and what others will do.

Revive the Friday vibe

It is common for many in-house teams to head out for a Friday drink at the end of the week. The routine allows people to unwind after a long week and interact with one another on a more personal level. When your employees live in different cities, let alone countries, such an offline activity isn't an option. However, there is a way out – you can still initiate that Friday video call and ask your teammates to grab a cold beverage, as they would in a brick-and-mortar location, and socialise for a while.

Introduce remote workshops and classes

If you bury your remote employees deep in work projects, sooner or later, it will backfire. While most project managers concentrate on finding the best professional workshops and classes to improve the workers' skills, it helps to deviate from the course and introduce something that interests the employees personally. Maybe it is a coding class or a yoga training that most of your virtual team is in to – figure it out and use it to your benefit. However, with such virtual team-building activities, you must emphasize that joining the workshop isn't mandatory. There is little use in forcing a poetry lover into a math workshop. As you proceed with the activity, you will come across subjects that involve all the team members at one time or another.

Online workout sessions

One of the downsides of working remotely is that people tend to stick to a more sedentary lifestyle than those who hit the office on a daily basis. To promote a healthy lifestyle and team bonding, you can implement virtual team-building exercises related to fitness. For instance, an online workout session is one of the fastest routes to take. Let each team member pick an instructor and spend an hour working out with their colleagues.

Create a virtual book club

Hosting virtual team-building events is one of the best ways to let people know each other better. A book club is one of the activities that can serve more than just a bonding purpose. While your remote team expands its horizons with each new book read, some coalitions based on preferred genres and topics will form. Besides, new team members will have a starting point to interact with colleagues, discussing favourite books and authors.

Joined lunch and dinner sessions

It is a universal practice to bond with one another over a tasty meal. Remote teams don't have the luxury of going out for dinner together, at least not always. Yet, there is something a skilled manager can do about it and spike the level of bonding within the team. All it takes is to launch a from-time-to-time food delivery session. As a hand-picked lunch or dinner box arrives at your co-workers' doorstep, they can initiate video meetings while enjoying their meals and discussing some exciting topics.

Joined meditation

One of the most common reasons every other work environment is filled with stress and other rather negative emotions is that companies underrate the value of meditation. Your team members may be too busy to meditate on their own, or they may know little about the practice, so you can quickly initiate joint meditation sessions. Killing two birds with one stone is usually the outcome of such virtual team-building exercises. As your colleagues unwind, they will also bond, discussing their feelings, attitudes, and progress.

Introduce personality tests

Some virtual activities are more fun than the rest, and there is little you can do about it but accept them. Personality tests are something that the modern generation is nearly obsessed with, so you can use them to your advantage. Share such tests with your team and let them discover something new about themselves so that they can bond with other members as they discuss the results.

Promote DIY activities

Showing off something that makes us better than others is encoded in human nature. While most managers decide rather to suppress those non-work abilities, a professional leader would know how to use them to the company's benefit. Thus, you can create a special board where your employees can boast off their recent DIY achievements. To take things further, you can create a separate channel for the teammates to discuss their projects and share valuable tips and insights.

Play online games

The number of fun virtual games is growing by the day, so the chances are that there are online game enthusiasts within your team. Use it to your benefit. The research proves that people tend to bond more when playing online games. You can introduce a game break during the work day and let the co-workers unwind and relax a little. Besides, such a short-time session will lead to an increased willingness to play with one another during their free time.

Try live coworking

The workflow in an in-house environment differs from that of a remote workflow. Thus, you can mimic live working conditions every now and then. All it takes is to initiate a virtual meeting and have everyone join in. Small talks and work-related discussions will mimic offline coworking, and people on the team will bond, not to mention the inspiration from watching each other work hard.

Launch a virtual trash challenge

A good team leader should think outside the box. That is why all sorts of challenges would be your area to get creative and effective. Dare your remote team to do something good for the environment. A virtual trash challenge means that each member of the team picks a location nearby their house and cleans it of all sorts of trash. Before and after pictures are a must. While it is a fun way to improve team bonding, it is also a great way to help the struggling ecosystem with tons of trash.

