35 Fun Virtual Team-Building Activities for Your Employees
FROM HUMAN RESOURCES TODAY / BY MADELINE MILES
One afternoon early in the pandemic, I logged out of my work and assembled some basic ingredients on my kitchen countertop.
I logged into a Zoom meeting. I then positioned my laptop so my camera angle looked down at my countertop. Flour, check. Eggs, check. Rolling pin, check. Ricotta, herbs, garlic, check.
Soon, two Italian voices boomed over Zoom. “Are we ready to make some pasta today?!”
I tied an apron around my waist, rolled up my sleeves, and joined my then-team for our first-ever virtual team-building activity. We booked an online pasta-making class with Airbnb, hosted by two Italian chefs in Italy. For them, it was dinner. For us, it was lunch.
And I have to tell you, it was the best cooking class I’ve ever taken. I walked away from the virtual team activity full-bellied and happy. My teammates — spread out all over the US — joined from their kitchens, too. And together, we cooked and enjoyed a meal.
Pre-pandemic, 1 in 5 workers were remote. Despite some returns to the office, much of the workforce is remote or hybrid today. The future of work has been disrupted. Employee needs have shifted. One thing hasn’t changed: we still crave human connection.
Chances are, you’ve worked remotely for an extended period of time. And perhaps, your company has embraced the hybrid culture. Virtual teams are here to stay. In fact, 64% of companies say the increase in remote work will be a permanent change.
But with remote teams, it can be difficult to create the trust and camaraderie that comes from shared experiences. Many of us have never even met each other in person.
This makes finding the right virtual team-building activities even more important. Virtual team-building events can also help create a feeling of inclusion and connectedness for team members.
What is virtual team building?
Virtual team building is pretty new for a lot of organizations. Let’s take a minute to dissect what this means.
Virtual team building is a set of activities that helps build trust among teammates. Virtual team building can help develop team members personally and professionally. It also helps to foster empathy and understanding of peers’ work and brings a sense of commitment, belonging, and inclusivity.
In this remote world of work, we’re all adjusting to the new normal. And while many organizations want a high-performing culture, we know one thing to be true. Leading inclusively in a hybrid world makes a monumental difference in the employee experience, and employee experience is a cornerstone of performance.
Beyond inclusivity, it takes getting to know the whole person to design an experience that helps to engage employees. Twillo, a BetterUp customer, shares why this component can be critical to how people show up every day, especially when it comes to building and developing teams.
“It’s a mistake to not consider the Whole Person and everything that is going on in their world. It all comes together to impact how people show up every day, and BetterUp’s approach aligned with this.”
Head of Talent Development, Twilio
At BetterUp, we’ve found inclusive leadership pays dividends for organizations. Employees with inclusive leaders are:
50% more productive
90% more innovative
150% more engaged
And have more than 54% lower turnover
As you build out your virtual team-building strategy, keep in mind inclusivity. How are you making the activities accessible for your teammates? If you manage a global team, are the time zones accommodating? Will all teammates feel comfortable doing the activities? Small details matter.
35 unique virtual team building activities
Buckle up, we’ve got a full list of virtual team-building activities for you. Here are 35 unique activities to try with your team.
Monthly (or weekly) virtual social hour or lunch
Team size: Any!
Duration: 1 hour
Tech: Zoom and a strong WiFi connection. Bonus: Have a “starter” question or two in mind if the team needs help getting chatty. Consider questions that reveal harmless bits of personality.
Price: Free
Virtual Friday happy hours
Team size: Any!
Duration: Recommend 1 hour
Tech needed: Zoom and a strong WiFi connection
Price: Consider $15 per person for some fancy drinks or you can always do BYOB (bring your own beverage)
Team trivia
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 4
Duration: 1 hour (or more)
Tech needed: Kahoot, Zoom, and WiFi
Price: Free
Team quizzes
Team size: Any!
Duration: 5-15 minutes, depending on the content
Tech needed: Source fun facts (or photos) from your teammates. Designate one person to be the facilitator and have the rest of the team guess what fun fact belongs to who. You can assemble it in a Google or PowerPoint presentation and play it over Zoom.
