A great workplace doesn’t just create itself overnight. Besides hiring a qualified workforce, businesses need to build an office culture of engaged and motivated workers. This is where team-building activities come into play. We decided to provide a brief explanation of why team-building activities are important in building a great workplace and give you examples of how to conduct them remotely.

Benefits of team-building activities.

As we said earlier, team-building activities play a crucial role in creating an engaged and motivated workforce. Some of the benefits of team-building activities include:

• Providing opportunities for employees to get to know each other better.

We spend the majority of our day at work, and our coworkers become our second family. However, given that work often puts a lot of pressure on us, we often fail to get to know our coworkers well. Team building activities help coworkers get to know each other better, give important insights about their personalities, and life which, further, allows us to understand our coworker’s behavior and motivation. Overall, when we know what’s going on in our co worker’s life, and what is the reasoning behind their actions, we will be able to communicate better, become more productive, and effective as a team.

• Team building activities make employees feel valued.

Research says that employees prefer to be a part of the community, rather than just doing the job to get the paycheck at the end of the month. Organizing team-building activities, in that sense, gives signals to employees that their employer takes good care of them. It shows them that employers know there’s life besides work and that they value them as people, not just a workforce.

• Improves business relationships.

Successful businesses are made up of people who work in unison and share common goals. It’s hard to make everything at work run smoothly when team members don’t get along. Team building activities promote team spirit and force employees to work together in a fun and casual way. The skills they learn during such activities are much easier to apply successfully once they come back to the office.

Remote team-building activities.

Now, when we discussed the benefits team-building activities have on the workforce, here are some you can try with your team, even in a remote setting.

• Two Truths and a Lie

Two Truths and a Lie is a fun and exciting team-building activity that will keep your team engaged and bring team members closer together.

How to play: To play it, you need to call everyone from the work on a Zoom call and pick a person who’ll start the game. The first person should tell two truths and a lie about themselves and participants should vote on it, guessing which statement was a lie.

Why this activity is good for your team: This activity is a great choice to bring people together as it helps team members get to know each other on a deeper level. When we know well the people we’re working with, we’re more likely to be more productive and efficient, and this is where this activity can help.

• Team Timeline

Team timeline is yet another team-building activity that will help team members get to know each other better.

How to play: As was the case with Two truths and a lie, you should invite employees on a Zoom call, but before ordering them to cut out blank pages of paper. Then, you should divide people into two or several teams (depending on the size of the workforce). Once you did it, you should tell them to sort themselves by their age, seniority, and so on, and how much time they needed to do so. Repeat the process for each team. The winner is the team who completed the task fastest!

Divide employees into teams and give them tasks: to sort themselves by height, age, seniority, and so on. The quickest team wins the game.

Why this activity is good for your team: This game is a good choice for workplaces that have multiple teams and departments, as it helps each employee get to know others on a deeper level. This game also puts an emphasis on team diversity, which is an important factor most employers take into account when deciding whether to offer a job.

• Winner/Loser.

Winner/Loser is one of our favorite remote team-building activities, as it gives employees better insights into their coworker’s personalities, points of view, etc. This is especially important later on when it comes to conflict resolution and team communication.

How to play: Bring the employees over for a Zoom call and divide coworkers that work closely into pairs. Then, you should ask one of them to tell a negative story that happened at work, and the other to retell the same story, but with a more positive approach. After each round perspectives should switch.

Why this activity is good for your team: This game allows employees to work on their conflict-resolution and communication skills, leading to a more productive and effective workplace.

Ana Mladenovic

A cat enthusiast and a cupcake maniac, Ana is a freelance Content Writer passionate about HR, productivity, and team management topics. When she’s not at her keyboard, you can find Ana in the kitchen, trying to make delicious cookies.