15 fun and unusual remote team-building games

Most people are head over heels about playing games. Thus, countless workspaces consider games as effective virtual team-building ideas. We have a few game ideas to offer if you are looking for something new and exciting to implement into the routine and boost your remote team's productivity and close interaction. 

Revealing quiz

The most successful and productive virtual teams consist of people who know one another well and work as a single organism. It is challenging to achieve the goal with remote team members since they have little personal interaction. Virtual trivia can improve the situation tremendously. All it takes is to initiate a virtual conference call and have the colleagues answer some questions about one another. Use these ideas while working on the quiz:

• Ask the teammates to match a fact to a colleague. The more unusual the facts are, the better.

• Would you rather…? You can get quite creative here too.

• Run a themed trivia, take inspiration from various cultures, traditions, Hollywood, and whatnot.

Picture of your life

Since most team-building activities aim to help people learn more about one another and bond, some games should be based on quite personal pieces of information. You can plan a virtual meeting and ask every member to bring a single photo from their lives. Whether it is a picture of a distant-land vacation, a photo of their favourite view, kids, plants, or pets – there should be a story behind it. Preferably the one they feel comfortable sharing with the rest. Such close interactions make people spot similarities between them and bond over them.

Classy games

Remote virtual team-building activities should be altogether innovative and unique. You can refer to the good old game of Pictionary and Charades. Divide your team into two and act out a movie, book, object, or anything else that comes to mind. Keep the score. Such a close-knit team-building activity shows the participants that they can work better as a team, and the experience will soon be reflected in real-life cooperation.

Three truths and a lie

Call a virtual meeting and ask your remote workers to secretly share three truths and one lie about themselves with you. Remind them that a lie should be as realistic as possible. Name a colleague and let the rest of the team spot the lie amidst the truths. Give out points if the majority of the team guesses right.

Bucket list challenge

A Bucket list challenge is a fun and familiar game, but there is more to it. Once you start a meeting and ask your employees to write down everything they want to do in their lifetime, you trigger their imagination and a thirst for adventure. As the team shares their interests, some of them may coincide. Thus, you can challenge your virtual team members to complete the goals together. Let's say two people from your virtual team want to run a marathon – why not achieve the goal together?

Aliens have landed!

This is quite an unusual but fun virtual team-building game. Start by dividing your team into groups of four. Once done, tell them that aliens have landed on our planet and they want to learn more about what your company does. The trick is that they don't speak your language. So, the virtual teams have to use images that, in their minds, best describe your company to tell the aliens more about it. While the team will have fun bonding, you will observe how your employees perceive their workplace, which is a pretty valuable insight you may not achieve in any other way.

Virtual scavenger hunt

If you are looking for fun virtual team-building games, a virtual scavenger hunt should be on your list. The game aims to have players find a list of different objects and solve riddles or puzzles within a given timeline. As you introduce the game into the team bonding system, you will trigger the problem-solving and time-management skills of the members. Besides, you will motivate your colleagues to move around the house a little so that they change their sedentary positions and exercise in the process.

Hot seat

You can introduce a new employee to other team members in a fun way too. The hot seat is the best virtual team-building game that defeats the purpose. It is all about getting to know a new person better. The rules are fairly simple. Call a virtual meeting, and allow the team to ask a newcomer questions about their past. Use these questions to guide the team in the right direction:

• What was your favourite music band growing up?

• What is the first vacation you have clear memories of?

• What book would you take to a desert island?

• What was your special achievement in middle school?

• What was your first job?

Samen Drawkcab

If you try to spell the game's name backward, you will get Backward Names. It is one of the simplest virtual team-building activities for team members to remember one another's names. Besides, completing the game will take as much as 15 minutes of your work time. The rules are simple – you should ask your teammates to say their names backward, and the group needs to catch them and pronounce them correctly.

