Investing time in helping your virtual team get to know one another pays returns in team cohesion and performance, whether for fun or work. And indeed, life doesn’t have to be all about work 😊.
At RandomDots, we believe that a team that plays together stays together. Play can add joy to life, relieve stress, supercharge learning, and connect you to others and the world around you.
Play can also make work more productive and pleasurable. Moreover, science suggests that we create time for fun and even prioritize it.
Why is team building essential when working in a remote or hybrid team?
Many responsibilities in the office do not overlap, making it difficult for connections to develop and expand.
The bad news: Working from home can be isolating. Spending less time in an office environment creates fewer possibilities to make social bonds and develop trust with coworkers. It might result in disengagement, resulting in poor performance on the job.
The good news: In a team-building event, everyone has the opportunity to get to know each other better while having fun together as a team.
Virtual Team Building Activities for 2022
We’ve classified the virtual experiences based on four essential areas for employee engagement. These areas also help in nurturing positive company culture. Employees value company culture because it enables them to enjoy their work more when their needs and values align with the organization. They are:
Next, decide what is ideal for your team based on the following categories:
Real-time vs. asynchronous: Do you need to do everything simultaneously, or can each participant participate in their schedule?
Hosted vs. DIY: Do you need third parties to organize a unique experience that meets your company goals? Do you prefer to arrange the virtual experience on your own?
Fun & Games
“Having fun allows us to connect and be creative. When we laugh together, an external non-verbal message is sent that states, “We are alike, we share values.” -Everett 2011
Pac Team
The ultimate team collaboration game inspired by Pac-Man. This game will demand you to work cooperatively in teams of 4-6 players to accomplish difficult challenge levels and save the world in a time-limited race.
Each participant will play the game from a unique perspective. Thus, it is critical to communicate tactics effectively among your team.
Category: Fun & Games, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $
Designed for: Collaboration & Communication
Mission Earth (No Planet B)
Play and compete in 4-6 players to accomplish difficult challenge levels and save the earth in a timed race. Your team will discover new ecosystems on this adventure, avoid dangers such as toxic mushrooms and floods, and conquer barriers.
This game is ideal for commemorating Earth Day and promoting sustainability in a fun and engaging manner. Additionally, the total points earned by each team will be used to plant real trees in Indonesian Rain Forests.
Category: Fun & Games, Real time, Hosted
Price-wise: $
Designed for: Collaboration & Communication
Play Colonist
Is Catan familiar to you? Join your friends in this multiplayer strategy game online. Be strategic, negotiating, and problem-solving genius as you compete to be the first player to score 10 points! Real emphasis on strategy and negotiation translates into real-life scenarios.
Category: Fun & Games, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $
Designed for: Problem Solving & Strategic Skills
Avatar: Live Escape Room
If you need to focus on teamwork and collaboration, this high-action game is worth trying. In Project Avatar, your teams require to communicate well in order to earn points. This game lets you control a real-life avatar (a real actor) through an old building to escape the metaverse he is in.
Actions and gestures are completely controlled by voice and group votes, so getting everyone on the same page about how to move forward is very important.
Category: Fun & Games, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$
Designed for: Teamwork & Collaboration
Fun Photo Challenges
You may learn a lot about a person by looking at the images they take during these types of team-building activities. The instructions are super simple. Create a new challenge at the start of each week. For instance, one week’s challenge might be about “A Trip to the Cafe,” “Happy Hour,” “My Beloved Pet,” or “Flower Power.”
Category: Fun & Games, Async, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Team bonding & Creative Thinking
Virtual Birthday Party
Planning virtual birthday celebrations may become repetitive if you have a large team. Instead, you can bring the April babies together around their common birthday month, as well as the other 11 parties.
To arrange a successful virtual birthday party, make sure that your event has:
- A sense of surprise. Set up a virtual conference call for everyone and inform the birthday person that the call will begin five minutes later.
- Fun virtual activity. Use icebreakers, scavenger hunts, and other similar activities.
- Numerous compliments. Make the most of the opportunity to highlight the birthday members.
