This video will guide you how to prepare an employee engagement program that is wholistic and caters to all types of employees. Involve employees in your business planning process. The game continues for a set number of rounds, or until only one employee has fingers in the air. Keep score. Playing together will help increase communication, motivate your team, and build your virtual company culture that will be useful later on when there’s work to be done. And when there isn't a global pandemic, we do local activities too. Employee engagement activities matter. Whoever has fingers in the air at the end of all rounds wins the game. A host and a live DJ will coordinate this activation via a streaming platform. Maintain high employee engagement for good remote working experience. Jumpstart your employee engagement program with 60 examples from real companies. Direct each team member to capture pictures and videos that show off how the hometown celebrates such as tree-lighting ceremonies, regional holiday eats, subzero swims. The most entertaining or outlandish take wins the game. The great thing about virtual office celebration ideas like Holiday Playlist is that every employee has a say, which makes the party-planning feel like more of a group effort. These games combine the collaboration of online team building games with holiday themes. Sending a physical gift box to remote employees is a great way to help your team feel included and appreciated. Some of the best ideas for virtual holiday parties for remote teams are Goodie Boxes, Holiday Playlists, and Celebrating Non-Mainstream Holidays. Chubby Elf is a similar game to Chubby Bunny. Let’s begin! Plus, celebrating different holidays means more parties to enjoy! Bingo is a fun game for the holidays because it encourages interaction and competitive cheer. Here are the fun office games for employees to play at work that Andrea Augustine at Limeade shared with me: Growing up, The Polar Express was my favorite Christmas story. I live for homemade Christmas cookies and family-recipe fudge. You can ease initial awkwardness by playing games at your virtual parties. Quiz each team on holiday knowledge with seasonal questions. Build a Christmas village in a game like SimsOnline. Fun Employee Engagement Activities. Why Employee Engagement Matters ). You can give the classic game a modern and festive twist by playing during your virtual holiday party. To be a little obvious, teambuilding.com is a team building company. The benefits of throwing a virtual holiday party are that virtual celebrations allow employees to unwind and bond with coworkers, which in turn creates happier and closer teams. Any online event can benefit from virtual team trivia, but online trivia makes holiday parties especially fun. Virtual holiday games are seasonal activities that you can play with your teammates over video conference platforms like Zoom and WebEx. Christmas Time in the City is a great way for employees to share a piece of “outside” lives. What are virtual holiday games? Many companies operate in multiple countries. For example, you might have a virtual Christmas party that includes games and activities themed for that holiday. Download the PDF here: virtual holiday trivia questions. Songs like “Silent Night,” might make for easy guesses, but “Feliz Navidad,” might prove more of a challenge. Can you believe that Charlie is a great wood maker and will guide you through how to make a birdhouse? Onboard With The Right Experience. Name that tune is a game where players race to identify a specific melody, and is one of our favorite virtual holiday game ideas. For the latter, the player might mime falling, before drawing or acting out “navy” and “dad.”. They are the first to arrive. Employees post photos of their travels and briefly discuss them with colleagues virtually, Employees list their 5 favourite foods that they are enjoying and share recipes, Employees post their favourite Netflix programs that they are binging on (but not during work hours! Thank You Notes “We keep employee morale high by sending out thank you notes to our employees currently working from home. For extra festive flair, you can ask teams to choose holiday-centric names like “The Grinches,” “Bah-Humblebrag,” or “The Wisemen.”. Holiday Movie Pictionary challenges your team to draw scenes from favorite festive films, whether that means Flick’s tongue stuck to the pole in “A Christmas Story,” or Kevin booby-trapping his house in “Home Alone.”. The other players must guess if the tradition is real or fake. Happy holidays! The holidays are a time for giving, but also for giving back to those less fortunate. Some suggestions: You can encourage employees to chat and comment on the film. You can either send your teammates printable photo booth props like these ones from Shutterfly, or ask your coworkers to bring an assortment of festive accessories to the call. Check out the rules and best practices for how to play Online Team Building Bingo. Plus, the whole team gets to travel for the holidays without any airport hassles or traffic! You can ask your team to decide, who is most likely to: Whichever employee’s name comes up most wins the round. In my experience, people talk and mingle less quickly at virtual parties due to the lack of buffets and open bars. A Holiday Happy Hour is a virtual meeting where teammates gather together on a video call to enjoy a drink together. Around the holidays, Gingerbread Wars is one of our most popular events. It is a known fact that organizations involved in regular employee engagement activities or practices produce more efficient and effective staff. Won’t all her customers be mad?” Mystery Holiday Theatre 3000 is a chance to let your team’s sense of humor shine. Whichever team ventures the most correct guesses wins the game and makes Santa proud. Angela has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and worked as a community manager with Yelp to plan events for businesses. To play this game, first pick a beloved holiday movie. Make a holiday wallpaper that everyone can set as their background. The day after Thanksgiving, Christmas carols take over every radio station in America. Thanks again!”