As hybrid and remote working has become more common, the use of virtual spaces to stay connected within a business has become important. During the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 we all became used to being at home and any social or work gathering was conducted online. This practice has continued into hybrid working, as some people return to the office and there is a combination of working from home and in the workplace. When thinking about corporate teams and team building events or putting together an event to attract new customers or to speak to your industry as an authority in the field, the scope very much includes virtual events.
How to choose a virtual event
For team building ideas the options are endless. Working out the type of virtual event you want to put on means:
- Thinking about what you want to get out of the event
- Having a clear timeline in place for when you want the event to take place
- What type of person do you want to attend the virtual event?
- Consider the budget you have in place
What are the benefits of a virtual event for team building?
With a higher number of people working remotely and needing to login to their computers to work every day, it is more important than ever that there are genuine attempts to create a communal experience and togetherness that goes beyond just work. As in a physical office, a team’s bond is vital to long-term morale and productivity. This poses a greater challenge for a remote team or partly remote team, so team building exercises in the form of virtual, online events is crucial.
The benefits of virtual team building ideas include:
- Boost the morale of your entire team
- Promote authentic collaboration between staff members
- Encourage and support innovation and creation of ideas
- Increase productivity
- Develop versatility and flexibility within your team
- Create a positive workplace
- Build diverse relationships with people of all backgrounds and locations (both in-office and remote workers)
Virtual event ideas for corporate teams
From specific ideas that are meant to train different processes in the workplace to fun events that are just meant to get people laughing and closer together, here is a list of a wide range of virtual events that are beneficial to team building.
1. Virtual Guess Who
We all know how fun the game of Guess Who is to play. It’s been a family staple for decades, guessing who the other person has by hair colour, eye colour, whether their person has glasses or not, and aggressively snapping down the cards to narrow down your final guess. This is also a fun idea for adults and in particular a good ice breaker for a virtual team building event. It’s a fantastic way to get to know your colleagues, or to figure out you might not know as much as you thought about their interests!
2. Virtual escape room
Escape rooms are all the rage these days and provide a fun and exciting team night out for many workplaces. When you have a remote team though you can still take advantage of this fun event, and it is definitely one that brings people together as a team to work out clues and to escape the room within the time limit. There’s nothing like counting down the time whilst working out the code to unlock a room. There are many different themes to choose from and to make it to the next level before escaping completely.
3. Virtual murder mystery
Become the best detective you can and have fun cracking the clues that have been left for you to decipher. Putting together a team of detectives and one murderer is a fantastic way to have fun as a team. It helps you think in a creative way to solve clues and if you put in place an element of teamwork it also helps to foster good relationships. Choose a fun theme, assign characters and even ask your team to develop their characters and dress up for some extra fun times.
4. Virtual Pictionary
An online version of Pictionary puts the drawing skills of your team to the test. It is a classic team game where an online whiteboard can be used for contestants to draw the clues without writing the exact word down. This is a great game to get people rooting for each other in a team setting, it can also produce some top laughs all round, especially if some of your team members are awful at drawing!
5. Virtual charades
Communicating only via body language is a fantastic way to improve communication skills, especially if you are in a tense and competitive team game such as charades. Playing the game online adds a different type of challenge, but it also means you can mute the person acting if you want to! There are always loads of different themes you can choose for topics for a game of charades.
6. Virtual trivia
A quiz is always a great way to bring people together. It puts people in teams and relies on there being a good spread of knowledge between every person. You always need a statto who knows every sporting result from across time, a film buff who knows all the Oscar winners, a good general knowledge head, and those who love the picture round. A workplace quiz should help people connect and work hard for each other, and maybe even cause that good type of controversy where they are willing to fight for each other in the event of a tiebreak or an incorrect answer being awarded (we’ve all been there, fuming!)
7. Virtual painting class
There is something incredibly calming about painting, and watercolour painting is always a great event to bring people closer together in a relaxed setting. Wash away your worries on the canvas, and this can be an online canvas for a virtual water colouring event. Set a theme or topic for your team to paint, maintain an open channel of communication during a set time, with drinks and snacks keeping things casual. Everyone then comes together to show off what they’ve created and to discuss, just as in a real-life watercolour class.
8. Virtual cooking class
If you see yourself as a foodie and a bit of a chef at home, why not show off your skills in a team bonding session? A virtual cooking class with a professional teacher brings together your entire team and shows them what’s possible in the kitchen. You’ll learn those tips and tricks that elevate simple dishes into something spectacular, and you can have a blast with your colleagues at the same time.
