Virtual Bingo With Coworkers
Remote Work Bingo is a fun game you can play with remote workers to increase engagement. Other names for Remote Work Bingo are Working From Home Bingo and Working Remotely Bingo. Remote Work Bingo is a type of Online Team Building Bingo. Here is a free Remote Work Bingo template you can use. This bingo card has a free space and 24 words: Saw a coworkers dog/ cat/ child in the background, Woke up not knowing what day it is, Use lunchbreak to do laundry/ dishes, Have a virtual happy hour with co-workers/ friends, Saw a coworkers bedroom, Wore PJs all day, Full screen freeze with weird face, Home cooked your lunch.Microwave not included., Talking but on mute, Couldn't find TP at.
- Make your next virtual game night with coworkers extra special and send them a little surprise in the mail. Talk to the curation experts at Caroo and learn how they can help each employee feel like a winner — even if you hold the crown for Mario Kart in the office!
- Start running your own virtual bingo game in less than two minutes. Our virtual bingo system is the most popular in the world because it's so quick and easy to use. It's totally free to run a game for up to 30 players, and prices start at $10 for more players. Check out a demo.
The world of work is rapidly changing. As technology opens up the prospects of work to global proportions, workplace culture changes with it. The primary change is remote workers.
Namir Anani commented on this in 2015. A new remote workforce is rapidly changing the world of work.
Are you in charge of managing a team ofremote workers? If so, it’s important to make sure you’re takingsteps to keep your employees engaged and get them collaborating withone another.
When you manage a team in a traditionaloffice setting, there are lots of in-person team building activitiesyou can implement. When it comes to ice breakers for virtual teams,though, you need to get more creative. Your activities need to be funand engaging, without causing your team members to cringe or rolltheir eyes.
Read on to learn about 10 virtual team building activities that will properly engage your remote workers.
Jump to:
Why Virtual TeamBuilding Matters
Focusing on good team building isn't a priority for many team leaders. Team managers sometimes assume that remote workers don’t care about connecting with their co-workers. They may also not realize the benefits of collaborating with people who work from home.
That being said, there's tons of reasons to prioritize team-building among your remote workers. This list highlights all of the main benefits.
Build Relationships
Your team members might not all work inthe same office. That doesn’t mean they can’t have strongrelationships with one another, though.
Your remote workers will have an easier time collaborating on upcoming projects if they feel that they know each other and are comfortable communicating with one another about more than just surface matters.
Combat Loneliness
Remote work can get lonely. If youremployees are all working separately and rarely get a chance tocommunicate with their teammates (or anyone else, for that matter),they may be less engaged at work. They may also experience lowerlevels of job satisfaction, which can lead to you having to replacepeople on your team more often than you’d like.
Improve Productivity
There’s a good chance that remote workers will be productive and get more done on a daily basis when everyone is engaged with their work. They’ll be able to cheer each other on and will feel more motivated to reach their individual and team-related goals.
Measuring theEffectiveness of Virtual Team Building
Good virtual team building shouldinclude two things. First, it should feature ways to recreate naturalconversations (similar to the ones that take place in traditionalworkplaces). Second, it should include a certain amount ofvisualization. When team members can see and/or talk to each otherand aren’t just typing back and forth, it’s easier for them todevelop connections and feel as though they know one another, even ifthey’ve never spent time together in person.
The right virtual team managementsoftware can help you check both of these boxes. Using these toolshelps team members to have conversations, and it allows team leadersto provide recognition and feedback. They also help everyone to stayin touch without having to toggle back and forth between multipleapps or programs on their computers.
This list of the top virtual team management software options is a great resource to check out if you’re unsure of what platform to use for your team.
Top 10 Virtual Team Building Activities
Now that you have a betterunderstanding of the value of virtual team building, as well as thedifferent tools you can use to monitor your team’s progress, let’sget into the actual activities.
These 10 fun and effective activities will help your team members to work together and start bonding (but don’t worry, they won’t be bonding over their shared irritation with the activity).
Jump to:
- Virtual Happy Hour or Make Beer
- Virtual Escape Room (see our favorites!)
- Virtual Gaming Session (see our favorites!)
1. Virtual Happy Hour
Going out for beers after work is always a good time, but when you can’t meet up in person, going virtual is the next best thing.
