It’s challenging for leaders to build a virtual environment that fosters team collaboration and communication as teams become physically dispersed. Unfortunately, that’s one of the effects of the pandemic.
But there are various technology-based team-building activities that can help – your team doesn’t necessarily need to meet in person. Let’s take a better look at some of the most popular activities of this kind.
Lunch and learn
Companies, consultancies, and not-for-profit organizations frequently use virtual lunch and learns to connect with their clients and staff. You should spend a lot of time developing educational content as a marketing, sales, or training and development professional to promote product onboarding, adoption, and customer retention.
A personalized approach to customer and staff education is provided by virtual lunch and learn meetings, frequently improving learning outcomes. They engage smaller groups of people, enabling you to tailor the curriculum to different learning preferences.
In reality, lunch and learns are unstructured training sessions that take place over lunch. If this sounds interesting, you should definitely check out Hoppier’s lunch and learn ideas to find a fit for your own business.
Traditionally, firms organized these sessions for internal training. Lately, teams from marketing, sales, and customer success have begun using them to engage with clients and impart their knowledge and experience.
Lunch and learn events typically last around 60 minutes, while some sessions may go longer depending on the subject and participant dynamics. For a start, keep them brief and to the point, and encourage your staff to only include what is absolutely necessary.
Tea vs. Coffee
Tea vs. Coffee offers a genuine beverage-based, unique coffee and tea tasting experience.
The concept is fairly simple. A week prior to your event, four specialized teas, coffees, and infusions are mailed to your staff members. Each bag is marked “don’t open” to keep the big surprise for the event.
Your team joins a virtual video cafe on the day of tasting, where the friendly barista will share stories, lead team-building exercises, and preside over a tasting ceremony. The event is fun, educational, and international. The best part is that it is entirely remote and tech-based.
Team quiz sessions
Quizzes played in teams are an excellent approach to bring individuals closer together and maintain their interest in the activity. An employee can be kept on their toes by including one or two questions about industry expertise in a quiz, which also allows everyone to have a good time.
The primary objective shouldn’t be to only check off the box that says “employee engagement”. Rather, the real goal of this is to provide employees with breathing room and the opportunity to relax.
Increasing employee engagement and providing opportunities for the group to have some fun together can be accomplished by introducing a competitive element into the workplace.
Online Bingo
Putting together teams and improving their chemistry with the help of online Bingo is a popular option you should consider. It is a fun and enjoyable game, a great option for a virtual team-building activity because it is quick, easy, and cost-free.
A Bingo board with a ton of different tasks or accomplishments is what you start with. For instance, during a video meeting, if someone apologizes, “Sorry, I was on silent!” you can cross that area off your board. If someone is “wearing pajama bottoms to a video meeting,” you can still take the same action.
The remainder is mostly familiar because the concept is the same as in regular Bingo.
Typing speed race
This one’s a bit competitive. You can start a free online team-building exercise right away called typing races. Start by taking a typing test on a website like typingtest.com.
Then, send an email to your company employees or post your results on your virtual job boards. Your team’s most competitive individuals will respond with results right away, and others will follow.
The next step is to launch a larger challenge by holding a typing speed relay, in which teams are formed and cumulative scores are added to determine which team wins.
In theory, typing races are a great way to get everyone playing online games together. Additionally, it’s a fantastic way to develop your typing skills, which are crucial for remote workers.
Final thoughts
The epidemic has made tech-based team building evolve at an incredible pace. Three years ago, we would all have laughed if someone had told us that there would be a moment when the entire team would be coordinating from home to accomplish a common goal.
But this is our reality now and it’s time to adapt. Well, adapt and adopt, to be precise. Many businesses have already made a switch and it’s time you do so too.