Dinner party

Those who seek a quick virtual team trivia game usually find Dinner Party to their liking. The rules of the game are simple and easy to memorise, but the information you get in the process will positively affect team cooperation and productivity. You can play the game for a few minutes every other week until every team member takes part in it, or you can spend a bit more time and finish it in one go. When playing "Dinner Party," the participants must name one famous person, either dead or alive, who they would invite for a dinner. After the figure is chosen, the employee has to explain their choice based on some traits of the famous figure.

Word association

Many team-building games have more advantages than mere bonding. For instance, the Word Association game will give a better insight into how your workers' minds work and how they approach any problem-solving activity. The first step in the game is to share a word with your team members and ask them to write down every single association that hits them. As you compare their responses, you can detect their thinking patterns. Besides, such short-time activities have proven to stimulate creativity and productivity.

Object memory

Some team-building activities are centred on the fun aspect of playing games together. However, you can help your remote teams learn a valuable lesson through gameplay. That is what Object Memory is all about. Follow these rules to play the game correctly:

• Prepare a list of 30 words.

• Divide your virtual team into smaller groups.

• Tell them to work as a team and memorise as many words they see as possible.

• Show your team the list for about 30 seconds and hide it.

• Ask the groups to write down as many words as they remember.

• Virtual team building activity will take as many as 5 minutes, but the lesson taught will be remembered.

 Dog, rice, and chicken

The best virtual team-building games should motivate the players to use logic and solve various puzzles, even if they are not job-related. Thus, the Dog, Rice, and Chicken game suits the description well.

• Choose the Farmer and Villagers among the players.

• The Farmer has a dog, a chicken, and some rice, and he has to transport all these items to the other side of the river, but he can take only one thing at a time.

• If he leaves the dog with the chicken, it will eat it.

• The chicken will eat rice if the Farmer chooses the dog first.

• How does the Farmer solve the issue?

• Usually, it takes 5-10 minutes for the team members to figure out a solution.

Meeting Roulette

Some game activities for remote teams can go on for weeks, if not months. If you manage a large organisation with multiple departments working offline or remotely, you may want to have your teams participate in long-term virtual team games. How does Meeting Roulette work? Usually, you have to use some kind of software to match people from different teams or departments. Once the match is established, the chosen people have to spend some time chatting with one another to get to know one another a tad better. Such a team-building activity has already been a starting point of long-term friendships. 

Articulate

Another fun virtual team-building game that can improve your team's communication skills and go on for quite a while is Articulate. The game's rules are basic, and you can play it for 15 minutes daily to make it even more exciting.

• Write down ten words and share them with the main character in the game.

• The leading player has to describe the first word for the team to guess without naming it.

• Once the team has guessed the word, the main player proceeds with the second word, and so on.

Team building questions for remote workers

The most effective virtual team-building activities aren't limited to virtual team games. There are other directions to explore, too. It is possible to introduce virtual happy hours when people relax and communicate with one another. To break the ice between different team members, you can initiate virtual meetings based on various question sets. The more creative you get, the more engaged your remote teams will be. Use these virtual team-building ideas to your benefit:

Virtual ice-breaker

You can make introductory virtual meetings fun and meaningful. Besides, as you pay your undivided attention to the session, you will be able to spot unique personality traits about each member of the team. Moreover, you will discover individual attitudes towards remote work and other vital details.

• What is the best book you have read so far? Why?

• What does your breakfast usually consist of?

• What do you like about working from home? Would you swap it for an office workspace? Why?

• What is one professional skill you dream of learning? Why?

• What is the most challenging part of the remote work process?

• How many cups of coffee or tea do you drink a day?

• Are you a night owl or an early bird?

• What is your favourite plant?

• What does your home office look like? What is one thing you can't work without?

• You are at a karaoke bar – which song will you choose?

• How do you keep yourself motivated throughout the day/week?

• Do you have a work uniform at home?

• What is your favourite TV series?

• Do you like to work out? What is your favourite type of exercise?