. To hold a virtual office Secret Santa, you can pick names using a gift exchange generator, then send presents, and wait to open gifts together over Zoom at the online party. Connecting employees across the country under one roof is possible with the medium of DIGITAL. The holiday special game turns other unconventional flicks into holiday movies by imagining additions. Trying to cram your whole team into a photo booth at an office party will not end well. Or, you can allow teammates to decorate cookies independently and upload results to a shared photo album or social media group. These activities don’t need to break the bank. Participants are encouraged to bring hot chocolate or another hot beverage for the event. To play the game, a facilitator will first come up with a list of home-based objects each virtual team will need to find. Each team member takes a turn making a statement starting with “You are on the naughty list if…”. According to scientific research, knowledge sharing significantly and positively affects employee engagement. By now, most of us sing the lyrics on autopilot. Ask each team member to prepare a short video or slideshow of their city and take the team on a “tour,” during the virtual party. 1. I heard everything went very well and the children had a blast. “We have engaged Pop Events for our Children’s Christmas party for the past several years and we have never been disappointed. In this article, we share 15 employee engagement activities that every company can get behind. We are always on the lookout for new ones, here’s our latest. Before your event, we send each of your participants a gingerbread kit in the mail that includes gingerbread people, frosting, candies and more. Remote Team Recognition Activities Employee Of The Month. 1. This event is great for teams looking for something cozy to do during the holidays, and is excellent for having fun and building connections. 1. Declare a winner. A lot of HR professionals perceive pan-India engagement for their employees to be highly expensive - it’s time to bust this myth! Here is a Spotify playlist you can use, and here is a playlist on YouTube. While offices have tons of space for fake Christmas trees, strings of lights, stockings, webcams only show a tiny sliver of Christmas decorations. Teammates can ask questions and give hints to try to solve the mystery. Towards the end of the movie, there is a scene where Captain Jack Sparrow escapes the zombie pirate ship by hitching a ride on Santa’s sleigh. The game is a festive twist on Two Truths and a Lie that challenges team members to guess whether a colleague has revealed a fact or fiction. Chances are, team members celebrate different holidays. Physical packages add a more tactile and personal element, but teammates can also send each other virtual presents such as online gift cards or internet subscriptions. You can revive this tradition but with a modern twist by instituting a Virtual Card Exchange. Silent Night Charades challenges players to name that tune without actually hearing the tune. You can embrace all the wonderful ways to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year and highlight your teams’ homes in the process with Christmas Time in the City, the holiday activity where remote workers share hometown holiday traditions. This list includes: free virtual team building activities; team building activities for conference calls; fun virtual team building games for work; remote team challenges; And more Let’s get to it! Holiday trivia can fall under categories such as holiday songs, traditions, movies, stories/lore, but there is no need to limit yourself to these categories. Online holiday games embrace the seasonal spirit and help remote group member connect through fun and creative challenges. For me, the best and worst part about working in an office is the abundance of free food around the holidays. Holiday movies, like Home Alone or The Nightmare Before Christmas (You can act out the name or the plot. Workplace Parties. The other players must listen carefully or read lips to pinpoint the holiday carol. Then, on the call, your event host will teach participants how to make two fun holiday drinks, and play some classy holiday games. Perhaps Delilah’s family lights a Star Wars themed menorah. Ask each team member to bring a blank piece of paper, preferably poster board, or use your video conferencing platform’s drawing feature. Some simple virtual office celebration ideas include a Virtual Card Exchange, Holiday Happy Hour, and Dressing Up. There are certain words we only hear around the holidays, yet we tend to hear these words in rapid succession come December. Connecting employees across the country under one roof is possible with the medium of DIGITAL. Employee Engagement Activities. Celebrating a variety of holidays allows all team members to celebrate special occasions in the workplace and acknowledges and respects individuals. If the party is cancelled there is still the opportunity to purchase toys online with the assistance of a professional Toy Specialist who can guide you virtually and help you select the gifts. Games encourage employees to interact and help team members feel more comfortable with each other, while building remote work skills like communication and critical thinking. Your remote locations need not be … Pop! Even the little ones need some virtual fun activities. If sending booze is banned, then give employees an allowance to buy drinks. Hence, online team building can become a real rescue to both the spirit of remote teams and their organizational behaviors. At virtual parties, remote employees socialize with coworkers, play games, and celebrate the holiday with fun online activities. What is Christmas without the Jolly Old Man himself. In addition, working from home means that everyone in the family is present. Use Instagram to make a video advent calendar. For example, you can make virtual Hanukkah a main part of your event. If posing for a picture seems too tame for your team, then you can always up the excitement factor. To play, prepare your questions, split the group into teams, and quiz your crew on holiday knowledge. Pro tip: If you really feel ambitious, compile a team carol songbook, CD, or YouTube channel afterwards. Some good Christmas games to play on Zoom include Secret Santa, virtual holiday trivia, and seasonal buzzwords. Via a streaming platform, an animated host will coordinate all the skill sharing participants. reveals all of your teammate’s most bizarre or endearing holiday rituals. You can harness this innate curiosity and enjoy one of our favorite fun virtual holiday party activities. Chances are that your teammates might practice some unique personal holiday customs, too. These events give remote employees the chance to relax and reconnect with coworkers and sometimes serve as virtual Christmas parties or “virtual xmas.”