For many of us, the idea of “company events” would elicit only eye-rolls and groans – and that’s before everyone started to work remotely. With office Christmas parties and the like canceled in many places due to the pandemic, or lack of employees in the area, many companies have simply given up on the idea of hosting events.
However, company events are even more important in the era of remote work as a way to keep your team feeling like, well… a team. Without virtual events, you risk losing the cohesion that makes your team work so well together. More subtle is the threat of isolation. Some of your team members might be fine socially when working remotely. However, there may be more team members than you realize who are suffering threats to their mental fitness from isolation. Regular company events can be important not just for the team spirit, but for keeping everyone happy and healthy.
But how do you hold office events when most or all of your team are working from home? It’s easier than you think. The solution lies in virtual company events. With enough creativity (and a little technological help), you can hold some great virtual office events. If you’re looking for some virtual social ideas for work events, we have some of our favorites
Company events are a great place not just to get back in touch with your team members, but to help your team get up to speed with any information they need to know. Virtual classrooms don’t need to be dull affairs where you simply provide updates, however. With a little effort, you can host engaging virtual classrooms for your remote employees.
How to do this, you might ask? A good start is to view virtual classrooms as a chance to share information, not just dump it. Try to get employees engaged with the process and let them set up their own mini “teaching sessions”. Try to keep these sessions short as well. No one wants to commit to a whole class schedule just for work. An hour or so a week for learning with peers is a nice change of pace from the regular video calls and a good way to keep communication skills fresh.
Are you looking for some more fun virtual office get-together ideas? Well, if your team is so smart that they can host classrooms, why not take all that smart and use it for something a little more fun? Virtual trivia nights are a great way for remote teams to show off their brains, and best of all, are really easy to set up. At base, all you need to do is find a book of trivia or some sort of trivia software or program. However, if you like, you can get way more ambitious than this – your more outgoing team members can serve as hosts, letting you set up real-time game shows as a fun event.
Of course, when it comes to games, you don’t need to just stop at game shows. Sometimes all-virtual company events need to be is a chance to get together and have fun. Through the medium of online games, you can have just as much fun with your remote workers as you would at a board game night with them in person.
If you’re uncertain about virtual office get-together ideas for games nights – don’t worry! It’s easy to set up game nights if you make use of some popular platforms and services, like the ever-beloved JackBox. These kinds of platforms also make it much easier for you to run a game night if you have many distributed teams – you can have each team develop their own virtual company events.
So we know already that your team is incredibly smart. It’s not much of a stretch to assume that they are all beautiful and talented people as well. So why not flaunt that with some Virtual Talent Shows? These are not only fun virtual company events, but also a great virtual team-building activity.
Virtual talent shows can involve people showing off their abilities at music, poetry, performance, or singing. They can also be a platform for your team members to take 30 minutes or so to help their team get a better sense of their personality outside work – giving them a brief “art show” of paintings or sculptures they’ve made or even providing an online tour of websites they’ve built. Whatever your team does when they’re not being your team, this is the time to let it all out.
Another great way to let your team members show off their life outside of work is a virtual scavenger hunt. When it comes to hosting a virtual event, this one is pretty easy. All you need to do is come up with a list of items that people need to find in their home and present to the camera. You can base the items on specificity (ice cream scoop), or as a way to learn more about the employee (favorite book). This is also a great chance for people to, if they want, take their laptop and phone around the house to show it off to their coworkers.
Totally stumped for virtual social ideas for work events? Can’t figure out a single virtual office get-together idea? If you really can’t think of anything, there’s no need to panic. Sometimes the best thing you can do is simply invite people to hang out and let the need to socialize do the rest. Virtual Happy Hours took off during the heart of the pandemic, and are an increasingly popular way for people to feel socially connected. Sometimes you don’t need to plan for a virtual company event. Sometimes all you need to do is help your employees connect.
Staying connected is a key part of maintaining good mental fitness, especially if you are working remotely. If you’re looking for more ways to boost mental fitness, make sure to check out our own methodology!
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