Spice up your team meetings with City Brew Tours’ Virtual Beer and Cheese Pairing Happy Hour. Their expert guides will entertain and educate your team as they take you through the ins and outs of pairing craft beer with cheese and chocolate. Their Happy Hours can accommodate any size team, all over the globe. Participants can either bring their own favorite treats or select from one of City Brew Tours’ curated pairing boxes, which can be customized with branded swag like pint glasses, cheese boards and koozies! (Only available in the USA)
Tip: We suggest choosing one of City Brew Tours’ seasonal tasting boxes. Themed boxes like Winter Warmer, Oktoberfest, and Holiday Party add a unique twist to the typical happy hour.
1.2 Make Beer
If you are looking for something that’s a bit more hands-on, how about a virtual team beer making event? It’s easier than baking a cake!
“Zoom” through 90 minutes of team building fun with Master the Brew’s Private Beer Making Experience. No prior knowledge or experience necessary – An expert brewer will guide your team through the process step by step. The experience comes with equipment and ingredients to brew a full case of beer, shipped right to your guest’s door.
Tip: They can even work with you to create a custom beer recipe and label for your team! Our favorite beer names were:
- Beer Cooler Amber
- Beer O’clock Pale Ale
2. Virtual Escape Room
If you have ever done an escape room in person, you know they can be a great problem solving activity for your and your time. So why not do a virtual one?
Virtual escape rooms can be done for groups of up teams of 2-500 people making it a potential company team building activity as well. You'll split into teams and do a series of puzzles that you have to work together to solve, usually over Zoom. Our team recently did The Heist with EscapeHunt in the UK. We even managed to escape (with a few hints).
There are a lot of virtual escape rooms available, here are our favorites!
Top Virtual Escape Rooms
Virtual Clue Murder Mystery from Outback Team Building
Virtual Clue Murder Mystery: Can your remote team gather together to solve the mystery of millionaire CEO, Neil Davidson’s murder? As lead detective’s in this investigation, you’ll need to sort through evidence and collaborate to crack the case. Which team will solve the mystery first?
Outback Team Building is a company located in the US that offers corporate virtual team building events. All activities are available in self-hosted and virtually-hosted formats for teams of 3-1,000+. Prices range from $7 – $48 per person and sessions are 1-3 hours long.
The Heist from Escape Hunt
The Heist: You and your teammates are mission control guiding the most skilled thieves in the world as they take on the world’s most audacious heist. The coveted Qianlong Vase, a historical Chinese masterpiece has just been found and sold. Worth 43 million pounds, this antique is about to begin its journey to its new owner… unless you can get to it first.
Together your team will work through puzzles, riddles, challenges and mini missions in order to complete the mission in its entirety.
- 6 per team, unlimited group
- £120 per team
- 90 minutes
Escape Hunt is the world's fastest-growing, most exciting themed entertainment phenomenon. In under two years, players have clocked up more than 25 million minutes of Escape Hunting worldwide, from Sydney to Paris, Dubai to Houston. And now they are offering more virtual escape rooms.
Remote Adventures from The Escape Game
The Escape Game's remote adventures are so immersive you'll enjoy playing virtually just as much as you would in person.
Choose from themes like solving an art heist, breaking out of prison, or finding the gold, and get ready for a challenging 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!
Prison Break: The year is 1955. You and your team have been wrongfully accused of a crime, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Your new “home” is a cell that once belonged to an inmate who disappeared without a trace…or did he? No one actually knows… can you escape before you suffer the same fate?
The Heist: Your world-class espionage outfit has landed you inside a prestigious art museum. A recently stolen masterpiece is presumed hidden within the office of the museum’s egotistical curator, Vincent Hahn. With the help of your intelligence agent on the outside, you have one hour to find your way into Hahn’s office, recover the painting, and slip away before Hahn returns.
Ruins: Forbidden Treasure You and your team are on a relaxing aerial tour of a remote jungle when everything suddenly falls apart. You're stranded at the foot of ancient and mysterious temple ruins – home of a massive fabled treasure. Adventure has come knocking and the treasure could be yours for the taking! Fortune favors the bold. Will it favor you?
Played via Zoom, The Escape Game's Remote Adventures hold up to 8 players and are guided by a host in the room with a live camera feed. Teams will direct their guide while picking up clues in their digital dashboard to solve puzzles and complete their mission in 60 minutes!
Up to 8 per game, unlimited group
$30 per player
60- minutes
3. Virtual Gaming Session
Virtual games are another great way to bond with your team remotely.
Companies like Outback Team Building have a various games like Game Show Extravaganza and Team Pursuit. Not only that, they will help you set up and organize it from start to finish. Using a company specializing in corporate team events will allow you to sit back and enjoy the game yourself.
Another options is to use online games like Among Us and those created by Jackbox, which are also popular with remote teams.