. During your virtual holiday party, you can gather your team onto the screen for a video call, then use screenshots or a similar image capture feature to snap a photograph. A helpful host will guide your group through a series of activities meant to aid the larger community while building a sense community within your company. To host a cookie decorating contest during your online holiday party, you will need to mail supplies to your teammates about a week ahead of time. Your team can get in the holiday spirit by attending video parties in seasonal garb. The rules require the storyteller to recite the plot to a classic Christmas story with a mouth full of marshmallows. You can use these seasonal buzzwords in an online holiday party game. These parties also give companies a chance to reward remote employees for all the wonderful work done throughout the year. Direct your remote employees to sites like JibJab or American Greetings which offer fun digital cards. Positive feedback is always a great way to improve employee engagement. If a team member has committed the act, the team member will lower one finger. Real parties have one DJ, but with virtual parties, everyone can create the soundtrack. Traditional office workers enjoy every day water cooler chats and seasonal get-togethers with peers, but remote workers get fewer chances to connect casually with coworkers. The one stop shopping for all of our party needs is by far the best. Virtual holiday parties are online celebrations usually held over video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Webex and Google Meet. Create a Holiday Playlist on a service like Spotify. | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy. This fun, online team-building activity will encourage each employee to use a variety of skills – from strategic thinking to teamwork and problem-solving to efficiency. List of virtual team building activities Then, we bring everyone on a video call for games like holiday trivia and gingerbread self-portraits. Another one of your colleagues plays a musical instrument and sings. Cassandra did a good job too. But over the years, we’ve learned that online team building is much different than in-person team building. You can share the holiday spirit by sharing the holiday spirits with your remote teams. Read on to discover a variety of team building activities and games, simple to arrange and are super fun all at once. The logistics of office celebrations mean you cannot throw a party for every holiday, but virtual parties offer more flexibility. I read the book dozens of times, along with other classics like “The Night Before Christmas,” “Frosty the Snowman,” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” By now, I know every word to these stories by heart, but even I would fail to recognize these tales if the storyteller’s mouth was full of marshmallows. There are many ideas on how to engage employees, but the goal should always be to prioritize activities that put employees at the center. These games are similar to video call games and may include Zoom games and Webex games. Your team can also use video clips to include elements like sound that provide additional clues. These parties are a subset of virtual holiday parties and are similar to Zoom Christmas parties. Follow along and choose some intriguing virtual team building ideas that are now made possible by connecting remotely. Procrastinate Christmas shopping until December 24th. Hence, to help you out I have created a list of some of the best remote team building activities. Other team members must guess the holiday scenario. The event is 90 minutes over video, and includes a lead host to engage your people, and a co-host to manage all of the technical aspects. Participants must take a drink upon hearing the word. Collect the teams’ answers on the video platform’s private chat feature. Home » Blog » Resources » Virtual Holiday Party Ideas. A really fun staff engagement activity to boost morale, if its flagging. Virtual team building games, activities and exercises can be challenging to execute properly. Families are spending more time together, community spirit is increasing, pollution is down, crime is down, car accidents are down, and many people are finding new interests and are reaching out to others. Your employees spend half of their time at work, so they should never hate work. 51. Once your online party begins, you and the team can decorate the goodies together and compare results. Teams scour the house and web for seasonal clues. The best virtual holiday party games are Tradition or not? Funny conversation will create a more entertaining viewing experience. You can also ask your “holiday leader” to prepare a special activity for the rest of the team such as making a traditional meal, playing a game, or performing a dance. Virtual holiday parties are meetings and events over video conferencing platforms that are meant to celebrate a specific holiday. Pay raises and promotions are not the only tools you can use as employee incentives – think out of the box to truly energize your staff. Feel free to use the ideas in this blog post and brainstorm more of your own. These activities are similar to online team building games and support virtual employee engagement. We also provide a cheerful lead host that makes sure everyone is engaged, and a co-host that manages the technical aspects. You can keep track of all the round winners and name the most-mentioned employee as the king or queen of Christmas. Did you ever wonder what sort of things your colleagues are involved with during non-working hours? We have a list of online team building games. Since 2005 Pop! Before your event, we will send you a shopping list so that your team can prepare the ingredients. This fun online teamwork games can involve families. Perhaps someone is an incredible baker and is willing to demonstrate how to make chocolate chip cookies. In fact, a famous line from the original script read, “But why is the rum gone… I was about to make eggnog!”. We made a holiday scavenger hunt that you can play with your remote team, but you can feel free to make your own challenge from scratch! Here are some of the employee engagement ideas and activities you need to put into place today for better employee engagement. We are waiting for your call. 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