25 Virtual Team Building Activities Remote Teams Love in 2021

How to Reduce Absenteeism at
Your Workplace: 13 Proven Tips
Source: Time Doctor’s Blog - “How to Reduce Absenteeism at Your Workplace”
25 VIRTUAL TEAM
BUILDING ACTIVITIES
REMOTE TEAMS LOVE
IN 2021
Source: Time Doctor’s Blog : 25 Virtual Meeting Activities for Remote Teams Love in

Virtual team building is the ongoing process of
bringing remote teams together. It’ll help your team
achieve deeper bonds by creating a collaborative
environment that’s similar to an in-oﬃce setting!
What is Virtual Team Building?
Reduced Productivity.
Lack of quality control.
Employee burnout from taking on the
workload of absent employees.
Poor team morale due to overworking,
lack of acknowledgement and reward
If your employees work
remotely, you may choose to
use an absence tracking tool
that records when an employee
signs in, if they work minimum
hours, and when they’re absent
Virtual team building efforts consists of
several carefully designed strategies,
games and activities that are meant to
bring more human interaction to virtual
work. It’ll help your team connect with
each other - making them feel like
they’re actually part of community.
Why is virtual team building important?
Happier teams lead to higher employee
retention.

25 Virtual Team Building Games and Activities
The diﬃculty with building chemistry in most remote teams is that you
could be spread across several time zones.To tackle this, many of these
activities and exercises can be performed by recording videos of the
activities before putting them on a workspace channel or a group video call
where everyone can view them. However, if you can gather your team on a
group video call together or on a workspace channel, where everyone can
view them. This will make playing these games more fun since it’s
happening live, whether you’re playing:
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2 An online game of Pictionary or oﬃce trivia
1
3
Virtual board games or different jigsaw puzzles
Another icebreaker activity such as virtual karaoke
87% of remote workers
feel more connected
through the use of
video conferencing. Use
video conferencing
tools for team building
efforts or icebreaker
games.

Here is a list of 25 fun team
building ideas and engaging
activities you can use to bring
your virtual team closer.

There is a heist to steal a priceless collection of
precious jewels. You and your team need to recover
these jewels before time runs out.
Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist will foster more
collaboration, creative problem-solving and
brainstorming as your team will together uncover
hidden clues and solve mind-boggling challenges.
Check out Virtual Escape Room on:
https://try.outbackteambuilding.com/ap-virtual-escape-r
oom/?utm_source=timedoctor
1. Virtual Escape Room

Teams will race against the clock as they try to solve
the mystery behind the murder of Neil Davidson.
As they examine clues, review case ﬁles and be
detectives, their problem-solving skills, collaboration,
analytical thinking and communication are being
strengthened as well. This is a fun and exciting virtual
team building activity for the whole team.
Check out Virtual Clue Murder Mystery on:
https://try.outbackteambuilding.com/ap-virtual-clue-mur
der-mystery/?utm_source=timedoctor
2. Virtual Clue Murder Mystery

Your host, Hamish McDuff will make your team feel like
you just had a memorable happy hour in the pub with
good old friends. He will host two rounds of virtual pub
trivia and will have a ton of surprises ready for the
multiple category options to choose from.
With themes like “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader”
to Sports and even Celebrity Real Estate, your team will
deﬁnitely have a memorable night at the pub.
Check out Virtual Happy Hour Trivia on:
https://try.outbackteambuilding.com/ap-virtual-happy-ho
ur-trivia/?utm_source=timedoctor
3. Virtual Happy Hour Trivia

Team Pursuit is a great way for teammates to
get to know each other better. This is a series
of online physical, mental, mystery and skill
challenges. While doing the activities, you get
to enhance your communications skills as well
as see your colleagues’ hidden talents.
Check out a quick video to see how Outback’s
virtual team building activities work:
Check out this quick video to see how
Outback’s virtual team building activities
work.
4. Virtual Team Pursuit
Create opportunities to engage
with each other
Encourage employees to get personal
knickknacks and allow them to decorate their
workspace.
Source link
:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzuqUB
wCLdE&t=6s

