Top 20 Virtual Team Building Activities

in 2021

Starting at number one on our list is a virtual Murder Mystery Game. This is an excellent activity for employers looking to enhance their team's problem-solving skills through collaboration and communication.

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
Your team must advance down a hazardous route, solving and completing various puzzles and clues to unmask the treacherous killer.

During the game, the team:

• Initially receives a unique set of clues for the mystery, engaging each participant in communication;
• Must then solve cyphers and puzzles to discover more evidence;
• Must finally piece all the collected evidence together by liaising with crucial witnesses before finally deciphering the actual sequence of events preceding the murder.

Learn more: Murder Mystery Game

Online travel is another tremendous virtual team building activity geared towards encouraging the formation of close bonds amongst your team members.

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
It gives your team real-time travel of a selection of major cities in the world alongside a professional tour guide:

• You'll be immersed in the atmosphere of Tokyo, Singapore or New York;
• Your team members can interact with each other, as well as a tour guide via a chat;
• Each participant will be able to vote on favourite activities, thus influencing the tour
• They'll also be able to partake in numerous quizzes with the opportunity of winning gifts and prizes.

Learn more: Online Travel for Remote Teams

Alongside the creation of social media came the small little expression icons we call Emojis. Although a quirky and fun feature, perhaps you weren't quite sure if you could include them in professional communications.

However, in 2021 (depending on your industry, of course), these once strict styles of formal professional writing have loosened. So, you may now be wondering, why does Michael use the shrug emoji so darn often? Or, why does Maggie send everyone a "peach" all the time? To find out, you can use this quick little virtual activity to give your team a short burst of entertainment and fun!

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?

1. First, take a screenshot of your phone or desktop of your most-used emojis.
2. Afterwards, upload the list for your remote team to see, making sure to keep your identity anonymous.
3. You then have just 5 minutes to guess each person’s five most-used emojis on the list.

If you haven't heard of Among Us yet- where on earth have you been? After coming into the spotlight during the first lockdown of 2020, this murder mystery phenomenon swiftly became the most popular game to play with your family and friends. So why not play it with your colleagues too?

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?

• Among us is a multiplayer game for distributed teams of 4-10 employees.
• Introduction: One crewmate has been replaced by a parasitic shapeshifter killer (also known as the Impostor!)
• The Imposter aims to eliminate the genuine crewmates before they complete their tasks and lead the ship to safety, all without being caught.
• During the game, the Impostor can use various tactics to aid their killings. These methods could include: sabotaging the ship, sneaking through vents and framing other players to remain anonymous and undetected.
• The crewmates can either win by completing their designated tasks to escape the ship or by successfully identifying the Impostor.
• While the crewmates complete their tasks, no form of communication is permitted to maintain anonymity.
• If the Impostor kills a crewmate, their body will remain on the ground for the other crewmates to see. Once found, a crewmate can report the dead body. This then initiates a debate amongst the surviving crew members to openly discuss who they believe the Impostor to be. During these talks, the Impostor must lie and pretend to be a team member.
• The team is then allowed to vote a player off the ship if they believe them to be the Impostor. If the Impostor survives the vote, everyone still alive goes back to fixing the ship until another body is found. If the legitimate crewmates successfully identify and vote off The Impostor, they win!

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?

An online virtual space can host various events, including hackathons, corporate events or general virtual team building activities.
It grants you the ability to interact with your team just as you do in real life.

The team can then:

• Create spaces;
• Communicate via chat;
• Travel around the area;
• Play various games such as Mafia, quizzes, murder mystery games and so on;
• Use whiteboards
• Share videos

Similar to Among Us, Mafia is another enjoyable way to bring a team together. The whole game takes place in a relaxed, fun and thrilling atmosphere with an unpredictable game plot guaranteed to generate excitement within your team!

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
1. Beginner players become guests of the "City" which the Mafia rules.
2. Plain citizens then try to discover who the members of the Mafia are.

Lear more: Mafia Online

Whether you're looking to involve newly hired employees or just keep your remote team members connected, this icebreaker quiz is a great tool to help your colleagues get to know one another in a way that feels natural and light-hearted.

The quiz consists of four rounds:

1. A perfect Friday
2. Childish pranks
3. The first job
4. New corporate holiday

The aim is to decipher which statements about your teammates are factual and which ones are lies.

Learn more: IceBreaker Quiz

Suppose you're looking for a more direct and conversational style of team building activity. In that case, virtual coffee meetings are a perfect choice—video calls present excellent opportunities for employees to engage in informal conversations, helping to build rapport amongst fellow team members.