If your team enjoys traditional board-games, there are some virtual options too. Tabletopia lets you play VR versions of your favorite board-games. You can create a private room and simply send a link to your team.
Here are our favorite gaming sessions you can try with your team!
Top Gaming Sessions for Virtual Teams
Virtual Game Show Extravaganza from Outback Team Building: Remote workgroups can go head-to-head in this virtual game show activity. Together, teams will need to tackle trivia challenges covering everything from pop culture to politics as they compete to be named the winners.
Virtual Team Pursuit from Outback Team Building: Get your remote team together to compete in a series of online mental, physical, skill, and mystery challenges. One of our most popular team building activities is now available in a virtual format for remote workgroups.
Virtual Code Break from Outback Team Building: Solve online puzzles, riddles, and trivia with your remote colleagues in this brain-boggling virtual team building competition.
Drawful from Jackbox: Each player receives a weird and unique prompt that they must try to draw on their mobile device (without the aid of an eraser). After each “artist” presents their work, everyone else anonymously submits a title that could fit this bizarre drawing. Your goal is to somehow find the correct prompt while fooling other players into selecting your decoy answer. Bonus points are awarded to those who submitted decoys that are especially clever or dumb… it’s usually the dumb ones.
Survive: Escape from Atlantis from Tabletopia: It’s early in the 20th century – a time of exploration and adventure. The mysterious island of Atlantis has been discovered in the middle of the ocean, and there are rumors of riches! After reaching Atlantis, the explorers are ready to return home with treasure and artifacts. But Atlantis begins to sink! Who will manage to reach dry land without getting eaten by sharks?
4. Visit Paris (virtually, of course!)
This unique virtual tour from Woyago is aimed at groups of people who are looking for a fun way to build their team skills. The one-hour Zoom tour is led by an experienced Parisian, who whisks the group off to the City of Lights and throws in challenges along the way.
He plays on the typical stereotypes but also tears them up, and throws in local tips for your future itinerary. You can ask your guide anything about Parisian culture, no question is too out there.
If you want to learn more about Parisian culture, visit the city’s beautiful attractions and have a laugh with your coworkers or friends and family then this trip is for you.
It lasts just over 60 minutes, and you book the most convenient time-slot when you sign up. Companies have been using this team building game for onboarding new members of staff when they can’t meet in person. It’s a lighthearted and unique icebreaker!
Prices start at $19 per person. Learn more.
5. Icebreaker Quizzes
Icebreaker quizzes are a fun and low friction way to do a little bit of team building in your team every week. QuizBreaker is an online icebreaker quiz that automatically sends out a new round each week to your team on your chosen schedule. It’s great for bringing remote teams closer together so they can learn more about each other whilst having fun.
How it works
You and your team answer a variety of fun and safe-for-work ice breaker questions, then you have to guess each other’s answers in multiple choice quizzes. They’ve turned it into a game complete with badges, levels, trophies and weekly leaderboard for a bit of fun competition.
QuizBreaker comes with a 14 day free trial so you can give it a try with your team first to see if they like it. It’s currently used by thousands of remote teams all over the world including remote teams at companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and even the New York Times!
Tip: We recommend setting up your QuizBreaker rounds to go out once a week on a Friday afternoon as a fun way to end the week.
6. Birth Map
The Birth Map is another fun activitythat lets everyone on the team learn something new about each other.
Share an image of a world map in your group chat. You can use google maps to make a collaborative map Then, invite everyone to place a sticker on or near their place of birth. Ask them to share a story or talk about their favorite thing from their birthplace while they’re at it. You can also use the map idea for other topics like: dream vacation, worst trip, or anything else you can think of.
7. Team Movie Night
In a similar vein, you can also host amonthly or quarterly team movie night (or day). Ask everyone tosubmit a vote for a movie and a time to watch it, then stream itthrough a conference call for the entire team to see, no matter wherethey’re located.
Consider opening a chat channel so everyone can share reactions and hot takes during the movie, too. Tools like Teleparty (formally Netflix Party) can be used to easily to sink the play time of videos as well. Our team now does a trashy-reality show night the last Friday of every month.
8. Share a Picture
Picture sharing is an easy way to getto know your team members and bond over shared interests.
Invite everyone on the team to share apicture from their workspace and ask them to write a little blurbdescribing the picture. You could also make it a guessing game andhave everyone on the team try to guess which image belongs to whichperson on the team.
9. Fun Fact Guessing Game
Another guessing game is the fun factguessing game.