Category: Fun & Games, Real-time, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Employee Engagement & Collaboration
Who is the Baby?
“Who is the Baby?” is a simple virtual game you can play on Zoom or over a platform like an email or Slack. How to play?
- Participants send a baby picture.
- Photos from around 2 to 3 years old are the best because you will see more distinct features.
- Put the image in a shared Google Doc that everyone can see.
- Each player makes a list of things they think the baby might be. They then compare their lists.
- Gather the responses, assess the results, and announce the winners.
Category: Fun & Games, Async, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Team bonding & Fun
Find your perfect team event 🎉
Every team is unique, we'd love to get to know yours to build a unique team bonding experience for them!
Live Virtual Travel
Mystery Voyage into China
Explore China’s culture, traditions, and stories with our guide on the ground as we delve into the heart of mainland China. Trip highlights:
- Immerse yourself in the heart of Chinese culture by taking a trip to the country’s interior.
- Discover China’s growth through the eyes of millennial.
- Look for authentic Chinese appetizers in the huge street food markets.
Category: Live Virtual Travel, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$
Designed for: Employee Engagement & Virtual Travel
Explore the Mysteries of Red Square
With a professional guide, you will virtually travel to Russia and experience Moscow’s streets and city life from the comfort of your own home. Decide where you want the guide to take you and unlock hidden adventures and challenges with your team. Trip highlights:
- Red Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a must-see.
- Visit Lenin’s Mausoleum and Vladimir Putin’s home.
- Try Alenka, the fabled Soviet chocolate (and other Russian delicacies)
- Admire the vibrant Saint Basil’s Cathedral
Category: Live Virtual Travel, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$
Designed for: Employee Engagement & Virtual Travel
Explore the ‘Game of Thrones’ Kingdom in Croatia
Let’s take a stroll around the streets of the Pearl of the Adriatic Sea, which served as the filming location for Game of Thrones and Star Wars. Highlights of the journey:
- Discover Europe’s earliest graffiti
- Descend the actual steps of ‘the walk of shame’
- Visit the local organic market.
Category: Live Virtual Travel, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$
Designed for: Employee Engagement & Virtual Travel
Show Me Your Hometown
Show me your hometown activity allows your team to highlight their hometown and get to know one another refreshingly. To begin, divide your team into pairs and assign each couple a video to exchange.
They can capture their neighborhood while out for a morning walk or cycling to the beach. Encourage the participants to act as the fun and friendly ‘local guide.’
Prefer to have an expert guide host the session? Explore our locations here.
Category: Live Virtual Travel, Async, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Team Bonding & Virtual Travel
Culture & Diversity
Diversity Month in April is approaching. It’s the right moment to continue encouraging the recognition of our differences and promote understanding and respect for one another. Below are some Hosted and DIY team-building activities that highlight different backgrounds and cultures.
Dive into the magical city of Tehran
Most people don’t think of Iran as a place to go on vacation. In this live and interactive tour, we’ll take your group on a live visit to the land that was once called Persia. Highlights of the virtual trip:
- See some of the world’s most elaborate constructions at the UNESCO-protected Golestan Palace.
- Enter the maze that is the main bazaar, which stretches for 10 kilometers and sells anything you can think of.
- Speak with the natives, who may be the most friendly people on earth.
Category: Live Virtual Travel, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$
Designed for: Culture & Diversity, Virtual Travel
Explore the chaos and beauty of Rio de Janeiro
The country of Brazil is a kaleidoscope of contrasts. Favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro are home to friendly, charismatic residents despite the city’s many societal problems, such as drug gang control and a lack of resources, education, and government aid.
Step inside Rio’s favelas with your team to discover Brazil’s humanity, culture, and controversy. You’ll even have a chance to enjoy the sights of Christ the Redeemer.
Category: Live Virtual Travel, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$
Designed for: Culture & Diversity, Virtual Travel
Visit the startup capital of the world
In this live and interactive experience with a professional guide on the ground, explore Tel Aviv’s center and learn how the city of ‘old and new’ has developed into an international startup magnet. Highlights of the trip:
- Witness the streets and city life of Tel Aviv in action.