Of course, no virtual coffee date is complete without the coffee! As a friendly gesture, you could:

• Treat your teammates to a gift card;
• Send over a coffee sample or;
• Suggest your favourite brews or blends.

This one's for my fellow gaming geeks out there! War of the Wizards is perhaps one of the most unique and engaging virtual team building activities globally. However, even if you're not a gamer, you don't need to be a role-playing expert to enjoy the game, as its format allows accessibility for people of all skill levels.

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?


• You and your colleagues can explore amazing lands.
• The possibilities of what you can do and be are endless! For instance, you can become a wizard’s minion, tell stories, solve puzzles and complete various challenges to earn "sparkle points". This game is an innovative, fun and wildly different alternative type of virtual team building activity tailored to those wanting an all-immersive experience with their colleagues!

Everyone can relate to dreaming of past events during particular periods of their life! If you're an '80s or '90s kid, this one's particularly for you!

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
1. In this quiz, participants are divided into teams of 6-8 people.
2. The teams must then venture into the past to collect various artefacts, including:

• Finding missing elements in frames;
• Guessing characters from the past and;
• Immersion in the cinema of a particular time period.

Learn more: Time Machine Quiz

A timeless classic! Pub quizzes are a superb way of engaging your team members and is arguably the most popular virtual team building activity of all time! Although your team can't go to the pub together, you can still recreate those enjoyable happy hours by hosting a virtual pub quiz.

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
1. Invite your team into a virtual call and ask them to bring a pint of their favourite brew, whether that beverage is tea, beer or wine.
2. The host then organizes everyone into smaller teams and reads out pre-prepared questions.
3. Participants must then answer as a team, winning points for each correct answer.
4. Possible suggestions for round themes could include:

• Netflix shows,
• Musical clues
• Science facts.

Who doesn't love a good dance? Get your team to show off their best moves by inviting them all to a night to remember. As a host, create a playlist beforehand with some tunes guaranteed to get your employees moving!

Virtual dance parties can be a great way to encourage employees to have some fun and blow off steam. What's best, during virtual dance parties, teammates don't need to think up witty comments to connect with coworkers; instead, the rhythm and dancing can do all the talking.

Virtual Casino Nights are events whereby coworkers can gather online to enjoy various games, including poker, blackjack and many more gambling favourites.

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
1. Organize your team to join an audio or video call whilst playing your games.
2. For games requiring visual cues such as roulette, the host can share their screen with the rest of the team.

Similarly to ordinary, real-world clubs, forming a virtual book club with your fellow colleagues can be a great way to discuss thoughts and feelings around the same material at a similar pace.

In addition, a book club allows everyone a chance to express their opinion and talk about something other than work. These meetups, in turn, encourage your team members to learn more about each other.

During these times of isolation, it's no secret that everyone has a newly found passion for cooking. So whether that's baking or making a gourmet feast, why not ask some of your most keen foodies to share a cooking demonstration?

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?

1. Before starting the cooking class, give your team the list of ingredients, the recipe and the opportunity to follow along.
2. For those who'd rather just watch from the sidelines, invite them to pull up a chair with a glass of wine or soft drink.

Cooking sessions with your team can enable better collaboration and ease up communication.

Your team members can call from anywhere, so leave the home office behind you and enjoy time together outside of work:

• Call in from your favourite coffee shop and share recommendations and experiences from that location.
• Do a short tour of your house or remote working space over video.

These tours can help team members get to know each other better and bond over any mutual interests. It also gives a bit of light-hearted relief to the working day!

They say comedy is the best medicine, so why not enjoy it together as a team? This activity is another fantastic way to have some fun whilst getting to know and bond with your coworkers.

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
-At the start of every week, create a new challenge or theme for a central joke, perhaps using a Slack channel. For example, this could be about office habits, rival companies or food.
-You can also create a winning

Jamming sessions are informal events where musicians gather and improvise songs together. To replicate this virtually, recreate this exact format, except that players meet up on video instead of congregating in auditoriums, backyards, garages, or living rooms.

How does it work and help to improve team collaboration?
1. Invite your employees to a video call and instruct your teammates to bring instruments.
2. Jamming sessions can allow employees to unwind and create together. These events also help improve improvisational and collaborative abilities.

Painting is scientifically proven to boost endorphins of happiness and unlock creativity, which can be transferable to problem-solving at work.
In addition, it's a great equalizer to break down barriers to help your colleagues interact and talk about similar interests.

Online Fitness Classes are an excellent way to promote healthy habits through group exercises. Additionally, exercising as a group can be incredibly fun and enriching as opposed to a solo slog on the treadmill.

Employees who may usually dread stepping into sneakers will look forward to spending time with colleagues during an Online Fitness Class!