Employees need extra warmth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Probably there is no adult left who is not a little down due to the pandemic. Now nearly all organizations are operating remotely. But we are seeing that many remote employees in many organizations are not truly connected with each other and only concentrate on self-interests. Such a practice cannot be continued for long as it will affect the growth pace of a business organization. On the other hand, when employees are not connected they will be less focused and less productive. In order to solve such a situation, we find ice breaker games as a great help. Yes, games can do wonders for business organizations.
What are these ice breaker games?- We can say that these games are designed to activate facilitation exercises to help each team member to associate with the entire team without facing any uneasiness. Ice breaker games are there to warm up teams in organizations. Team members will know each other better and do the needful to make the organization grow.
Since the pandemic has hit us, employee engagement is suffering like hell. Human resource executives and managers are leaving no stone unturned in order to keep their remote employees truly engaged and productive.
It is true that we all need friends at our workplaces. But when we are working from home, we are not only missing the bond but also finding the same work tougher than before. If an HR team can foster a sense of community and boost the relationship between all employees, the entire organization will enjoy up to 50% of the increased employee engagement rate.
There are many companies that are not concerned about team-building activities to boost the relationship between employees and employee engagement. But leading organizations of all industries are taking virtual team-building activities very seriously.
Virtual team building
Virtual team building is actually an ongoing process. The process will help you in bringing the entire team together in order to achieve the defined organizational goals. It also helps in creating a collaborative environment so that employees remain super productive even when they are performing from their homes.
Why is virtual team building so important?
The remote work regime does not only keeps employees far from each other but also brings emotional distance. Emotional distance causes isolation and it affects the productivity level of all employees. Remote work is a new normal regime that more organizations are planning to continue for a long time even if the pandemic gets over. A lot of organizations have experienced that if they can keep their employees truly connected with each other and the organizations, they can enjoy an amazing level of increased productivity.
On the other hand, virtual team building is all about creating a comfortable team environment on which the remote workers of an organization can rely.
When it comes to virtual team building, you have to incorporate some important factors such as well-designed strategies, virtual team building activities, and ice breaker games. These things are effective in activating more human-to-human interaction while working remotely. In this way, a better team can be developed and each team member will feel that he/she is welcomed in the community. And you know that a happier team can also increase the employee retention rate.
When it comes to virtual team building, we can suggest to you some easy and interesting ice breaker games and team building activities that will not only keep your employees engaged but also make them feel refreshed.
While choosing the best ice breaker games, you have to be more careful. According to your organization type, employee base, and workload, you should decide which games can be taken onboard.
Best ice breakers games for increased employee engagement
Scavenger hunt
Most of us have fond memories of scavenger hunts from our childhood. And the best thing is that we can do them again in our adulthood. You can play this game offline and virtually and boost the employee engagement rate of your organization. In order to play and win this game, participants have to gain diversity in thinking style and flexible personalities to complete the game with success. In an organizational setting, some employees do not collaborate with others in the team. But in order to play such a game, collaboration with everyone is gravely important.
This is a free online ice breaker game that you can play with your team. You can play this game with up to six people. In order to complete this game, you will require a maximum of 10-15 minutes. Weavr is really effective in keeping your team truly connected.
How does it work?- in this game, participants have to answer a series of funny prompts. These prompts will appear on the screen. You can answer in the text and sometimes, you can answer it via a GIF. Team members will vote for the funniest answer and the participant will be declared as the winner.
All questions and answers will be a bit more personal and that’s why it creates an opportunity to know more about each other in a team.
This is another free mobile game that you can play with your teammates and up to ten people can participate at a time. Here, each participant will play like a cute little alien. But one will be there as shock horror with murder intentions. Just by spending 5 to 10 minutes, you can complete this game with your team and have a refreshing time.
How to play it?- this game is basically teamwork. The entire team will work together in order to find the imposter and remove the imposter before it can kill every one of the game. This game will take very little time but it is also true that it will make participants forget about their work stress for a while. After finishing the game together, they all will feel refreshed and engaged. Both refreshment and engagement lead to increased productivity.