Unusual ice-breakers

Very often, project management wishes for their employees to think outside the box. An awkward ice-breaker session is one of the best ideas for virtual team-building to prove that you stick to the same rule as a team leader.

• What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten?

• What is the wildest, unlike you, the thing you have ever done?

• What would it be if you had unlimited access to one thing for the rest of your life? Why?

• Can you relate to any fruit or vegetable? What makes you say so?

• What is the weirdest rumour you have heard at your high school? Was it you who spread it?

• What is the most peculiar or unusual present you have ever got?

• You are on a deserted island and given a choice to have your arch-enemy with you or be left alone – which do you choose and why?

• What is the one word that makes you angry?

• What is one recent trend that you highly dislike and wish to end?

• What is the strangest message you have ever sent to someone accidentally?

• What is your most favourite and least favourite emoji?

"If you could" question session

Some virtual activities give your teammates more room for dreams and creativity than others. "If you could" questions belong to this category. While the activity will make your virtual meeting fun, it will also allow the employees to let go of all boundaries and think outside the box.

• If you could relive the past five years of your life – would you?

• If you could stay young forever, what age would you choose?

• If you could learn any language instantly, what would it be and why?

• What show would you pick if you could be on reality TV?

• If any celebrity could be your imaginary or real friend – whom would you pick and why?

• If you could be a superhero, who would you be and why?

• If you could get rid of a single chore in your routine, what would it be and why?

• If you could become a single household item – what would it be and why?

• If you could pick a city to spend the rest of your life in – what city would it be?

• If you could watch a TV series or movie for the first time again, which one would you choose?

• What would you pick if you could be one of the popular supernatural creatures?

• If you could give yourself another name – what would it be?

"Would you rather…?"

Some building activities for remote teams may resemble one another, at least at first sight. "Would you rather" type of question triggers the creative part of people's brains, so you may want to use them as one of your fun games:

• Would you rather be stuck in an elevator or a suspension bridge?

• Would you rather go to the theatres or watch a movie at home?

• Would you rather master telepathy or telekinesis?

• Would you rather be able to see 50 years or 10 minutes ahead?

• Would you rather learn how to swim underwater or fly?

• Would you rather go to jail for 6 years or spend 10 years in a coma?

• Would you rather have people access your browser history or read your thoughts?

• Would you rather spend a week in the woods or a night in a haunted manor?

• Would you rather pause or rewind moments in your life?

• Would you rather listen to every conversation that has you in it or take back some things you said?

Individual ice-breakers

Solving virtual team-building challenges isn't the simplest task on the list. However, if you show a personal side of each of your team members, they may overcome existing difficulties faster. 

• If you weren't the professional you are now, which career path would you pursue?

• Name the most important thing on your bucket list?

• What is one of your guilty pleasures?

• What do you fear the most?

• What is the story behind your name?

• Name one thing you have always wanted to try but haven't managed yet?

• Would you like to become famous? In what field?

• What is your favourite quote?

• Do you have a secret talent? What is it?

• Did you have an imaginary friend? How old were you, and what was their name?

• What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done that got you into trouble?

Adventure-themed trivia questions

Despite how fun and productive your virtual meetings are, most remote teams can't wait until their vacations begin. Why not use it to your advantage? You can ask your remote employees some travel-related questions and get to know their adventurous side better?

• What is the best journey you have ever taken on so far?

• What is the living location of your dreams?

• What is the best and the worst travel advice you have ever been given?

• What is your perfect vacation destination?

• What is the place you would have teleported to if you could?

• Are you scared of plane flights?

• What is the best outdoor activity? How often do you do that?

• How many countries have you been to so far?

• Would you like to sail around the world? How would you name your boat?

• Do you like travelling on your own or with a group of friends?

• Which vacation location suits you perfectly – beach, forest, or mountains?

• If you could go anywhere right now, what would your destination be?

• What is your favourite local spot?

• Sunny beaches or snowy landscapes?

Food Trivia

Food theme has proved to be one of the most effective conversation triggers when it comes to team-building activities. Thus, before you plan your next virtual team-building event, you may want to give the section a fair share of attention. You can use these questions to inspire from:

• Do you like to cook? What is your perfect dish?