9. Virtual team meal
If you have a whole team of remote workers or a current project where the majority of the team is not working in the office, a great thing to do as a manager or business owner is to provide virtual team lunches and meals. This is a fantastic way to introduce the social aspect that is missing from remote positions, and you could even offer every team member a voucher for UberEats, Deliveroo or similar, arranging a suitable time for every person to come together with the meal of their choice and to chat and have fun whilst taking a well-earned break.
10. Virtual cocktail-making class
Shake and stir to your heart’s content with a mixology class for your remote workers. This doesn’t even necessarily mean leaving out those members of your team who don’t drink, as there are plenty of delicious mocktails and non-alcoholic cocktails and drinks that can be knocked up with fun and ease. This type of virtual event works well as a corporate team-building exercise but also as part of an event with potential clients and contemporaries in your industry at conferences and the like.
11. Virtual karaoke
Once the cocktail class is over, what better way to carry on the party than a virtual group karaoke effort? We’ve all got our favourite songs to sing at karaoke, whether a weepy Celine Dion number that gets the emotions flowing, a Queen stomper that gets the whole room singing, or the latest pop banger. Secretly, we all fancy ourselves as singers too, don’t we?
12. Virtual music festival
If you love music and you know your staff do too, a virtual music festival where every team member gets a chance to play DJ is one of the best virtual events you can choose to put on for team building purposes. You can set up different ‘virtual stages’ with different themes of genre, dress up as if you’re off to a summer festival and just enjoy exploring the music tastes of your team. It is a brilliant way to get to know each other, as what you listen to says a lot about you as a person.
13. Virtual book club
Although book clubs bring people together in a physical setting in most cases, due to the very nature of this type of event it is something that transfers over to an online event really well. This offers a dynamic and engaging way to build a community and togetherness between book lovers. You can open it out to as many members of your staff as want to be included, giving a different book each month for people to read before a discussion. Allow every person to put forward book suggestions to keep things interesting, with choices made at random or on rotation.
14. Play mini-games
For those people who don’t like to commit to one single type of game, playing virtual mini games is a mashup of loads of fun and short icebreaker style games. This provides a fast-paced session that pits minds against each other, brings teams together for other games, and ensures that there is a lot of fun and laughter taking place. It’s a whirlwind way to get things started at many virtual events.
15. An online game show
Games like Family Fortunes (but with teammates instead of uncles and siblings!), the price is right, name that tune, and other game show favourites are a fantastic way to bring your entire team together for some fun and enjoyment for the evening as part of a teambuilding event. Alternatively, it can be a great social side of a larger corporate conference or industry event.
16. Mindfulness and meditation
Another way to look after the health of your employees is to consider providing yoga, meditation and mindfulness lessons and sessions. Every workplace can be stressful and challenging, so it is important that your staff are provided with a space where they can be calm, learn breathing techniques, yoga and different stretches, and to meditate. How you create the mindfulness approach is up to you and what suits your staff members best, but as long as they are given a calm, safe space to relax and unwind away from the pressures and challenges of the job.
17. Skills training
Team building skills are important, but so too are the specific skills that improve performance on daily tasks that help the team grow and meet long-term targets. Many remote workers want access to specific skill development training, and this is something that a workplace with remote workers should seriously consider as virtual skill-building sessions that can be accessed from any location.
18. Industry-specific talks and themes
For a corporate event you might want to include certain themes and topics as part of a wider training effort that brings your team together and teaches them specific skills and processes that are important to their development. You might also want to include exciting keynote speakers at virtual events, strengthening the overall knowledge of the team and providing them with the personal development incentives that are key to maintaining high staff retention rates.
Best practice for virtual team building
Away from specific team building events, there are things that you can do as a business that has a remote team or hybrid team to ensure that your workplace is an effective one and that your team continues to grow in a natural way, with the development of genuine relationships.
- Check in regularly with all team members, as you would in a traditional workplace
- Provide ‘safe’ virtual water-cooler spaces for private employee chats
- Put together wellness packages for employees where possible
- Implement incentives and awards to recognise employee excellence
- Conduct short daily meetings to provide an overview on work and make sure everyone is moving in the same direction
Just a few of these things can make a big difference to how connected your employees feel with their colleagues and managers when working remotely. Alongside fun and innovative team building exercises that are conducted as part of virtual events, this goes a long way to fostering authentic morale and genuine relationships between your staff.
There is such a wide array of options for virtual events, and The Chameleon Agency understands what it takes to deliver a professional virtual or hybrid event for businesses. Whether this is a team building exercise designed to bring your employees closer together, to boost morale, and to increase productivity, or a live event for potential customers and industry insiders to showcase your abilities and experience in your field, we can help. As you can see, there are some fun ideas for virtual team building and whatever the make-up of your corporate teams there is the virtual event that will be effective in bonding them together. If you need help planning virtual events then please do reach out to our friendly team, we would love to help.
