7 VIRTUAL Team Building Activities

7 Fun and Effective Virtual Team Building Activities: Remote & Hybrid Teams

with free downloadable templates

If you’re like most teams, some portion of your workforce logs in remotely, whether through full teleworking or a hybrid schedule. Gone is the “water cooler” of the past! But fear not; this doesn’t mean folks who aren’t in person can’t participate in team-building activities—it just requires a little creativity.

But – why does it matter if you can do team-building activities from afar? Team-building meetings foster healthy communication, collaboration, and employee trust. They are at the heart of INCLUSION, which we are big fans of at The AGN Group!

As the old saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy—very dull, we believe! Bringing team members together in a positive, engaging team-building setting that goes beyond typical working stresses and responsibilities enhances team dynamics. These events make employees feel happier as a bonus (a requirement for an amazing company). They boost morale and employee engagement, creating a motivated and cohesive workforce—vital for the organization’s long-term success. Trust us—this is key to your success.

What are we waiting for? Enjoy these creative (and mostly free) ways to boost morale and build team relationships without requiring everyone to be in the office.

1. At Home Scavenger Hunt

With everyone in the comfort of their home offices, encourage team members to get up and move around! Shake your tail feather…yes, get up and move! (Make your Apple Watch, Fitbit, Oura ring, or Whoop happy!)

The scavenger hunt host can use the on-screen timer (seen in the template below) to give everyone 30 seconds to find something in their house that relates to the prompt on screen. When the timer runs out, have everyone show what they found. Then use this to learn about your coworkers and open up conversations. Warning: Get ready for heart emojis, laughs, and a few “wait – what?” moments. 

For example, if the prompt said “Go and find a furry friend,” you would expect your team to take off in search of their pet and come back ready to show off their precious puppy to the team.  Imagine the people who come back with really “interesting” furry friends, like the team member who shows off their prickly cactus. If you don’t smile and laugh at that show and tell – then you need a vacation (reach out to your HR and/or boss for that as we do not cover lack of humor remediation in this blog). For those who are less exotic and may not have a pet at home, they can share a photo on their phone of their childhood pet, or animal they’d love to adopt if they got a chance.

Key Point: DO NOT rush through these prompts! After each prompt, pause and point out a few especially fun/unique ones and take time to savor in the moment of vulnerability that your team is sharing.

What next? Make your own version by using this free template!

2. Trivia: About Your Coworkers

In anticipation for this, you’ll need to send out a fun questionnaire to the team. Feel free to use this free template for your questionnaire. We suggest sending this in your team’s Slack channel or email and encourage everyone to fill it out with the promise that it’ll only take a few minutes. Easy peasy.

After compiling your teammate’s answers, use an online quiz website (we personally love Quizizz, because it’s free and has a high participant limit) to create your trivia. Best practice: make 1-2 questions per employee so everyone feels included. Now, sit back and learn who knows their teammates best, and enjoy fun conversation starters!

Electronic Questionnaire Example:

Coworker Trivia Questions Example:

3. Trivia: People-Specific Interests

Corporate Trivia – with a twist! Rather than specific trivia about each person, it’s general trivia, but related to the specific INTERESTS of team members from your company. Seriously time to up the ante!

For example, if your colleague Sam loves tennis, include a question about famous tennis stars. Or if your colleague Alex loves Harry Potter, include a Hogwarts-related question. Check out this example below…

Sam’s Category: Tennis

What is the name of the tennis player known for his confrontational on-court behavior, which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities?

• John McEnroe
• Andre Agassi
• Bjorn Borg
• Roger Federer 

Fun, right? But, how do you organize this?

In a perfect world you’d already know about all the niche interests your colleagues have, but in reality, you’ll probably need to send out a virtual questionnaire ahead of time (like in the other trivia idea above) to help guide you. You can use the free template here. Then use a website like Quizizz to create the trivia itself.

4. Sip & Paint

Sip & Paint is all the rage for IN-PERSON events – but not remote team building. Why? Seriously – we know a VERY famous “art instructor” who made a living off of doing it on TV (any Bob Ross fans?) You can too! How? Find a creative team member or hire someone to lead a Paint & Sip!

Step One – Supplies: Send each team member a small canvas and some painting supplies in advance, or ask them to buy some cheaply at their local supply store (Walmart, Target, Hobby Lobby, Dollar General, etc.).

Step Two – Instruction: Let your creative colleague share their screen pointed at the their canvas as they will lead everyone through the painting of a fun and relatively simple image. All while everyone sips on their beverage of choice in the comfort of their own home office. 

If you don’t have anyone on your team willing to lead, consider pulling up a video like this for everyone to follow along. 

Step Three – Showcase: Showcase time! Once finished, encourage everyone to send a photo of their masterpiece in the company Slack or email thread, and consider displaying some in the background of future virtual calls.

5. Talent Show

Your Team’s Got Talent, and it is your job to remind them and share it with the company universe! How?  A Company Virtual Talent Show! 

To start, send a virtual questionnaire inquiring if anyone has a talent that they’d be comfortable sharing with the team in your next team building meeting. Coordinate the Talent Expo by allowing some team members to showcase their talents live (playing an instrument, singing, reciting a poem, juggling) while making space for others to show videos or images of their talents in action (gymnastics, painting masterpieces, training their pet).

6. Bake Off & Team Cookbook

Make the most of your team’s shared cooking abilities by putting together a Company Cookbook! Perfect for a team building event near a holiday, like Thanksgiving, where everyone is thinking about food, family, and friends.

Create a virtual cook book (free template here) and assign every team member a slide (make sure the settings allow everyone with the link to edit their recipe page.) Send the virtual cookbook link via Slack/email one to two weeks before the team building meeting, and give everyone reminders about filling it out. “Gentle nudges to get s#!t done” as we like to call them. 

During your team building event, peruse each slide and give every team member a minute or two to talk about the recipe they included (where they got the recipe from, how often they cook it, how it relates to their culture, etc.)

Bonus points if a team member volunteers to cook their recipe, or that of a colleague, ahead of time to show off during the virtual meetings. Extra fun – have the team vote which recipe they’d most like to try and provide a company chef award for it!

7. This or That

Create a “This or That” virtual game. This activity does not require employees to fill anything out before the meeting. Just show up, play, and enjoy! 

Create a virtual quiz (such as this) full or This or That questions. Consider using generic questions (this or that? get up early, or stay up late?) as well as unique questions that are specific to your office or product.

In Conclusion…

Hopefully this helped get the creative juices flowing as you plan your next team building meeting for your remote/hybrid team. Remember, just because you’re not all physically together doesn’t mean you can’t bond and have fun!

Let us know what you think in the comments below, and if you have any other virtual suggestions!

And if you enjoyed this blog post, consider checking out The Art of Building a Badass Team.

About the Author

Katie Hart is the Client Relations Manager at The AGN Group. A former middle school teacher, her passion for creating visually appealing PowerPoints and organizing activities is evident in her work. Although she no longer makes lesson plans, Katie continues to utilize her experience from virtually teaching during the Covid pandemic to help companies tackle various challenges.