BONUS (This season only!):
If you are looking for holiday season themed activities, here are
virtual holiday games for remote teams.
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Inform employees about stress management strategies.
Provide much-needed breaks during the workday.
Discuss the policy with new hires,
and outline ﬂexible work options if
available
Check out Outback’s
Virtual Activities
to see more :
https://try.outbackte
ambuilding.com/ap-v
irtual-holiday-games/
?utm_source=timedo
ctor

5. Get Your Team To Virtual Paris
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available
Check out more on:
https://woyago.com
/virtual-team-buildin
g/paris/?utm_sourc
e=timedoctor
Woyago has created a unique tour aimed at groups of
people who are looking for a fun way to spend their time
with their teams led by an experienced Parisian, who
whisks the group off to the City of Lights.
By combining storytelling and cheeky virtual activities,
Woyago’s lighthearted and comedic tone of the tours make
this a very effective morale boost for virtual or hybrid
teams of any size.
Between delivering a Parisian Picnic Box to your home, live
bike rides from the streets of Paris, French stereotype trivia,
French vocabulary that will make you laugh out loud, and
different team-building games (or “jeux” as the French say)
you’ll end up obsessing over Paris!

6.Bond and Connect with the “Feel Good” Game
From the creators of Totem, the “Feel Good” game, a unique card
game gamifying personal development concepts, now comes with
a “self-service” version for virtual team building.The self-service
format alternates between training via pre-recorded videos and
practice on Totem’s specially designed all-in-one platform, which
means you can hit the ground running for teams large or small.
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1 It allows employees to manage their own time and take breaks
when they feel like
Highlight one another’s strengths and qualities
3
A fun and rewarding activity.
4
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
1 Brings teams together
Check out more on :
https://store.totemt
eam.com/pages/vir
tual-team-building-
2
Learn and practice giving positive feedback
Check out more on
:https://biz30.timedoctor.com
/virtual-team-building/
Divide yourself into player groups of 3-8
participants. These can be the colleagues
you work with you or, can mix things up
with cross disciplinary teams or you can
have team members from different
locations playing together.

7. The Team Quest
If you’re looking for a laugh-inducing game with just the right
amount of rivalry, you can’t miss out on The Team Quest! It doesn’t
matter what size your group is, you and your team will have the time
of your lives playing this awesome and exciting game!
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It
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
Learn and practice giving positive feedback
Check out more on
:https://www.tagvenue.com/virtual-
events/activity/virtual-social?utm_s
ource=timedoctor
The dedicated host will guide you through the whole
experience, crack jokes and engage with absolutely every
member of your team.
In The Team Quest you will have a chance to experience
our fans all time favourites : test your knowledge with Trivia
and Buzz - In Challenges
See how well you know your colleagues during a round of
fact-matching and show off your artistic skills in Pictionary!
The event will wrap up with a photo -booth, where you can
get silly, strike a pose, use the virtual props and end the
game play with a laugh.

Step 1 - Login to your Zoom meeting where you are met by
your Host and Game Guide.
Step 2 - Your Host will give you clues and instructions while
your Game Guide will be in escape room with a live video feed
acting as your eyes, hands and feet.
Step 3 - Use your online dashboard to watch videos and to keep
track of the items and clues you find along the way.
With themes like breaking out
of the prison, finding the gold,
or solving an art heist, this is a
great way to better
communicate, bond, learn
about your remote team’s
personalities, and have fun.
8. Solve an Escape Room as a Team
Virtual escape rooms provide a challenging and immersive
adventure for teams of all kinds, whether in the office, at home,
or a mix of both! Players get the same puzzles and tasks to
overcome as they would in a physical room all while working
towards a shared goal – escaping!
Step 4 - Work with your teams to escape in under 60 minutes
Check out more on : https:
//theescapegame.com/remot
e-adventures/

