Connecting with your coworkers and getting to know them is one of the key challenges for remote workers. This lack of human connection can add to the loneliness of working remotely, taking a toll on the productivity and creativity of your team.
However, there are several online team-building activities you can arrange for your team. Here, we share some of the best ways to help your remote team feel connected.
1. Virtual Water Cooler Chats
A clear downside of working online is that you might miss the brief, casual conversations with your coworkers at the water cooler. But it’s quite possible to have virtual water cooler chats.
In fact, this should be the first step when you’re looking to engage your team. The best way to create a virtual water cooler space is to use your team’s communication tool. Alternatively, you can use Slack, Discord, etc. to create a chat/channel for water cooler conversations.
Here, you can talk about anything that interests your team, except work. You can refer to our guide on creating a virtual water cooler for more information.
2. Multiplayer Gaming
If your team loves gaming, perhaps nothing is better than organizing multiplayer gaming sessions for them. But neither everyone enjoys the same games nor uses the same platforms.
So it’s a better idea to create a shared document where everyone can share their favorite games and platforms. This way, they can find coworkers who play the same games and organize sessions together. For teams working across time zones, finding a suitable slot can be an issue. But you can use a tool like When is Good or Pick.
3. Virtual 3D Meetings
Let’s be honest. Remote meetings can be boring and lonely. But they shouldn’t be. That’s the idea behind the avatar-based virtual 3D meetings. These immersive platforms not only add a personal touch to your online meetings, but it can help you connect better with your teammates.
If you’re unwilling to shift completely to 3D meetings, you can host things like brainstorming sessions and virtual coffee breaks. You can use tools like Gather, MootUp, or NextMeet to arrange online 3D meetings with your team. Using Gather, you can even design an office space with a cubicle for every team member.
4. Virtual Movie Nights
Have you got movie buffs on your team? Host a virtual movie night with them. Ask for suggestions from your teammates and pick the movie with the most votes. Time zone again can be an issue for global teams, but you can have multiple slots for people in different regions.
Almost all major streaming services have a built-in feature for watch parties. Alternately, you can use Teleparty, a popular extension used for streaming movies together. Though movie nights can be fun, they don't allow much interaction between team members.
5. Virtual Brainstorming Sessions
Brainstorming can be an interactive and fun team-building activity. It, by nature, encourages teamwork and provides a sense of involvement. And since brainstorming creates a judgment-free environment, it’ll help your team members to know one another better as they share their thoughts without hesitation.
Though whiteboard collaboration is available in almost every video conferencing tool, tools like MURAL or Stormboard offer far more features. This makes your online brainstorming sessions more interactive and productive.
6. Video Collaboration
Another way to help your team connect better is to use short videos for collaboration, instead of plain messages or emails. Many apps, such as Loom, allow you to record and share videos hassle-free with your colleagues.
Videos create a personal connection and promote human interactions between teammates. Recording a video for every message might seem like overkill, so you can restrict them for employees onboarding, celebration, sharing news/announcements, or training your team. If you're interested, here are the different ways to use Loom in remote working.
7. Community Chats
If you have a large team, you might receive hundreds of messages in your water cooler chat, most of which aren't of interest to you. This essentially kills the purpose of water cooler space, as people start ignoring the messages.
So another great way is to create separate chats/channels for people with similar interests or based in the same region. Since people joining the channels will be interested in those particular topics, it’ll spark more engagement and discussions.
To get started, you can create channels/chats for hobbies, memes, pets, arts, sports, music, food, etc. It’s better to stick to your internal communication tool, but you can always use Discord or Slack for this purpose particularly.
8. Book Club
Another way to engage your team is to create a workplace book club. First, figure out if your team is interested in this idea and ask them for book suggestions. The person managing the book club can then set up sessions for discussions.
For global teams, a book club is a great way to understand one another's culture. Not only does it provide a way for coworkers to connect, but can also help in career development. Apps like Bookship or Bookclubs make it simple to organize book clubs and spark discussions.
9. Fantasy Sports League
If your team is into sports, perhaps the best way to engage them is to create a workplace fantasy sports league. Choosing a common sport might be difficult, but there's no harm in creating leagues for multiple sports. Besides the official apps, ESPN and Yahoo host fantasy leagues for most major sports.
10. Slack Games and Apps
To make your team’s Slack more interesting, you can install the games and apps directly from the Slack app directory. With hundreds of integrations available, finding the right one might require a bit of research. But you can get started with these Slack games for remote teams.
Besides games, most of these integrations are simple apps to create virtual water coolers, celebrate birthdays, or ask icebreaker questions. However, all of them are great for fostering team relations and connecting people.
Connect Better With Your Remote Coworkers
For remote team leaders, engaging their team coworkers can be a serious challenge. Unfortunately, remote work doesn't allow casual run-ins, lunch breaks, and other opportunities to interact with your colleagues.
Therefore, you should arrange activities to foster engagement among your team. These team-building exercises have a positive impact on your organization, so they shouldn’t be overlooked. Several platforms can help you with building more engaged and connected remote teams.