• What are your taste preferences – sweet, sour, bitter, or salty?

• Do you have any strange food combos that others find impossible?

• Name the weirdest food you have ever tasted?

• How do you prefer your eggs?

• Do you have a favourite dessert? What is it?

• If you were asked to refuse from a single product forever, what would it be?

• Which grocery item is always on your list?

• Is there anything you would never dare to taste?

• Name your favourite local food place?

• Do you have a favourite candy?

• Is there something you can't cook, no matter how hard you try?

• Did you have any strange food preferences when you were a child?

• What cuisine do you prefer most?

Pop culture question trivia

Since every other virtual team-building activity aims to bring relaxation and fun amidst colleagues, you can't skip on entertainment questions. Moreover, the culture of "Netflix and Chill" is something that the modern generation is nearly obsessed with.

• Name five movies you could watch till the end of the days?

• What is the most addictive TV show you have watched so far?

• What is the book genre that you like the most?

• Do you have a favourite cartoon? What are they?

• What is the most recent movie you would recommend watching? Why?

• Do you have a music album that you can listen to forever?

• Which band or musician would you like to see perform live?

• Do you have a favourite superhero? Who is it?

• Do you listen to podcasts? What is your favourite one?

• Name the scariest, the funniest, and the saddest movies you have seen so far?

• Do you have a celebrity crush? Who is it? Was it your first celebrity crush?

• Who has portrayed Batman and Joker best?

• Could Rose have saved Jack on Titanic?

Hobby questions

The chances that your remote teams do nothing else but dedicate their lives to their job and career are slim. Thus, it helps to inquire about their hobbies. Very often, the favourite activity can tell a lot about the person. You can use team-building activities to detect risk-takers, creators, handymen, and such.

• What is the thing you like to do most? Why?

• If you could master talent in a single go – what would it be and why?

• Do you like playing video games? What is your favourite game?

• Do you have a hobby you have always wished to resume?

• Is there something you think you are the worst at? What is it?

• What does fun implies, in your opinion?

• Do you play any musical instruments? Would you like to learn some?

• Do you like physical activity? What is the one you like the most?

• Are there any hidden talents that you rarely show?

• Name five things that you are really good at.

• Name an activity or hobby that you absolutely hate. Why?

• Is there something crazy you would like to try in a lifetime?

• Where would you be, and what would you do if you weren't tied by anything, including money and time?

Debate trivia questions

One of the best ways to make people interact with one another is to initiate debates. Most team-building activities are aimed at perfect cooperation within your remote teams. However, it is a good idea to allow all the team members to express their opinions and defend their points of view. A list of interesting debate questions suits the description of a heated team-building activity well.

• Soap – is it dirty or clean? Why?

• Do you think that a hotdog is a sandwich? Why not?

• If you take a turtle out of its shell, will it be homeless or naked?

• Do you think that water is wet or not?

• Should pineapples make one of the pizza's fillings? Why not?

• How do you pronounce GIF correctly?

• Do you think that noodles are pasta?

• Cheesecake – is it a cake or a pie? Why?

• Which letter is silent in the word "scent" – s or c?

• How do you hang toilet paper correctly – under or over? Why?

• What is a tomato? If it is a fruit, then ketchup is a type of jam?

• By mixing water with dirt which one becomes wet and which gets dirty?

• Are the dog's front paws legs or arms? Why?

15 practical team-building tools for remote teams

Virtual happy hours and online office games speak well of the company culture and your overall attitude toward your employees. However, it is challenging to keep track of everything on your own, no matter how skilled a manager you are. That is why you may want to discover some useful virtual team-building tools and software to assist you with your bonding goal.

Gomada

Before you decide to bond with the members of your remote teams, you have to realise where everyone stands. With remote working, you can't notice how every employee feels in real life. With Gomada's survey, you can spot the weak points and work hard to fix those. On top of that, the tool is designed to assist you in discovering the best team-building activities aimed at improving your team. Lastly, the software can help you organise and schedule any team-building event in a matter of a few clicks. The app comes free of charge, so you don't have to attune the project's budget to it.