This virtual team building exercise requires team members to
virtually open their homes to one another like in House Hunters or
MTV Cribs.
Jesse Sussman at MuseumHack thinks this is a “hilarious” way to
get to know your remote team members and their personalities.
9. A Peek into Each Other’s Homes
2
This activates the shipment process.
The customer receives the product.
The order is closed.
1
Each team member will take a short video
showing off their home and some of their
favourite things
This activity allows team members to get to
know one another on a more personal basis
and can lead to cohesiveness and feelings of
camaraderie
This fun game better
suited for smaller
teams, but it’s a great
team building exercise
for any group looking to
get the process started.

10. Desert Island Scenario
Many of us played similar icebreaker games like this in school.
In this virtual team building game.
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Make necessary arrangements to ease their return. For e.g.
ﬂexible work hours for new parents.
2
Items could be fruit and vegetable seeds, a pocket knife, a
100 -foot rope, a bedsheet, a bucket, 2 litres of kerosene, pen
and paper and so on.
3
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
1
Group members are given a scenario, where they are stranded on
deserted island, with seven objects, but they can only grab three.
Make these objects as obscure and challenging as possible that your
team members are forced to really use critical thinking and planning.
Split the team into small groups and allow them to collaborate
on which items they want to pick for the desert island.
4
Activities and exercises like
this force team members to
work together and engage
in healthy competition and
excitement within the team,
achieve better results, and
help virtual workers to
collaborate, without being
in the same room.
Once all discussions have ﬁnished, get onto a team video chat
and discuss the results.
5

11. Personal Facts Guessing Game
The personal facts guessing game is a great way to learn
your team member’s interests outside of a work
environment.
Here’s how it works:
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ﬂexible work hour for new parents.
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
You can use that as an
example of good and
timely communication.
By incentivizing
employees to follow the
policy, you can curb
excessive absence and
boost employee morale
1
First the manager asks each member to share
some personal facts with them.
2
These facts will then be compiled in a document
that’s shared with individual in the team.
Next to each personal fact there’s an empty column
where every employee will have to guess which team
member the fact belongs to.
3
It’s a great way to develop
successful team cohesion and
camaraderie. Once all the
successful have been
submitted, an answer key will
be provided so that team
members are provided with
answer key so that team
members can see how well
they guessed.

12. Weekly Trivia Contests
There’s a reason Jeopardy’s been on the air for 50 years: people LOVE
trivia.
That’s the same reason why teams flock to Water Cooler Trivia, a
platform for automated weekly trivia quizzes. It’s an activity
employees eagerly anticipate each week.
Each Monday morning, teams are emailed a trivia quiz with
responses due that night and results sent the next morning. That
schedule is totally customizable.
Importantly, it’s not a one-off event but a source of weekly fun and
conversation for the team without any ongoing setup or maintenance
tasks. It’s the thrill of pub trivia without the two-hour time
commitment and logistics.
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
example of good and
By incentivizing
Difficulty (easy, medium, hard)
Timing (day of the week and the time
for the quiz and results
Region (if you have global teammates
and want
Increase employee engagement
The contests are super customizable, meaning you can decide the,
Categories (pop culture, current events,
science and tech, etc.)
The best thing is
that there’s a risk
free 4 week trial to
figure out if its good
fit for your team

13. Picture Sharing
Picture sharing activities help your icebreaker team bond in no
time. It can facilitate laughter and surprising responses that
will leave employees feeling happy and connected.
Here is how it works:
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
example of good and
By incentivizing
Diﬃculty (easy, medium, hard)
Increase employee engagement
Categories (pop culture, current events,
science and tech, etc.)
A
1
At the beginning of each meeting, a team members
a personal photo that is unrelated to work.
2
This photo can contain texts, pets, hobbies, gadgets
and family members.
3
Team member explains the photo such as what’s
going on there and why they chose it.
Allowing team members
to share part of their
personal lives makes
teamwork more fun and
can bring a new element
of the camaraderie to the
workplace.
3

