Keeping the team together right now is probably tough. Many people who usually work together in an office are still camped out at home in front of their webcams. Remote work has many benefits, especially during a pandemic, but there are some unique challenges involved as well.

If you feel like your team has been drifting apart, then you might not be doing enough to promote bonding and cooperation. Team-building activities can be difficult to facilitate even in an office setting, so you’ll have to get creative with virtual events. Here are some suggestions for fun events you can host for your remote team.

Virtual Happy Hours

Remember happy hours after work? Bars and get-togethers in the office might be off-limits, but that doesn’t mean you have to dismiss the idea of happy hours and fun events altogether.

Try hosting a happy hour with everyone bringing their beverage of choice (virtually). It’s a great way for teams to connect informally and get to know each other. If you have a large team, you can even break out into smaller groups and rotate them so people aren’t talking over each other.

There are a lot of benefits to virtual happy hours beyond just team bonding. No one has to feel pressured to drink something they don’t want—they can choose their favorite beverage! Plus, there’s no cleanup for the hosts and no one will be driving home after drinking. Just be sure to set some ground rules for your virtual meeting to ensure that everyone feels welcome and comfortable.

Game Nights 

If happy hours have gotten a little stale, why not try virtual game night? You might have to get creative and play games that don’t require any cards or other physical objects, but there’s still a lot you can do virtually.

Not sure what your team will like? Ask them for suggestions! How about trivia or virtual cards? It’s supposed to be fun, so let the team lead the way in picking the content so you can take care of facilitating the event itself. 
Organization-Wide Development Trainings 
You never want your remote team to get stuck in a rut. When people are working in isolation, they’re usually very productive, but they might not be focused on professional or organizational development.

One way to bring the team closer together is to schedule organization-wide professional development training. Could your team benefit from a workshop on communication or inclusion? How about learning the basics of cybersecurity?

Organizations need motivated employees who are always improving their skills. Facilitating these learning opportunities is good for any company and has the added bonus of strengthening team bonds.

Host Icebreaker Meetings for New Employees 

Onboarding is uniquely challenging for remote teams. In an office setting, a new employee can meet their coworkers in person and get to know people as they go through training and daily work activities. In a remote setting, people can stay strangers for a long time.

Managers of remote teams need to actively facilitate interactions between existing employees and new employees so that everyone will feel comfortable with one another and new employees will feel like part of the team. One way to do this is with “icebreaker” meetings for new employees.

During an icebreaker meeting, the host will choose an icebreaker question and give everyone an opportunity to share. Icebreakers can be silly, thought-provoking, or insightful, but the goal is to help everyone loosen up and get to know each other. You can use icebreakers at the start of a standard meeting or during a “get-to-know-you” session for new hires.

Home or Workspace Tours 

Let’s face it: we’re all curious about where and how people are working remotely. Some people use virtual backgrounds to disguise their true surroundings, while other people show off their pets and personal items. If everyone is comfortable with it, it can be fun to connect virtually by doing home or workspace tours.

You can tell a lot about someone by their workspace. It’s a fun way to get to know each other and inject a little interest into the workday. This idea is better for smaller teams, but you could also do it as a series for larger teams, having just a few people share each time.

There are so many great ideas for virtual team-building events out there. You know your team best, and you know what will and won’t work for bringing them together. Get creative and don’t be afraid to get a little silly!