- Connect and collaborate with local entrepreneurs in Startup Nation, and
- Immerse yourself in Israel’s diverse and rich culture, cuisine, and history.
Category: Live Virtual Travel, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$
Designed for: Culture & Diversity, Virtual Travel
Diversity Bingo
One of the best ways to break the ice when discussing diversity and inclusion is to play Bingo. To do this activity, split people into groups and give each group a link to the card.
Groups will talk about the words on the card, and team members will figure out which squares they connect. Players write a coworker’s name on a square with an annotation feature or write it down on paper—all people who mark five squares in a row and get Bingo too.
Players should try to get Bingo as many times as possible in the time frame.
Category: Fun & Games, Culture & Diversity, Real-time, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Culture & Diversity, Team Bonding
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day is one of the simplest online activities for promoting diversity. Each day, choose a quote from a prominent member of a particular group and distribute it to the team via Slack or internal email. Employees can conduct their study on the figure, or you can provide a brief profile for context. Even ten seconds spent reading the message can engage recipients with these figures and help broaden employee perspectives.
Check out this collection of Quotes for Work!
Category: Culture & Diversity, Async, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Culture & Diversity, Self-Affirmation
Health & Wellness
Breathwork & Meditation for Productivity
Set to an incredible playlist, this breathing workout is meant to help your team maximize their potential. This activity stimulates an adrenal response that enhances focus energy and decreases distracting thought patterns.
Arrange a rejuvenating 30 or 60-minute session for your team based on their schedule. Your meditation instructor will guide the team through the principles of functional breath practice, preparing everyone to start the workday refreshed and focused.
Category: Health & Wellness, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $
Designed for: Team Wellness & Productivity
Workstyle Personality Test
Each team member brings a completely own personality and works style to the table.
Getting everyone to work in harmony without first understanding how each person is wired is nearly impossible and can result in massive problems. WorkStyle profiles facilitate collaboration. It is based on research in organizational psychology. It employs established psychometric evaluations and psychological tools to help you build an effective team in less time. When each team member generates a WorkStyle profile, they provide you with the blueprint for working with them most effectively. Eliminating employee friction and fostering a more productive and happy workplace for all.
Category: Health & Wellness, Real-time, Hosted
Price-wise: $$$
Designed for: Team Wellness & Collaboration
DIY
Healthy Lifestyle Challenge
A workplace wellness challenge motivates employees to make healthier lifestyle choices. There are numerous wellness trends to build upon. They are frequently composed of simple but enjoyable daily tasks. These tasks are designed to generate momentum in small steps. They encourage employees to move, think, and work in more healthy ways. For instance, a wellness challenge could require employees to walk a certain number of steps each day. Alternatively, to initiate a lunchtime group meditation practice.
Category: Health & Wellness, Async, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Team Wellness & Healthy Lifestyle
Virtual Yoga
Yoga is a workout that serves as a stress reliever and meditation. First, find a willing yoga teacher or discover an excellent yoga sequence video to conduct virtual yoga. Then, send employees a calendar invite with a meeting link.
We advocate making a weekly 15-minute event a habit. Taking a moment to stretch or do yoga can help remote workers move and refocus throughout the day.
Category: Health & Wellness, Async, DIY
Price-wise: Free
Designed for: Team Wellness & Healthy Lifestyle
How do you do team building virtually?
The most effective strategy to engage remote teams is to make them feel seen and heard in ways that solve the challenges of a distributed workforce.
Mutual respect and connection are the main factors contributing to employees’ sense of well-being at work. Understanding one another on a human level enables us to communicate more effectively—distribute roles and responsibilities more easily across the team.
At RandomDots, we collaborate closely with you and each vendor to design and implement a bespoke team-building experience. We make it our mission to help your company achieve its goals through the experiences we design.
Closing Thoughts
We hope that this list of team building games and activities can help virtual teams get to know each other as people and colleagues.
For more fun virtual team building activities, check out 10 Easy-to-Play Online Team Building Games