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Online Team Building Activities | Ways to Engage Your Employees Even When Working From Home
Team Building is key in any organisation to grooming a community of passionate, dynamic and above all, cohesive team. As many would agree, there are many benefits to team building and varying ways that you can go about organising such events.
Typically, employees would need to come together and be physically present for such team building events. However, in view of the current Covid-19 situation where everyone is practising social distancing and working from home, is organising a team building session really possible?
Our answer is, yes! Funworks provides you with an alternative: Online Team Building! With advanced technology and high digital penetration rate in Singapore, hosting a virtual online team building session is definitely feasible.
Now, before you assume that it is less engaging than a physical session, fret not, as it is just as engaging if not more (for some), especially if your team works remotely majority of the time.
Online Team Building or hosting a virtual team building session is especially crucial during this period of time when most employees are working from home and coupled with the economy outlook seemingly bleak, there is an increasing need to boost staff morale.
Here are 5 ways that you can go about conducting online team building sessions (both facilitated and non-facilitated versions!):
1. Collaborative Doodle
Doodling helps to clear your mind and serves as an expression and creative outlet for many. Needless to say, mass doodling really allows the creative juices to flow and the ability to create an art piece that is like no other.
Similar to our Big Picture team building programme, each person will draw a segment of the picture and pass it on to the next person in a relay format. You will be surprised to see how the final masterpiece turns out with the multiple perspectives combined!
If you’re looking for something more chill and fun, try out Skribble. This free website allows for multiplayers to play a game similar to a “live Pictionary”! It can be really funny and exciting seeing our fellow colleagues struggle at drawing what might be seemingly simple!
Alternatively, if your team has a longer time to spare and are down to really making the effort, try out pixel art! Pixel art can be easily done on google sheet and is easy to facilitate and start! To really feel the team spirit, feel free to use your company’s logo as the design or something completely unrelated and let your creativity flow!
2. Office Showdown
Office Showdown is by far one of the best and most popular types of activities conducted in corporate settings for those who want to have a great time!
Depending on how much time and resource you have available, there are multiple ways to go about doing this.
One of the easiest ways to do so would be to set up a Kahoot Quiz. Kahoot is an easy to use website that allows for customisation of questions and answers. The best part is that it even has a leaderboard! Set the trickiest, hardest and even those “giveaway” questions to test the knowledge of your employees or co-workers! Using this in conjunction with a video-conference would be the best as you see the faces of your co-workers fall when they get the simplest question wrong!
Another way to do so would be via an “Human Office Bingo”. With a ready-made template, send out e-copies to your colleagues. Then, turn on video-conferencing! The aim of this game is to get a bingo! However, given that the actions / words on the bingo would be something that you’ll need another person to sign on for you (e.g. find someone who can do 10 pushups in the office) and you found let’s say John. Should you get a bingo with this box ticked, John, in front of everyone on the video call, would have to do 10 pushups as a form of verification. This can be really exciting to witness remotely!
4. Live Game Show
Funworks’ Live Game Show team building programme is another variation of the Office Showdown, but more interactive & engaging. There are various game formats that you can choose from. From the popular Family Feud to exciting Trivia Quizzes, we have a variety of games that can definitely engage your colleagues and brighten their days during this COVID-19 pandemic period.
Lastly, and most dramatically, this could be done in the style of a TV reality show. To spark the same amount of excitement as a variety show, group your virtual teams into 2 or more (depending on your size) and begin asking away!
As per all Live Game shows you see on the television, there will always be an engaging emcee to host the entire game show. Activities are carefully planned to include team building elements such as communication, collaboration and strategic thinking.
To spice things up, you can even provide prizes such as our care packages, that we’ll elaborate below, as your champion team’s rightful reward!
5. Virtual Lockdown
Funworks’ Escape Room Game Kit is like no other. Enjoy the thrill of an escape room without even leaving your house!
In this online Escape Game Room challenge, participants will be divided into smaller teams. Each team will have to work together (via the whatsapp group chat / video conferencing) to solve mind-blowing puzzles given and crack the code!
With the storyline of a Zombie Apocalypse (storyline can be customised), teams will have to work together to solve 5 puzzles and crack each code to prevent the Zombie invasion! They will be given 15 minutes to solve each puzzle, and once they have obtained the answer, they will have to call in to our game host, to give their answer, just like a Live Game Show! Points will be awarded and accumulated. The team that are able to prevent the Zombie invasion in the fastest possible time wins!
This intellectual team bonding session promises to be a fun and engaging one!
6. Hunter's Home
Can’t sit still and enjoy the “up and about” feeling? Challenge your colleagues to a Scavenger Hunt game!
Contrary to the belief that scavenger hunts would require relatively large space, the ever-popular game can also be conducted in the comfort of your own home, and with your colleagues virtually!
There are several ways we can host a home-based scavenger hunt, depending on your group size and duration. One interesting way is to “invite your colleagues into your home”. Each person will take turn to play the host and allow your “guests” to find clues within your house and work together to solve a series of mini activities! Not only is it interesting, this also allows your colleagues to “tour” each other houses!
We can also incorporate more collaborative elements into the scavenger hunt game. Prior to the game, participants would be split into smaller teams. The host of the game will then call out specific items to be found as part of the game in the form of a riddle for example, the host might say “I have four legs, but I don’t have feet”. Teams will need to work together to brainstorm and find an item from their houses that fit the description.
Think you know your house well enough? Not till you’ve tried this hunter’s home challenge with your team!
7. Care Package
When times are tough, a little love shown goes a long way! Having a team building event via video calls might not be something on your mind now, but your company should consider sending a care package to your employees during this tough period.
To many working adults like you and me, our workplace has unknowingly become our second family/home. As we are flooded with all the news on COVID-19, and working alone at home, we are starting to miss the times where we can go to work in the office or meet our usual lunch buddies for quick luncheons.
Care packages are small little parcels that are sent out to your colleagues / employees with the aim of touching their hearts. Stay connected and show appreciation to your employees by sending them a work-from-home care package that include some DIY kits. These packages helps to remind employees that you care about their emotional and mental well-being and that taking a small break from work is still important!
You can also consider including a personalised message for each of them or get everyone to write a message for one another. While this might be resource intensive, you can consider outsourcing this to manage the logistics. At Funworks, we help our clients to design their care package. From collating the messages, printing them on beautifully designed cards to delivering the package to all the employees.
Video-conference with your colleagues while conducting these activities to really feel the tight-knitted bond!
The ball is in your court now.
Regardless of which activity you choose, it is definitely the best time to explore online team building activities! The emphasis on boosting morale and providing support for your employees during this tough period might be the most important to them.
Contact us to find out how we can help you to boost your team’s morale while you focus on the bigger picture. Let’s work together to overcome this tough period.
INTERESTED?
Want to do something similar for your next event?
Contact us and we will advise you on the next step!
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