Gatheround

Sometimes team building activities are directed at improving connections within a hybrid team. If you have an office and remote teams to manage, the app comes of enhanced value. It is developed to help you schedule regular virtual meetings spiced with virtual team-building activities. Moreover, there is a fair share of available templates for a leader to plan an effective and productive video call.

YourFlock

Surely, the name of the app may make you feel like a preacher or a shepherd, but you are both in some regard. The software has been designed to help managers understand their remote teams better. When you can't get the team's actual value, making any team-building activity generate results is challenging. With YourFlock, you will not only discover but also learn how to deliver your employees' value in the best way possible.

Thursday

It is not only a day before Friday but a helpful team-building tool. Thursday is the app developed to enhance the remote team culture. It is much like a virtual meeting hall. You can connect with each and every member of the team through the software, but that isn't the sole advantage of it. You can participate in different team-building activities encoded in the app. What is more, you can initiate a cross-department connection with the help of Thursday.

‍Rising Team

When planning team-building activities, you must be aware of what makes your team tick. With remote teams, the task is twice as challenging, so you may require a dedicated software assistant to succeed with the goal. Team Rising software is more of an online-learning tool rather than a virtual meeting room. There are various course materials available for you to master the art of remote team building. Aside from that, the system is developed to measure and store all the team's skills and preferences. The only downside is that you need a third-party app like Zoom or Google Meets to run the app.

Veertly

The bonding effect of virtual games when it comes to team building shouldn't be treated lightly. However, the key downside of online office games lies in the fact that the team members ‍ can't talk to one another in the process. That is precisely where Veerly comes into use. The software is designed in such a way that you can implement almost anything into it. Be these virtual team-building games, whiteboards, networking tools, or anything else. You can combine it with Veerly.

Scavify

Scavenger hunts remain at the top of the most widely used virtual games in the industry. Despite the simplicity and versatility of options, it takes time to prepare them. With the Scavity app, you have the whole team play the game on their mobile device. The tool allows it to complete challenges, track member progress, and get rewards for the input effort. On top of that, you can play a different game every time you decide to initiate team-building games. Aside from photo and video hunts, you can trigger long-term hunts with a great prize promised. While the app presents different memberships, the participants use it for free.

‍Kahoot!

Another game-centred team-building activity can be based on valuable features that Kahoot! offers. Initially, the app started as a learning tool for schools and educators, but as virtual team-building activities have grown in popularity, a corporate version has been developed. The software's primary feature allows remote teams to create different quizzes and participate in them. Such games as "Bon Voyage, Karl!" and "Office Safety Superstar" represent the application's functionality best.

Playmeo games

If you don't have a lot of time to spend on virtual team-building activities but want the approach to pay off, you need a skilled assistant to help you out. That is what Playmeo is. Playmeo is a game platform with hundreds of games and activities available. Whether these are ice-breaker games, trust exercises, team bonding puzzles, or large-team building activities you seek – the system has your back. Besides, you can sort all the content by type, theme, or outcome so that you access the most suitable team-building activities fast. After making your choice, ‍you can access available tutorials and instructions on making the most of the activity.

‍ Good & Co Teamwork

No matter how great a company culture you preach, you may lack a visual understanding of your team profile. The best way to create such a profile would be to interview all the team members using psychology as your guiding light. Surely, such an approach is time-consuming and somehow stressful for the team. That is why you should use Good & Co Teamwork software. The platform provides a well-designed psychology test that you can share with the team. After your employees complete the test, the system will create an unbiased team profile based on their answers. Knowing your team's strongest traits and weak points, you can use them to help one another in difficult situations so that their mental health is stable and productivity rates spike.

