All work and no play makes for a boring, unengaging company culture. Taking time out of productive working hours to play games may seem counterintuitive, but there are actually a ton of benefits to setting aside time to interact with your team in a more casual and fun way, especially for remote workers that don’t get to interact face-to-face every day.
Playing online games with your remote team can help:
- Foster a sense of community and camaraderie,
- Promote creative thinking and group problem solving,
- Boost morale and increase job satisfaction,
- Create a more positive work environment,
- Develop trust amongst team members,
- And more!
Playing games together may be reward enough, but you can also sweeten the deal and incentivize participation with small rewards like coffee gift cards. Play as often as needed, or schedule a monthly game time to give your team something to look forward to! Check out these eight fun online games to play remotely with your team:
- Video Chat I-Spy
This one is free and fun! All you’ll need to host this game is to have your team turn their cameras on. Players will take turns picking an object in the background of another player’s room, describing it out loud for other players to hear. The rest of the team will then scour the backgrounds of every player’s space in search of the object.
The first player to guess the object correctly wins a point, and the person with the most points after everyone has had a chance to be the selector wins. If no one can guess an object, the selector gains a point. To keep things short and sweet (and add more intensity to the game) you can use a timer to limit the amount of time players have to find the object.
- The Wikipedia Game
This game is a lot of fun and can get competitive very quickly. It can be played in teams or as individuals, depending on how many team members you have. Have each participant head to Wikipedia, where you’ll pick two random Wikipedia pages–the less related the two topics are, the better.
Once you’ve got your two topics, players will have to try to get from one page to the other in as few clicks as possible by only using links within the articles. The player that successfully gets from the starting topic to the ending topic in the fewest number of clicks wins!
- Play GeoGuessr
This free online game requires users to deduce their location based on a street view of Google Maps and rewards points based on how accurate the guess is. Host GeoGuessr tournaments for your team to encourage a little friendly competition!
If you are spread out across the world this is an excellent way to visit many countries (virtually) and some team members will definitely recognize certain countries and surroundings before others. Take time after each round to discuss what you saw and how you managed to come up with your guess.
- Office Jeopardy
Make a game of Jeopardy more personal by tailoring it to your company. Divide your team into groups and give them a few minutes to come up with a group name. Create categories and questions based on your company like departments, team members, values, etc.
Each turn, teams will have a member of their group represent them to select a category and answer questions according to the normal rules of Jeopardy, except that team representatives can confer with the rest of their team before attempting to answer.
Once all the questions have been answered and the points are tallied, the teams with the most points wins. This game is highly customizable and can be played for as little as 15 minutes or as long as you want! You can create an online version of your own Jeopardy game using an easy-to-customize template.
- Online Trivia
Similar to Jeopardy, online trivia games are also a fun and easy way to encourage teamwork and increase connection amongst teams! Try TriviaNerd to test team members’ knowledge on almost any topic with a free app. Break up into small groups or play one-on-one–whatever your workday will allow.
- Social Deduction Games
Social deduction games require players to work together to attempt to uncover other player’s identities or actions. This genre has been popularized by card games like Werewolf, Coup, Resistance, or the ever-popular online game Among Us.
You can play any of these online without the need for third-party software or physical cards by assigning a team member or administrator to be the game moderator. The game moderator explains the rules, privately assigns roles, runs a timer (if necessary) and moves the game along.
There are also lots of free downloadable social deduction games available online, like Betrayal and Island of Deception.
- Skribble.io
Skribble.io is a free online version of Pictionary and follows similar rules: players will take turns choosing a word to draw. While they create, other players race against the clock to try to guess the word based on the image as it’s being drawn. Your whole team will get a kick out of showing off their drawing skills (or lack thereof)! This game encourages vital business skills like creativity and quick thinking.
- Virtual Charades
Virtual charades are exactly the same as regular charades, just played via video conferencing instead. Only the person acting out the charade needs to enable video, while the rest of the team just needs to use their microphones to guess. Divide people up into teams, assign topics, and watch as team members work together to come out on top.
Play Remote Games in Your Online Teemyco Office
Games aren’t the only tool you can use to enhance your team’s experience. Try using a digital office from Teemyco! Customize your online space to reflect your team’s needs and enjoy increased productivity, team connection, and administrative efficiency–in fact, 84% of users report feeling happier at work and 91% feel more connected to their team. It’s easy to set up and even easier to use. Book a demo to see how it works!
