The number of remote workers worldwide has skyrocketed over the last 2 years, and more and more employers are finding this mode of working convenient. But remoting does come with its costs. It is harder to communicate, and people may feel less motivated to work. After being deprived of the socialization that happens in the actual office, employees might feel burnt out. To keep your team engaged and invested, playing an online game every now and then is a great way to reconnect. Being in isolation for a long time can bring feelings of loneliness, leaving your workers feeling disconnected from their coworkers and the actual job. Here are the 5 best online games to keep the team spirit strong to prevent that from happening.
Video Charades
You can play one of the most beloved games online as well. You can go to RandomWordGenerator.com for some inspiration and then distribute the object names. One person gets to act out an object before the whole team, and the one who guesses it correctly gets the point. You can even divide people into teams and compete for the best performing duo. You can also opt for themed lists if all the coworkers share a particular field of interest.
Guess the Refrigerator/Desk
This is an enjoyable way to see a different side of your coworkers. Guess the Refrigerator game is quite straightforward. You ask everyone to take a picture of their refrigerator or their desk, assuming that the others don’t know what their desk or their fridge looks like. Then everyone anonymously posts the picture in the group chat, and a host brings up each image to show it to others. The rest of the team has to guess to whom this fridge/desk belongs. Plus, it can be a great excuse for your team to finally get around to tidying up their desk or their fridge.
Murder in Ancient Egypt
This is a very popular online team-building game that is similar to escape rooms in that it encourages collaborations to solve puzzles and various riddles. This particular story features a real-life murder mystery from ancient Egypt. The game lasts for 90 minutes and features a host and a co-host. This is a great way to shake things up and bring out the competitive side of your team.
Photo of your life
This is a great ice-breaker game to use to reconnect with your team. Each person is tasked with selecting a photo from their camera roll that best describes their life, as the name would suggest. Then each of you can go around, share the picture and describe why you chose that particular photo as the best description of your life. It can be very interesting to hear other people’s stories and can help bring the team close, even as you have to stay physically apart.
A Virtual Scavenger Hunt
To play the virtual scavenger hunt, just give out a list of items for your teammates to look for in their own homes/workspaces. While you can take the safe route and give out the list of regular items, you can also incorporate some quirky details to make things more fun. Teammates will share what they find through a video chat, and others can also assess whether or not people’s finds actually qualify for the scavenger hunt.
Consider the security threats
There is an added security risk for having people work (and play) from home because they use their own network connections that may have vulnerabilities. This may cause problems for the whole team. One way to increase the security is to install VPN (https://nordvpn.com/download/) on the devices to ensure that the team’s online activity stays hidden from snoopers and the company information remains confidential.
