Every manager wants to create a welcoming work environment to promote employee well-being, productivity, and collaboration (all of which benefit your company!), but this can be tough when the team is separated by distance and time zones.

The right tools can help everyone stay in the loop, but team-building for remote teams requires more than software.

Considering many remote teams rarely meet face to face, it’s important to think about ways you can help everyone stay connected. Keep reading for some remote team-building activity ideas you can try at your company.

Team-Building For Remote Teams: 5 Activities To Try

1. Host a weekly non-work meetup.

Remote coworkers miss out on spontaneous in-office conversations and social outings with other team members. Christine Wang, founder of TheSkiGirl, says one way to inject a social element into remote work is by hosting a virtual “happy hour.” Drinks don’t necessarily have to be involved—the point is to make the digital meet-up about fun and personal experiences instead of work.

Wang says holding a virtual happy hour helps team members get better acquainted and keeps team morale up. “Teams form greater bonds and learn to better understand one another. They can also experience greater productivity levels.”

Once everyone’s connected, keep them on the same page with Glasscubes, an all-in-one collaboration suite. Start your free trial today.

2. Hold Q&A sessions.

Being open and honest goes a long way with team-building for remote teams. (Tweet this!) Christopher Grozdon, CMO at DASH-SEO, suggests giving the floor to teammates to pose questions about everything from company happenings to global developments that could impact their jobs. He says it’s a great opportunity to be transparent and let everyone know the good and bad. “Through this style of interaction, you can build trust with your team.”

3. Put on a meme design contest.

Social media users love to share memes, images or GIFs with accompanying text that are typically humorous in nature. If you’ve come across a funny picture that made light of a popular subject, it was probably a meme. Grozdon says pitting your teammates against one another in a contest of humor can be a great way to build bonds and de-stress, especially during turbulent times.

4. Play “Finish the story.”

Willie Greer, founder of The Product Analyst, says a game of finish the story is great for building virtual teams’ cohesiveness and creativity. Here’s how it works: One person starts a story, and everyone takes turns adding phrases or sentences until the story is finished (or people can’t come up with any more ideas). “For example, I can start by saying, ‘Jerry was having an ordinary day at the office, but that changed when he noticed…’ Then another teammate would take the story from there. Be as silly as you like!”

5. Share expressions of gratitude.

Anna Baker, founder of LogicalDollar, says her team has regular morning meetings to discuss what they worked on the previous day, and what they plan to work on that day. On Fridays, the team also shares something they’re grateful for. This may be something heartfelt or relatively ordinary. “For example, one of our team members shared how she appreciated her local community’s support for her sister, who’s a doctor combatting the current pandemic. Another member appreciated having a balcony given the health recommendations to stay in the house.”

Working from home is a boon for everyone, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Read this article about the challenges of managing remote teams—and how to solve them.

Building virtual teams for the long-term means supporting them with the right tools.

Practicing team-building activities for remote teams is important, but you’ll need a way to support the bonds you create when it’s time to get back down to work. Glasscubes is your go-to collaboration hub that combines communication, task management, and file sharing functionality all in one tool to help your team work seamlessly.

With Glasscubes, you can:

• Store files in a secure location, complete with automatic version control. Share files with key stakeholders—from teammates to clients to vendors. You can even create approval workflows and view clear audit trails of user actions.
• Assign and manage tasks for different members of the team, and track them to completion. Get notifications for items that require your attention.
• Create customised workspaces for each project team in your portfolio. Team members can share resources and communicate with one another in their specific workspace, and you can access all workspaces for easy oversight.

Glasscubes supports remote teams with key collaboration capabilities. Start your free trial today.