7 Zoom Virtual Team Building Ideas to Make Lockdown Fun!

Want to spice up your Zoom virtual team building calls and make them fun for your remote team that is missing the office environment? Is your team longing for the old days of fun office activities, employee game nights and the good ol’ watercooler conversation about who is binging what on Netflix?

Well, it’s 2021, and truly ANYTHING can be done on the internet. 

So here are 7 ways to use Zoom conference calls to make remote working less isolating for your remote team. 

1 – Start your Zoom virtual team building calls with a dance party

Here at Support Adventure, a remote IT staffing company, our Zoom conference calls always start with music! 

The host of the Zoom meeting, usually one of the managers, will play some upbeat music to get everyone moving in their seats and on the same energy wavelength. It might sound cheesy, but it really works! Research has shown that listening to music helps to:

• Reduce anxiety
• Raise energy levels
• Fend off fatigue and drowsiness
• Brighten up the mood

So when that next meeting starts, allow everyone to join while being welcomed by the sounds of whatever you feel like playing that day. 

2 – Trivia night can be held through Zoom virtual team building calls 

Trivia night and pub quiz are two of the best things to have been invented by whoever it was that invented them. If your company bonded through trivia nights, it can still be accomplished through Zoom virtual team building. 

There are 2 ways you can still conduct trivia or pub quiz night:

1. One team member is the host, ala pub quiz, and different teams can communicate their answers through Microsoft Teams or another chat app. 
2. Use a website like random trivia generator to produce questions for the entire team. Everyone can submit their answers at the same time in the Zoom chat. 

3 –  Hold Zoom conferencing team lunches 

If your company was one where you all had lunch as a group, you can still conduct this ritual through Zoom calls. And if your company didn’t partake in this, it is still something worth doing. 

Just as your team has weekly meetings, you can all simply join a Zoom conference room to meet for lunch. 

But we understand not everyone likes to take lunch breaks with their coworkers. You will have some on your team who love that as extroverts, and introverts who don’t. 

For the introverts that don’t love that, they can still have the option of having the occasional Zoom lunch with another team member they feel comfortable with.

Just make sure whatever the options are, that Zoom lunch is on the menu. 

4 – Play Heads Up and other game favorites as a Zoom virtual team building session

Heads Up, the game where someone has to guess the word they can’t see on a card they hold over their head, is a favorite at our Christmas parties. 

One might assume this game can’t be done through Zoom conference calls, for who will pass around the labels facing downwards so that no one sees their word? 

Not surprisingly, there is truly an app for EVERYTHING, even Heads Up. The word appears on the screen of the phone once someone tilts the phone up to their head. 

This game is great for

1. Being played between two or more associates during a break.
2. A virtual team building session. 
3. A virtual party. 

Other games that can be played are:

• Charades
• Psych
• Cards
• Pictionary
• Name, Place, Animal, Thing

5 – Get active through Zoom virtual team building

Just because you can’t see your colleagues face-to-face doesn’t mean they can’t be your work out buddy. 

We have team yoga every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through a Zoom meeting room that anyone can attend. Shared lifestyle and global community are pillars of our company values, and team yoga is a great way to maintain them. 

Some other group exercises and activities that can be done through Zoom are:

Before offering physical activities, you might want to figure out what will work for your team. Some tips for that are the following:

1. Ask each team member what kinds of exercises they would be interested in. Maybe offer more than one if team members have differing requests. 
2. Make sure the exercises can be done at home by almost everyone. For example, you might want to rethink only offering aerobic dancing with weights when not everyone will have a pair of dumbbells sitting in their room. 
3. Offer activities that are beginner friendly and accessible for first timers?
4. Consider the time zones everyone is working in when scheduling the weekly activity. 

6 –  You can still host company events and parties with Zoom!

Just because your staff is stuck working at home, doesn’t mean they can’t still socialize with one another. Zoom is a virtual communication software after all, so Zoom conference rooms can still be used for this purpose. 

As long as your social break activity fits with your company culture, then feel free to try it! Some ideas you can consider are:

• Alcoholic or non-alcoholic happy hour
• Facebook group for sharing pictures, memes, jokes and thoughts throughout the day
• Zoom chat while working
• Team playlist with music everyone can listen to at the same time

7 –  Host company events and parties through Zoom virtual team building calls!

Who doesn’t love the office holiday party and the company annual picnic? These occasions can still be held through Zoom to maintain the culture of your virtual team meeting.

Office events like the following can easily be held through Zoom: 

1. Birthday celebrations
2. Social breaks
3. Employee of the week/month
4. Company Anniversaries
5. Employee Anniversaries
6. Outside work hours online events
7. Games
8. Staff Productivity Challenges

The sky’s the limit as far as traditions go. If you are unsure how to determine if a tradition can be done virtually, consider the following:

• Can the logistics of the event be visible and audible over a Zoom call?
• Does everyone have access to something they would need for the event (e.g. enough money to order sushi for sushi night)?
• Can everyone be available at the time the Zoom team building event would take place?

Now implement these fun Zoom hacks

You have more than enough Zoom virtual team building inspiration now to spice up your remote team environment. And don’t worry about the one Debbie Downer associate who doesn’t dance when you start your meetings with music or never joins the Zoom yoga. Just remember to keep trying new things, explore these ideas, and bring some magic and connection to your remote team environment. These little efforts make a big difference for enjoying working from home.