14. Share Your Bucket List
Each week, designate one person with the task of
sharing their bucket list ideas.
1
You can specify the lengths of these lists and whether
items already completed should be included.
2
3
A bucket list is a list of things you want to do or experience within your
lifetime.
Naturally, each person’s bucket list says a lot about them. So, what
better way to get to know your team members than by sharing their own
bucket lists? Here is how it works:
Everyone listening can then spend a short amount of
time discussing the bucket list - whether its comparing
similarities or simply asking fun questions.
By sharing bucket
lists with people,
you learn a lot
about their
personalities and
realize how you’re
very similar

15. Building a Storyline
Get the entire group to virtually “form a circle: on a
video call to start the process.
1
The ﬁrst person begins the story with one opening
sentence and another incomplete one.
2
3
Building a storyline is one of the oldest and most fun team
building activities.Here’s how it goes, step by step:
First, create a tricky and challenging scenario related to your
team’s role.
By sharing bucket
lists with people,
you learn a lot
about their
personalities and
realize how you’re
very similar
The next individual completes the previous line and adds
another incomplete sentence.
This way, each remote employee
contributes until everyone has
had a turn. Aim to develop a
comprehensive story structure
by the end of the game. These
collaborative and listening skills
are building blocks for clear and
effective communication in a
remote team.

16. Show and Tell
Most of us probably remember show and tell from
elementary school.
But did you know that it can actually be an awesome
team building activity for virtual teams as well?
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
example of good and
By incentivizing
Each team member
gets one minute to show and talk about something
they own or even something intangible.
This could be anything - such as your favourite
straws, a tug of war trophy or even a passion project.
After each turn, save some time for a conversation
from the rest of the team,
(make sure you set a time limit for these or else it
will go on forever)
By sharing these intimate
possessions, you get a better
insight into each individual
which will help you develop
strong team bonds and trust.

17. Simulated Problems
When you want your remote team to
step up and brainstorm on a
problem-solving challenge, use this
experiential team building
activity.The simulated problems
exercise goes exactly how it
sounds:
First, create a tricky and challenging
scenario related to your team’s role.
For example, if you’re handling a PR
team, you could create a situation
where the company has suffered
from a scandal and needs to save
face.
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
example of good and
By incentivizing
Each team member gets one minute to
show and talk about something they own
or even something intangible.
How do PR priorities or your marketing plans
change after this?
Do you want to come out with an apology?
How does the ﬁrm save its credibility?
These engaging
activities help
participants build
their decision
making skills to
learn about thinking
out of the box.
Prepare them for an
unforeseen
situation while
maintaining the
cooperation to
increase team
effectiveness.
Ask them to strategize a press release and series of
conferences step by step.

This is a short and interesting activity.
18. A Look At the Future
2
This activates the shipment process.
The customer receives the product.
The order is closed.
1
Share an e- newspaper or magazine with the team,
and ask them to mark ten headlines that could be
related to the company in the future
This helps you to
understand each
member’s goals and
expectations from the
company. You can even
compare each choice to
analyze differences in
commitment or priorities!
Headlines like “World’s best place to work” or
How this company changed the world” are
good examples.

19. The Perfect Vacation
This is another short activity that’s great for
developing your team’s listening skills.
Microsoft
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2
After everyone is done, all the team members get together
on a call and try to explain their partner’s dream vacation as
accurately as possible.
3
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
1 First participants are asked to grab a partner
For the next step, each duo gets on a personal call and tells their
partner about their perfect vacation- if they had unlimited time and
money
Since you’ re describing
your partner’s vacation,
you are forced to really
listen and might even
realize how both of you
share similar interests.

