Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

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Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

Abby Nieten
/
August 25, 2017
Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

MIN
/
August 25, 2017
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In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

Blog

How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

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In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

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How to Bring Fun to a Remote Team

Keeping remote workers engaged can be a challenge. Luckily, there are plenty of fun team-building activities for remote teams.
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In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

Collecting payments with online forms is easy, but first, you have to choose the right payment gateway. Browse the providers in our gateway credit card processing comparison chart to find the best option for your business. Then sign up for Formstack Forms, customize your payment forms, and start collecting profits in minutes.

Online Payment Gateway Comparison Chart

NOTE: These amounts reflect the monthly subscription for the payment provider. Formstack does not charge a fee to integrate with any of our payment partners.

FEATURES
Authorize.Net
Bambora
Chargify
First Data
PayPal
PayPal Pro
PayPal Payflow
Stripe
WePay
Monthly Fees
$25
$25
$149+
Contact First Data
$0
$25
$0-$25
$0
$0
Transaction Fees
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
N/A
Contact First Data
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
10¢
$2.9% + 30¢
$2.9% + 30¢
Countries
5
8
Based on payment gateway
50+
203
3
4
25
USA
Currencies
11
2
23
140
25
23
25
135+
1
Card Types
6
13
Based on payment gateway
5
9
9
5
6
4
Limits
None
None
Based on payment gateway
None
$10,000
None
None
None
None
Form Payments
Recurring Billing
Mobile Payments
PSD2 Compliant

In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

In a traditional office setting, relationships are built naturally through face-to-face interactions. Employees get to know each other through daily conversations, jokes, and camaraderie. They also participate in fun activities like team lunches, holiday parties, and group outings.For remote teams, the path to relationship-building is a bit more uphill. Without daily reminders of each other’s presence (i.e., a neighboring desk or cubicle), a feeling of disconnectedness can develop. And that can seriously hinder employee engagement. Luckily, it is possible to turn a community of remote workers into a team through creative employee engagement strategies. Coworkers don’t have to be located in the same city, state, or even country to have fun together. There are plenty of team-building activities for remote teams to embrace.If your employees are distributed across the globe, lean in. Here are 5 engaging (and virtual!) activities to try with your remote team:

#1: Scavenger Hunt

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to bring remote employees together—a good, old-fashioned scavenger hunt will do the trick! You’ll just have to do it virtually with a video conferencing software like Zoom.Over here at Formstack, we recently participated in a virtual scavenger hunt and had a blast. We split into teams using Zoom’s video breakout rooms and used a Formstack form to police the game. In short, the form listed the scavenger hunt items and included fields where we could upload photos of the necessary items. Easy!

#2: Lip Sync Battle

Never underestimate the bonding power of employees collectively making fools of themselves. Consider hosting a virtual dance-off or lip sync battle to help your team let loose. You can do this live via a video conference, or you can have employees pre-record videos. Turn it into a contest with voting and a prize, and you’ll have yourself a winning employee engagement activity. Lip sync battles have become an annual treat at Formstack. We pre-record videos and submit them for voting, which means we get to relive them over and over and use them to create some fantastic GIFs:

Remote Teams Fun: Lip Sync Contest

#3: Social Slack Channels

If your team is distributed, I hope you’re using an instant messaging tool like Slack. It’s a great way to spark daily conversations that don’t happen as naturally for remote teams. The best part? You can create separate channels (or chat rooms) for specific interests. For instance, here are some of the channels we have at Formstack:#cooking#game-of-thrones#fitness#gaming#just-girly-things#the-football-clubWe also have a #watercooler channel for anything and everything employees might converse about if they were face-to-face. And there are a lot of GIFs.

#4: GIF Challenge

Speaking of GIFs…you really aren’t doing remote right if you aren’t communicating with GIFs. (Just kidding...kind of!) But seriously, you can create some really fun games using GIFs. For example, Formstack employees recently played a game of “My Life in GIFs,” which involved selecting four GIFs to illustrate our lives, jobs, families, and fun. We all hopped on Zoom and guessed whose life was being depicted by each group of four GIFs. It was definitely entertaining, and it helped us get to know each other a little better.

Remote Teams Fun: GIF Challenge

#5: Werewolf

If you don’t have time to create your own employee engagement games, you can play virtual versions of games that are traditionally played in person. For instance, Drawful is a digital (and more fun) version of Pictionary. And Werewolf—a Formstack favorite—is a social strategy game that can be played on video with some minor modifications. It’s best if the moderator is familiar with Werewolf, though, because there are a lot of characters and actions to track!

While it may seem easier for traditional work teams to bond, remote teams aren’t left in the cold. Technology provides a lot of opportunities for distributed fun. At Formstack, we know how to work hard and enjoy ourselves. If you want to be a part of our fun remote team, click here to explore our openings.

Abby Nieten
As Senior Manager, Content Strategy, Abby leads an amazing team of marketing content creators toward a shared content vision. She's been growing with Formstack since 2015 and spent several years as a professional editor before that.
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Lindsay is a writer with a background in journalism and loves getting to flex her interview skills as host of Practically Genius. She manages Formstack's blog and long-form reports, like the 2022 State of Digital Maturity: Advancing Workflow Automation.