Ask everyone on the team to submit afun fact about themselves to you privately. Then, hold a meeting withthe whole team and read out the facts one by one and let everyoneelse guess which fact matches with which team member.
10. Personality Tests
Completing personality tests like theMyers-BriggsType Indicator helps each team member figure outwhether they’re introverted or extroverted, thinkers or feelers,judgers or perceivers, and whether they take in information throughsensing or intuition.
Getting to know your team members, and giving them a chance to get to know each other, on a deeper level will help everyone bond and learn how to communicate in the most effective way possible.
Another simple personality assessmentto have your team members take is the FourTendencies test.
This test helps people figure out ifthey are Upholders, Obligers, Rebels, or Questioners. It gives you achance as a team leader to see how your team best responds to yourexpectations. It can also help them work with each other in moreeffective ways and avoid some of the frustrations of group work.
Try These VirtualTeam Games Today
There are lots of ways that you canhelp remote employees get to know one another and build strongerconnections.
Whether it’s spending time playinggames together or learning about each other’s personality types,these activities will help your team members get more out of theirjobs and feel more comfortable contributing to and collaborating onyour upcoming projects. They’ll help you get to know your teammembers and feel more comfortable leading them, too.
If you need help staying in touch with your team members and creating places where they can catch up with each other or carry out some of the activities listed above, check out Weekdone.
Weekdone makes it easy for you to conduct one-on-one and group meetings with your team members. It also provides you with a place to set goals and provide feedback and encouragement. Register today and try it out for free for teams of three or fewer people.
Today, as virtual and distributed teams become more common in the workplace, managers will have to get creative to build tight-knit, collaborative teams.
Despite the benefits of remote work (e.g., higher productivity, greater job satisfaction, and reduced employee turnover), the fact is it’s hard to build relationships from afar. There is no water cooler to gather around, and you can’t strike up a spontaneous conversation at your co-workers’ desks.
So how can you bridge the virtual gap and bring your team together?
Use the following tips and virtual team building games to increase trust, collaboration, and employee engagement from anywhere.
Why remote team building is important
Employees who work in an office together build relationships naturally through face-to-face interactions, meetings, lunches, and office events. Remote teams don’t have the advantage of in-person face time to build those bonds, so companies need to facilitate those interactions virtually through team building activities, games, and exercises.
Virtual team building games and interactions help remote workers feel included and connected to their team and the overall company culture. These activities result in happier and more productive employees, more effective teams, and a stronger company. Win-win!
Check out our on-demand webinar with Bryan Stallings for additional tips on how to bring back the fun and build team relationships in a remote culture.
Coworker Bingo Template
What you need to get started
Remote team building doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming, but you will need effective ways to communicate. If you haven’t already, invest in the following tools and software to keep your team connected:
- Video conferencing
- Group chat
- Collaborative visual workspace
Video conferencing adds the visual element that is often missing between remote team members. Video helps people understand body language, see visual cues, participate more interactively, and put a face to their co-workers.
Group chats facilitate casual conversation and virtual office banter, giving employees the opportunity to naturally develop relationships with their co-workers.
Collaborative visual platforms like Lucidchart make it easier to work together so teams can communicate efficiently and creatively.
12 virtual team building games and activities
Use the following remote team building ideas to foster stronger relationships on the team.
1. “Water-cooler” breaks
Because your team doesn’t have the luxury of a physical water cooler to gather around and chitchat, you need to provide those opportunities virtually.
An easy way to do this is to set aside a few minutes before a Zoom meeting or dedicate a short team break during the day to just shoot the breeze.
Let your team talk in a natural, unstructured way before jumping back into work. If they need a little nudge, invite them to share what they did over the weekend, or ask about their pets, families, or hobbies.
Virtual Bingo With Coworkers Friends
A little small talk goes a long way to growing relationships and building trust among team members.
2. Share your favorites
Sometimes small talk isn’t enough to break down walls. If your team needs some more direction, try an icebreaker activity.
One effective icebreaker is “sharing favorites.” This activity can be applied to any number of categories (work related or not), making it a great game for any team.
Invite your team to share their favorite thing (via video conference, email/chat, or a shared doc)—the prompt could be anything from favorite ice cream to favorite company product. Have each person submit what their favorite thing is and why. It’s a fun way to get to know your team better and jump-start their creativity.
3. Dedicated Slack channel
Slack has become the premier virtual office for companies and remote workers across the world. Use Slack (or your preferred chat solution) to create dedicated group channels for office chat.
You could dedicate one channel for general work collaboration (e.g., the boring and practical communication thread) and others for more fun chats, like funny gifs, pictures of team pets, or fandom discussions (#TeamDaenerys).
