10 Remote Team-Building Activities to Help Your Team Creatively Adapt to the “New Normal”

Team-building activities are good for the spirit, soul — and business

During these challenging times of crisis, encouraging your team to socialize and bond is more important than ever. Not only is socializing crucial for employee mental and physical well-being, but it can also help keep the business healthy in a stressed economy.

Encouraging socializing with team-building activities increases employee engagement, which can lead to more profitable teams. According to a recent Gallup study, highly engaged teams had 41% less absenteeism and 59% less turnover.

Try one of these 10 fun and creative team-building activities to help engage your remote team. Whether you have just 5 minutes for group activities or the resources to go all out, there’s something for everyone.

1. Take a fun virtual creative class together. It’s easier than ever to gather the team for a rewarding team-building experience.   This is a great way to see your team interacting a truly creative way.  We found this Tipsy Artist paint kit with everything included to be the easiest to use for your team. Every kit can be drop-shipped to each team member’s location.  More than a hundred designs for monthly ongoing activities subscription.  Online Class are all pre-recorded and you can even share a YouTube Tipsy Artist Video for team members to cue up on their TV.  For more information contact:  www.TipsyArtist.com/online-classes
2. Meme of the week. Provide specific topic themes to get everyone started, like jokes about your specific industry, animals or being a parent. Not only does humor brighten up your day, research on shared laughter suggests it’s closely tied to social bonding.
3. Quarterly happy mail. Surprise your team members with a package in the mail. Add a custom note card or shipping label to turn anything into a personalized gift, whether it’s tech gadgets, chocolate, wine, gift cards or coffee and tea samplers.
4. Keep gratitude journals. Research investigating gratitude and well-being suggests that gratitude is linked to increased determination, attention, enthusiasm and energy. Show your team how to create their own gratitude journal and encourage sharing reflections on gratitude in your weekly calls. 
5. Create a birth place map. Ask participants to share their birth place and add a “pin” in a virtual map to create a visual of everyone’s “origin story.”
6. Photo scavenger hunt. Create a list of photo ops your team can accomplish at home and divide the team into pairs or small groups to take pictures of themselves completing each task. The first group to submit photos of all the tasks wins!
7. Recipe round up. Have your team submit a recipe on a theme like “Best Ever Cookie Recipes” or “grandma’s secret sauce” to assemble into a keepsake recipe book for the team. Gather together for a virtual potluck where everyone has made the recipe they submitted.
8. Virtual lunch and learn. Send out e-gift cards to cover lunch, then gather the team online for videos from past conferences, an interesting webinar or a LinkedIn Learning Course .
9. Virtual camping trip. Send out personalized campfire painting kits . Encourage people in the video chat to share scary stories, play music and sing-along to campfire songs. You can even share a YouTube campfire video for team members to cue up on the TV.         
10. Next-level happy hour. Add a virtual bartending session to your happy hour. Send out personalized cocktail kits with ingredients so that everyone can make the cocktail together & enjoy while catching up.

Say cheers with our custom cocktail kit recipe postcard template for Avery 5689 and a matching label template for Avery 22828. Or send your team some sunshine with fun note card or label templates to create quarterly “happy mail.”