Price: Free
Remote Bingo
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 4
Duration: Recommend 1 hour
Tech needed: A virtual Bingo board, Zoom, and WiFi
Price: Free
Two truths and a lie
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 4
Duration: 5-15 minutes
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and a Powerpoint or Google Slides presentation. Have folks submit two truths and a lie as part of an introduction in a big meeting or before a weekly standup. You can also use messaging tools like Slack and post two truths and a lie on a Slack channel
Price: Free
Secret Santa
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 4
Duration: This depends on how you’re structuring the event. Generally, this takes time to select a gift, mail the gift, and reveal the gift (if you want to host a special social hour doing so)
Tech needed: We use Elfster at BetterUp. But there are plenty of free tools.
Price: We recommend setting a gift budget (like $30-$50) to set expectations. Employees usually cover gift expenses on their own.
Virtual book club
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 4
Duration: A monthly or quarterly hour-long meeting
Tech needed: Zoom and WiFi
Price: A small budget would be greatly appreciated by employees, like $30/quarter for expensing books. At BetterUp, we expense books that we all read together as a company. Then, we participate in a “virtual book club” discussion about the book with guided questions and facilitators.
Create a group “work” playlist
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 3
Duration: N/A - employees can add songs as they please
Tech needed: Spotify shared playlist, Zoom, and WiFI
Virtual mixology class
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 3 or 4 (who are all the legal drinking age!)
Duration: Generally an hour, but time is set by the team and the host company
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and a mixology class company like Ice & Alchemy and Liquor Lab.
Inclusivity note: Not everyone drinks. And alcohol can be a trigger for some folks, too. Offer non-alcoholic options and ways for everyone to participate without “outing” anyone’s personal preferences or decisions. There’s no need to ask if anyone doesn’t drink; simply offer the non-alcoholic option to make sure all feel included. If you’re the event host, make sure the company offers non-alcoholic tutorials.
Price: Varies by company
A virtual cooking class
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 4
Duration: It depends on the meal of choice, but generally 1-2 hours
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and materials for the class. We’ve used Airbnb Experiences, but places like Sur la Table also have online classes.
Inclusivity note: Make sure dietary restrictions are taken into consideration. For example, many cooking class hosts will mail a kit or ask folks to assemble necessary ingredients beforehand. If there’s a teammate who can’t have gluten or someone who is vegetarian, make sure there are alternative options.
Price: Varies by the company but generally can be around $30-$100 per person.
A virtual escape room
Team size: Recommend a minimum of 4
Duration: Generally 1-2 hours but depends on the team
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and an escape room host platform
Price: Varies by the company but generally around $30 per person.
A virtual guided meditation
Team size: Any!
Duration: From 5-20 minutes, depending on what you select
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and a meditation guide
Price: If you have a mindfulness guru in your organization who would like to host for free, that’s a great option. There are also companies like Meditation House or even YouTube recordings. Price will vary depending on the level of support you’d like in a guide.
A group tarot reading with a therapy dog (yes, you read that right)
Team size: Any!
Duration: It’ll depend on the size of your group; work with the Airbnb host directly.
Tech needed: Zoom and WiFi — just make sure you book the experience through Airbnb
Price: $150 per group
Virtual (or on-demand) yoga class
Team size: Any!
Duration: This will vary depending on the length of the class, but generally 30 minutes to one hour.
Tech needed: Zoom and WiFi — just make sure you select the class you’d like to take or stream. There are plenty of online yoga classes available. And you can stream online yoga classes through YouTube.
Price: It depends if you book a guided yoga class or choose to stream a free one.
A virtual pasta-making class with an Italian grandmother
Pause: Who wouldn’t love this!?
Team size: Any
Duration: It depends on the meal and size of your group.
Tech needed: Zoom and WiFi — just make sure you’ve booked the experience through Airbnb.
Price: It starts at $93 per person.
A Slack channel to post pictures of your pets
Team size: Any!
Duration: N/A - ongoing
Tech needed: WiFi and Slack. We created a channel called #betterpets at BetterUp. If you’re experiencing some of those Sunday blues, it’s a great way to start your Monday morning with a quick scroll through all the cute animal photos.
Price: Free (if your organization already uses Slack)
MTV Cribs, remote edition
Team size: Any
Duration: 5-10 minutes
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and a willing participant to give a tour of their crib (or the favorite part of their home!)