Workplace

Sometimes it is easy to miss the fact that team-building activities are about a synced work process as well. The better and simpler the team cooperation is, the easier it will be for them to bond. Thus, the Workplace extension of Facebook may be irreplaceable. The extension enlists chat, room, live video, and poll features available for the team. With such handy features at hand, your team can exchange vital information effortlessly, comment, and react to shared content the way they do on Facebook. Besides, virtual events like baby showers, retirement parties, and birthday celebrations for remote employees have become a breeze.

‍Heads Up!

Training your team's listening and communication skills come of utmost importance and a simple guessing game played with the help of a mobile device simplifies the task. You should start by asking the team to download the Heads Up! to their phones. Once they launch the app, they can choose the category, let's say, "Movies." A single player puts the phone to their forehead so that the team sees the name of the movie. They have a minute to help the main player guess the movie's name. The app and the gameplay are quite simple, but the effect such team-building activities have can't be underestimated.

Pingboard

Being a manager isn't the most straightforward task on the table, especially when it comes to a large corporation with an extensive remote team to cooperate with. Sometimes, it takes time to figure out which team rep is reaching out to you with a question or proposition. We suggest you implement Pingboard software into the routine since some of its features are merely lifesavers. Once you add the program to the workflow, it will sort all the employees according to their department, role, interest, and location. There is a fair share of customisation options that you can exploit too.

RallyBright

If you are looking for an in-depth psychological profile of every member on the team, you must consider adding RallyBright to the flow. The software presents a 15-minute quiz designed to track various performance aspects of your employees. After the quiz, the system analyses it and provides a detailed report with a fair share of suggestions on how to improve existing weak spots and overall company results. You can share some personal stats such as resiliency, burnout scale, and conflict style with individual members of the team. The primary aim of the software is to improve team productivity, find the perfect balance and make effective changes to the work process.

Cluetivity

Present-day technology makes team-building activities as fun and exciting as they can possibly be. With the help of the Cluetivity game, you can assist your co-workers in playing online escape rooms and scavenger hunts together. On top of that, your employees can join various indoor and outdoor activities if they share the same location. Due to inbuilt GPS, the system provides the precise location of your teammates. Moreover, the software features such innovative characteristics as Augmented Reality, photo and media sharing, riddles, and more.

Huddle

Fruitless cooperation, especially a remote one, can't be achieved without properly shared workspaces. It is not enough to consider engaging platforms for virtual team-building activities. It would help if you thought about shared work aspects too. Huddle software is centred around the instruments that improve joint effort results. You can share files, communicate with the team, and edit shared content using the tool. The enhanced security policy makes the software stand out from the rest. No matter the sensitivity of your content, Huddle ensures high-end safety and adequate cyber-attack protection.

Miro

Exciting team-building activities can be related to the work process. All it takes is a handy and effective software to make it operate to its fullest potential. At first glance, Miro is no more than a whiteboard, but wait until you've heard what you can do with it. You can schedule meetings, map different strategies, and brainstorm existing issues with your remote team. Such visual collaboration helps the employees understand each ongoing project stage better. As your remote workers can realise what is going on at the present stage, they can suggest practical ideas and solutions for the next one.

Hey Taco!

The first thing that enters your mind when you think about tacos is Mexican cuisine, but the given software has little to do with it. Instead, it has everything to do with a deserved appraisal. Hearing compliments from the manager is great, but when your colleagues do that – it is twice as inspiring. Should you be involved with Slack already, HeyTaco! is one of its useful extensions. The app allows your workers to praise one another based on what they've done. There are various cute digital gifts and taco cartoons to exchange. Besides, you can command the app to tell a joke or dance.

Using Eleviate for team building for remote teams

Undetected and untreated mental health issues of your remote workers can affect their effectiveness, productivity, and creativity. That is why it is critical to ensure that your remote team remains physically and mentally healthy. Eleviate app is a perfect source of theoretical and practical advice that can boost all the stats in no time. Whether it is a healthy menu, effective home workouts, or meditation advice, you can find everything gathered in one place. Should the inevitable happen and one of your team members requires professional help and support – you will find the most skilled experts working for Eleviate!