You can play this game with up to 7 members. This online game will take nearly 30 minutes in order to get completely finished. In this game, your team will draw an image based on an unusual prompt. Your team will guess based on which prompt the image has been drawn. Nearly all have experience with MS Paint and you can guess how easy as well as hilarious the game is going to be for your entire team.
How to play it?- You will get a prompt and based on the prompt, you have to draw an image and the image will appear on the screen, while drawing you will get no eraser! Once you are done drawing the image, it will be visible to all participants. Your team will guess based on which prompt you have created the image.
This game is from Atium. This free and online game will help you in learning many weird, funny, and interesting facts about each other. This game will take just ten to fifteen minutes. This game actually boosts the personal relationship with the team and enhances engagement. This is a great ice breaker game for employees who are working remotely.
How to play it?- the game will come with a series of questions about each member. After a time, all questions will be relieved to all members and they have to decide which answer is written by whom. It is really an effective way to know more and interesting things about each member of a team. Remote employees who do not get many ad hoc conversations on a regular basis, for them, this kind of game is really effective to keep the team more engaged.
Atium has a lot of amazing games in its library and you can pick many according to your preferences.
This Monster Workshop game will reveal the inner monsters of your teammates. This game will take hardly ten to fifteen minutes. Team members will get various monster body parts and by using them, they can create their own monsters and enjoy at the best level.
How to play it?– In order to play this game, your team will require access to the Public Miro board. And you have to create a local copy for your own team. You can ask your team members to create monsters according to their spirit animal or you can easily use a funny prompt to learn how your team is feeling. Team members will get just five minutes to create their own monsters. After that, you can ask them to explain their monster idea in a flimsy tone.
This is a classic arcade-style game that you can play with up to 7 people. This game will take just 10 to 15 minutes. This game comes with a different concept and that’s why a lot of people find it more amazing to play with the team. Generally, there are three popular ways to win the game and you must decide the best way to organize your team’s efforts to win the game.
How to play it?- this is a fast-paced action game but there are three ways to get victories such as military victory, economic victory, and snail victory. Your team has to decide the best way according to their strengths and preferences.
It actually creates a comfy virtual room so that you can spend quality time with your team. Via browser or using a VR device, you can access Mozilla Hubs. It makes the video call experience superior to our imagination and makes virtual meetings truly enjoyable for all team members. Here each member can choose an avatar and interact via that virtual room.
How to play it?- you need to create a room and invite all your team members. After that, you should choose a map according to your choice. There will be lots of rooms and according to your choice, you can select the best one. In order to play some games, you will get rooms accordingly.
You can enjoy this game with a really big team and this game will take just ten to fifteen minutes. Such a game is really effective in boosting communication between various teams of an organization.
How to play this game?- You have to start with creating a free account and select the best icebreaker template according to your choice for your meeting. You can enable all these things in advance. You can schedule a date and time for your icebreaker. Apart from this, you can also customize the icebreaker, add a specific question, and run it in the way you want.
True or False
Each player will share three statements and the rest members will find out the false one. It helps to know more about each other and strengthen
How to play it?- This is an effective team-building game that nearly everyone prefers to play. In order to play this game virtually, you have to initiate a video conference call with your team members. Each member will share three statements. Rest team members will find the false statement. In order to play this game, you do not have to spend a long time as only 10-15 minutes is enough.
These are the top 9 ice breaker games of virtual team building activities that you can try to keep all team members engaged with the organization. These activities boost the bond between all team members and they become more focused to achieve the common good. When the pandemic is threatening the entire world, each organization is taking more and more measures to keep their employees engaged as well as refreshed. Engaged employees are more productive and go the miles extra in order to bring success to the organization. These ice breaker games are really effective in creating a good bond with all employees. You can make a routine to play these games with all your teams and keep everyone truly engaged.