Price: Free
Inclusivity note: Not everyone is comfortable showing off their home. Don’t force people or put people on the spot. This is a good icebreaker to kick off a staff meeting but in no way should this be an activity that requires participation.
Pancakes vs. waffles
Team size: Any
Duration: As long as it takes to hash out this juicy discussion
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and popcorn (you know, for munching while things get heated)
Premise: You only get to pick one. The other gets obliterated from existence. The age-old question: pancakes or waffles? Go.
Price: Free
A virtual dance party
Team size: Any
Duration: We recommend 1-2 songs unless you really are feelin’ groovy. Just go with the vibes.
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and a good playlist (ahem, Spotify)
Premise: Pick a song, shake it out, dance together. And perhaps, return to work after!
Price: Free
Arm’s reach show-and-tell
Team size: Any
Duration: We recommend 3 minutes per person
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and whatever you’ve got in arm’s reach
Premise: As the name suggests, each person takes a turn to introduce an object within their reach. They take a maximum of 3 minutes to share why they chose that object, what it means to them, and why it’s within arm’s reach. (We promise, we’ve seen some weird ones.)
Price: Free
A virtual mock interview or resume review event
Team size: Any
Duration: It depends on the size of the group, but we recommend around 1 hour
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and a great partnership with a workforce development organization
Premise: Reach out to a workforce development organization, like Year Up or the Hidden Genius Project. Ask if they’d be open to doing mock interviews or resume reviews with their program participants. You can plan a virtual event where employees are paired 1:1 with job seekers. Close the skills gap and break down barriers to opportunities all while having fun? Sounds like a win-win.
Price: Free
A pasta art craft afternoon
Team size: Any
Duration: We recommend 1 hour
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, hard pasta, glue, paper, and paint
Premise: Have everyone gather their necessary supplies to craft a piece of art entirely out of pasta. Tap into your inner child. Spend an hour crafting with your team and showing off what you create.
Price: You could consider expensing supplies to your company if allowed. Ideally, most folks would have materials in their home readily available.
Virtual blanket-making class
Team size: Any
Duration: 1 hour
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and the experience booked through ClassBento. The event hosts will ship your event guests all necessary supplies beforehand.
Premise: Make a chunky knit blanket together! That’s it. Don’t worry, someone will teach you how to do it.
Price: $40-$80 per person.
Added bonus: With every booking of this class, the organization donates to NAMI. That’s some feel-good, cozy vibes.
A virtual paint and sip night, anyone?
Team size: Any
Duration: Depends on the class selected
Tech needed: Zoom, Wifi, and the experience booked through Pinot’s Palette. The event hosts ship materials to your event guests beforehand (or you can take a video-recorded class and get the materials on your own).
Price: Starts at $15 per person but goes up depending on the class
A virtual tiny campfire
Team size: They recommend a minimum of 8
Duration: 1.5 hours
Premise: Book the tiny campfire experience. The event hosts will ship your event guests all necessary materials. The event includes ghost stories, ice breakers, fun challenges, and more. And, of course, s’mores.
Price: Submit a quote with your group size and information.
A virtual recipe book
Team size: Any
Duration: N/A - ongoing
Premise: Ask every team member to contribute at least one of their favorite recipes to your team’s “recipe book.” One person will assemble the book (either in Google docs or in a physical book) with all teammates’ favorite recipes. Then, start cooking! It’s also fun to share photos of your creations afterward on Slack.
Price: Free
A “pick up the park” outing
Team size: Any
Duration: 1 hour
Premise: Ask all teammates to pick a park nearby. Spend some time picking up any trash you find in the park. Share photos of the garbage you’ve collected on Slack afterward. This could be a great Earth Day activity.
Price: Free
A virtual vision board workshop
Team size: Any
Duration: 1 hour
Premise: Led by a live instructor build your vision board with your team. The instructor will guide you through the process. All you have to do is book the experience.
Tech needed: This class is BYO supplies — participants should plan on bringing all art materials, inspirational quotes, images, etc. Zoom and WiFi are also needed!
Price: $40 per person
A virtual murder mystery party
Team size: Any
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes
Premise: Murder mystery party on the interweb. A host will take you through the murder mystery story, assign roles, and offer guidance. You just have to book the virtual party through the event hosts.