Team chat threads are a simple but effective way to build camaraderie among remote workers. Get creative and encourage your team to share their own ideas for fun office group chats.
4. Team scavenger hunt
Help your team learn more about each other and discover shared interests or connections with a team scavenger hunt.
In this remote team building activity, the team won’t look for random objects but for the team members who fit each clue or description. For example, your team could search for:
- A co-worker with a baseball card collection
- The co-worker with the most tattoos
- A co-worker with a pet tarantula (or fill in the blank)
- A co-worker who goes to Rod Stewart concerts every year
- A co-worker with the most siblings
- The co-worker who’s visited the most countries
You can make the clues generic (e.g., youngest co-worker, co-worker with the most pets), or you can tailor them like the descriptions above to reflect specific team members that each person will have to identify. This is a fun game that will get your team interacting and learning more about one another.
5. Where in the world
Another fun virtual team building game is “Where in the world?” For this activity, each team member will mark their location on a shared map.
This activity will help your team see where everyone is across the region or the world. Encourage them to share fun facts about their city, favorite eateries, or pictures of favorite local spots.
6. Team pets org chart
Pets play an important role in many people’s lives. If your team has pets, have them share pictures and create funny office titles for them to put into an org chart. For example, a cat could be designated as “Director of Lap Warming” or a dog could be the official “Anti-Squirrel Defense Coordinator.”
Encourage your team to be creative and have fun with it. You could even start a pet employee of the month (or quarter) based on team nominations.
7. Virtual meetups
Teams may be distributed across the city, country, and world. Remote work can feel isolating at times. Encourage team members to hop on Zoom, Slack, or Skype to 'get together' during or after work. Consider eating lunch together—eat and talk, just like you would during a traditional lunch break in the office. Or, do the same with after work happy hour—cheers to beverages and good conversation online.
A great way to facilitate this interaction is to offer reimbursement for a coffee break or co-worker lunch.
Meetups are an effective way to bring team members together and create a more inclusive and connected culture online.
8. Painting night
And speaking of virtual meetups, why not have your team members try to channel Bob Ross with a virtual painting night? If your co-workers already have art supplies handy, select a painting or photograph that everyone has to replicate, or choose a painting tutorial online and have everyone follow along over video chat.
For a fun twist on this activity, find a painting or photograph and have team members recreate it in Lucidchart using only the shapes available in the workspace. Either way, make sure your teammates all have a chance to show off their work!
9. Quiz show
Take the classic trivia night online with our template below. You can use general trivia questions, choose a timely theme (e.g., for Women’s History Month in March, you can include questions about female trailblazers), or come up with questions about your team members or company history.
With the last option, your activity doubles as a fun break and a chance to get to know your co-workers and company better!
10. 2 truths and a lie
This icebreaker game is another simple way to learn more about your co-workers. Each team members should come up with two true statements about themselves (for example, “I have broken my left arm three times” and “As a child, I starred in a toothpaste commercial”) and one false statement. Other team members have to determine which option is the lie.
11. Bop/banger/groove/jam matrix
Whether you have music buffs on the team or just team members with strong opinions, this remote team building game will spark some friendly debate and could even be good practice for projects with nebulous requirements.
Create a list of songs—they could be random or all relate to a theme, such as “boy bands” or “Disney songs”—and determine as a team whether each song is more of a bop, a jam, a banger, or a groove. These terms are not easily defined, so part of the process will be to determine what qualifies as a bop or a jam in the first place.
Use the matrix below to lay out your choices. Afterward, you could convert your choices into a team playlist so your team members have music for every mood while they work from home.
12. Work-from-home bingo
Need a long-term virtual team activity? Put together a list of challenges that your team members can complete remotely, such as completing exercises to relieve eye strain or trying a new recipe. Turn that list into bingo cards, and give a prize to whoever can get a bingo or blackout first.
As an example, the People Operations team at Lucid put together this bingo card (in Lucidchart, of course) to keep employees connected and occupied while sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bring your virtual team together with Lucidchart
Team building—onsite or remote—isn’t always easy. But with the right tools, you can create a connected and engaged virtual office. Lucidchart can help.
Lucidchart is a visual workspace that helps teams communicate and collaborate from anywhere. Use Lucidchart to visualize data, ideas, and processes in real time. Team members will love the intuitive interface and versatile sharing options.
Whether you’re working on your next big project or creating a funny team diagram, Lucidchart will keep your office connected.
Bring remote teams together to brainstorm, align on processes, and work together in real time.