20. Two Truths and a Lie
Two truths and one lie is a classic icebreaker activity.
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
First participants are asked to grab a partner
Team member then takes turns to recognise, what’s
true and what the lie is. After everyone has guesses,
the speaker reveals their lie.
Each team member presents three statements about
themselves: two that are TRUE and one that is FALSE
To make the game even more fun, add some healthy
competition with a points system that’s recorded digitally or
by the manager with a pen and paper.
The person with the most correct guesses
will grab the win.

21. Guess the Emoji Board
Everyone loves texting with emojis, right?
This is one of the shortest fun team building activities. –
making it great for quick breaks or post-meeting sessions.
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
will grab the win.
Send a list of the players to all participants.
Next, give them five minutes to guess each person’s
five most used emojis.
1
2
3
After the five minutes are done, reveal the correct answers
to the participants.
The person with the
recognize the most
correct emojis, is
declared the winner.
For a fun twist, offer
prizes to 3 best ones!

22. Never Have I Ever : Rated E Edition
Most of us have probably played Never Have I Ever in college
and know that it’s not a game meant for work!
But don’t worry, this version of the game doesn’t involve
alcohol or explicit stories. Here is how this goes:
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
will grab the win.
Send a list of the players to all participants.
Next, give them five minutes to guess each
person’s five most used emojis.
1
Create a list of general topics like “Never have
I ever stepped on Lego” or Never have I ever
eaten an entire pack of marshmallows.
1
2
For a virtual team, these points can be
represented by fingers ! Start with an open
palm and fold a finger for each point you lose.
3
Everyone starts with five points, and loses a point
for each activity they’ve done.
This way, you get to
learn some fun
insights about your
coworkers
- all while engaging in
some healthy
competition!
The last person standing wins!

23. Virtual Book Club
Reading is a hobby that’s great for both your profession and
daily life!
To encourage your remote workers to read, you can start a
virtual book club.To make sure the club runs smoothly, set up a
few rules:
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
will grab the win.
Start with shorter materials. Not everyone reads
rapidly, and you need to make sure that each employee
can keep up.
1
2
3
This helps remote teams
mingle and socialize, it
also encourages them to
engage in critical
thinking and be open to
differing opinions.
Develops effective
communication and
listening skills among
remote employees.
Each member must complete the assigned reading.
If not, they are excluded for the next
two readings or the meeting does not take place at all!
As the club progresses, you can switch to a long
and challenging texts!

24. Aliens Have Landed
A bit of imagination can make any creative problem
solving activity more exciting!
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
example of good and
By incentivizing
This helps you to understand what the remote
employees feel about the company culture, by
improving effective communication and problem
solving skills.
Divide the whole team into smaller groups. The
scenario is, aliens have ﬁnally landed on Earth - but
they don’t speak English.
So each team must pick ﬁve symbols or
pictures to best describe the company.
As the manager,
check out the images
and see if you realize
any common themes
or symbols.

25. An Icebreaker Quiz Game to Get to Know Each Other
QuizBreaker is a super fun way to keep a remote team
engaged and connected.
Microsoft
PowerPoint
available
As a result, you
reduce the overall
absenteeism rate
without
compromising your
employees health
and wellbeing
example of good and
By incentivizing
How do PR priorities or your marketing plans
change after this?
Divide the whole team into smaller groups
The scenario is, aliens have ﬁnally landed on Earth -
but they don’t speak English. So each team must
pick ﬁve symbols or pictures to best describe the
company.
Admins can set up the quizzes to go out via email at set times
during the week.
Players answer icebreaker questions and then have to guess each
other’s answers in automatically generated quizzes.
An example might be
“Was it Emily or Sam who
said that the most impact on
their thinking was Sapiens?
Or “Was it Jade or Nathan
who said their dream holiday
destination is is iceland?
With badges, levels and a
weekly leaderboard- it’s a
great way for teams to get to
know each other on a deeper
level. It boosts engagement
and morale of remote
employees.

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Escalate Issues Faster
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25 Virtual Team Building Activities Remote Teams Love in 2021

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