Tech needed: Zoom and WiFi (and costumes, if you’re really feeling it)
Price: $45 per person
Create a garden for your desk
Team size: Any
Duration: 1 hour
Premise: You’ll get mailed a full gardening kit to assemble your desktop garden. Book the event and the host will take it from there.
Tech needed: Zoom and WiFi (and the kit of supplies that will be mailed to you)
Price: $65 per person
A virtual pottery class
Team size: Any
Duration: 1 hour
Premise: Who knew pottery at home would be possible!? With this curated pottery class, you will be mailed all supplies before the event. A guide will take you through what you need to do.
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and the materials that are mailed to you
Price: $95 per person
Make soap at home
Team size: 10-100
Duration: 1 hour
Premise: Book this instructor-led class and learn how to make natural soap at home. The event host will ship most materials beforehand, but you may need to supply some on your own.
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and all required materials (some will be shipped to you)
Price: $29-$82 per person
Make a terrarium at home
Team size: Any
Duration: 1 hour
Premise: Book this terrarium class and a DIY craft kit will be mailed directly to your event participants.
Tech needed: Zoom, WiFi, and materials required in the craft kit.
Price: $60 per person
Journaling for self-care virtual event
Team size: 8-75
Duration: 1 hour
Premise: A teacher will guide your group through the practice of journaling. Specifically, journaling for self-care. You have the option to purchase craft kits that will be mailed directly to all guests—just book an available event date.
Tech needed: Zoom and WiFI
Price: $40-$75 per person
6 benefits of virtual team building
There are plenty of benefits to team building. Let’s run through six reasons why it’s worth investing in your employees to provide fun activities at work.
It promotes fun and playfulness in the workplace. When employees are happy, they’re more likely to be engaged. Work doesn’t have to be boring or serious all the time, either.
At BetterUp, we place a high value on playfulness, zest, and imagination. Employees are recognized for their actions that model these high-impact behaviors.
It improves employee morale. Learning new things makes us happy. Add the human element of creating connections and employee morale is sure to be boosted.
It increases employee engagement. Employees need to feel connected to their work, to their colleagues, and to the company in order to be engaged. Through team building, you can actually help increase employee engagement.
It can help alleviate tension and conflict in the workplace. It helps teammates get to know each other as whole people. Especially if there’s tension or conflict between teammates, putting a pause on actual work can help.
It reinforces the impact of inclusive leadership. When team-building activities model inclusivity, teams are better positioned to perform. Inclusive leadership should be a foundation for any sort of team-related activity, whether it’s work-related or not.
It can help contribute to high-performing teams and high-performance culture. There are a lot of ingredients that make up high-performing teams. But at the heart of it, high-performing teams appreciate and enjoy working with one another.
They model respect, care, and empathy. They adopt a growth mindset and continue to learn from and challenge one another. And they stay engaged and find purpose in work. But in order for teams to truly perform well, they need to take the time to connect. Making meaningful connections matter more than you may think.
Virtual team building logistics
Virtual team building may look simple and easy. But ask any event host and you’ll soon learn the logistics can be tricky and at times, even overwhelming.
Many larger organizations have teams dedicated to building and creating a remarkable employee experience. Oftentimes, these folks may be able to help lend a hand. If your organization doesn’t currently have an employee experience arm, consider bringing the idea to HR.
With dedicated staff committed to creating an employee experience that stands out, you can alleviate some of the stress and tension on volunteers. Many people managers or individual contributors will take on extra work to help plan virtual events. While it might work for the short-term, it’s not necessarily scalable as an organization grows.
If you’re serious about investing in your people, think about ways you can bring fun, levity, and playfulness to your workplace. With help from human resources pros, you can build out a team dedicated to keeping your employees engaged and happy.
Helpful software and tools for virtual teams
Well, there are too many options out there and more all the time. If we know anything about software tools, we know we have plenty of options.
Do your due diligence to make sure you’re vetting available tools and software. Sometimes, you may stumble across a tool that your company already has in its digital transformation strategy.
Here are five common tools that can help with virtual teams and virtual team-building activities:
Zoom
Collaboration tools (like Google Docs and Slides or Microsoft365)
Kahoot (for all the trivia lovers)
Slack (or some other messaging tool)
Donut (this app pairs employees 1:1 for coffee chats or lunch dates)
12 tips for successful virtual team building
Hopefully, by now, you’ve been armed with all the resources you need. Now, try to keep these 12 helpful tips in mind.
Model enthusiastic participation. Every team needs someone willing to dive in first — if you’re a team lead or the organizer of fun, take a deep breath and enjoy the ride.
Lead with inclusivity.
Gather feedback and ask for input.
Clearly communicate details, expectations, and logistics (and well ahead of schedule).
Make sure you give your team the time and space for fun activities.
Give your team plenty of notice.
Don’t guilt or shame folks if they can’t participate.
Encourage connections and explore creativity.
Make sure everyone has the resources and bandwidth to participate.
If you have the budget, send ahead a gift card so that people can order food or a treat to make the event special.
Practice Inner Work®. Yes, this means you have to put the work to the side. Work can wait.
Have fun!
Virtual team building FAQs
How do you do team building virtually?
Team bonding doesn’t need to happen in person.
Being virtual actually opens up new possibilities. Not everyone enjoyed or benefited from the big happy hours of old and sometimes we learned very little about our colleagues. Look for opportunities to encourage different types of participation with virtual events. With little events or big, you can form strong connections and do team building virtually.
Head to our section above to see what sort of team-building games you can implement for your next activity.
How do you make virtual team meetings fun?
There are lots of ways to make virtual team meetings fun. You can start with an icebreaker game or icebreaker question to help kick off a meeting.
Even better, ask team members to submit potential icebreaker questions in advance so you always have a list to pull from. Feeling ambitious, get people to submit answers in advance and use a polling tool to match the answer to the team member. You could also have a mini- team-building exercise to help break the ice, especially if you’re hiring new employees often.
Virtual meetings in a virtual office don’t mean that we’re not allowed to have fun. At BetterUp, employees often show up with zest and playfulness. For example, some of the best virtual team-building activities have been a simple 5-minute icebreaker at the start of a staff meeting.
How do you celebrate your team virtually?
Employee recognition should happen in all work environments, not just in a physical office. When it comes to celebrating your team, get creative. How can you have a little fun on your next video call with celebratory Zoom backgrounds?
There are fun ways that you can celebrate. Try hosting a virtual happy hour or coffee break in honor of a recent team win. Or, could you send your remote team members a gift card for a virtual team lunch.
How do you make a virtual team meeting more interactive?
Meetings are already a hard nut to crack. We know that virtual team meetings can feel flat and transactional.
But it’s possible to spice up Zoom and Webex with more interaction. For example, we use online polling and online games in some of our big meetings. At our last All-Hands, we had a trivia game where employees were quizzed on the answers to some information that was presented. It’s light-hearted and fun but also easy for people to interact real-time. If you have the budget, give out prizes to winners.
Also, consider encouraging the use of the chat feature in meetings. Just be thoughtful about establishing norms around how it’s used and “plant” some cultural pioneers to lead the way. At BetterUp, for instance, the chat is a scrolling love-fest of appreciation and witticisms. While it might be a little distracting, it also keeps people connected and engaged.
How long should virtual team-building activities last?
It totally depends on the activity. For example, a virtual game show event is going to take up more time than a Zoom get-together on a Friday afternoon.
Use your best judgment — and ask for your team’s input. If you’ve allotted for two hours for virtual karaoke, you probably will be able to tell by their faces if it’s a good idea.
Start creating team building activities for remote teams
We may not be face-to-face as much as we used to be. We may not have a water cooler to gather around at the end of the workday. And we may have teams that are now spread across the country — and even the world.
But the best virtual team-building activities are sometimes the simple ones. Keep the games simple and easy. Make virtual team-building games inclusive and easy to participate in.
Whether you have large groups or small, there are plenty of team-building ideas. Virtual pub trivia, Pictionary, a simple Slack giphy, or emoji contest. The ideas (and creativity) are endless. And the best part? You get to create an activity that works for your team.
While you are having a lot of fun (and friendly competition), keep in mind your employees’ development. We’re human beings, which means we show. up as our whole selves to work. It takes intention and awareness to get to know our employees and colleagues as whole people. And sometimes, we need a little help.
