Remote work has allowed companies to continue operations when an in-person engagement was not feasible during the pandemic. Slowly, it became the norm, but that came at a cost.
Many individuals who were not used to this environment or preferred face-to-face engagements felt disinterested at work. And even those who did prefer it were dealing with burnout because of too much work and lack of a work-life balance. This is why half of managers who oversee remote workers were concerned about employee engagement.
To help you boost engagement at the workplace, we’ve curated a list of 20 virtual employee engagement activities to increase employee participation and satisfaction.
20 virtual employee engagement activities to boost morale
Here are 20 employee engagement activities to boost morale:
1. Rewards and recognition
Recognizing an employee's achievements in the workplace can make them feel seen. And just because you're working remotely doesn't mean you have to forego this.
Implement an employee recognition program to keep the momentum going. You can do this in three ways:
- Create a dedicated channel on your company’s Slack (#work-wins, #celebrate).
- Host a 15-min “awards” ceremony and confer awards like “Team Player of the Month.”
- Send weekly or monthly newsletters showering appreciation to chosen employees.
By acknowledging their efforts, you’ll foster a positive work environment and encourage healthy competition, resulting in a driven workforce.
Time needed: 15 to 45 minutes each week, depending on the activity
2. Coffee breaks
Watercooler chats and coffee breaks are common in an in-person environment. It allows employees to unwind and take a break from their daily activities. Plus, they can socialize and discuss non-work-related topics with their peers.
Encourage virtual team members to host virtual coffee chats weekly with their team or work friends. You can make this more engaging by gamifying it via polls or online quizzes.
At Poll Everywhere, we conduct one every Friday at 9 a.m. PT or noon ET to relieve our mental load, step aside from work for a few minutes, and just get to know each other. The dedicated time relieves the burden of navigating remote relationship building on their own.
It'll reduce stress by giving employees an open space to have an informal chat without fearing unnecessary consequences.
Time needed: 15 to 30 minutes every week
3. Guided meditation
A 2019 study found that meditation helps faster recovery from stress by activating an emotional regulation pathway. It means it's an effective activity for high-performing teams dealing with high stress levels and improves their mental health.
Introduce a weekly or biweekly guided meditation practice to ensure employees have some help throughout the process. Either hire an instructor to help out or ask an employee with meditation experience to create guided sessions.
Start with simple breathing exercises and move into complex relaxation techniques once your team uses them. Conduct this via a Zoom or Team meeting every week.
Time needed: 45 minutes every week
4. Murder mystery
An excellent way to break away from your day-to-day routine would be to host a virtual murder mystery party.
During the meeting, employees are asked to solve a crime based on the plotline given. Sometimes, you can even build your own plotline to make it more complex. Then, team members have to collaborate to solve the fictional crime by examining clues, questioning suspects, and piecing the evidence together.
It offers a fun and immersive experience for everyone involved and expresses their creative juices. Right now, products like Escapely offer this service.
Time needed: one hour occasionally
5. Multiplayer gaming
Multiplayer games work well for team-building activities, as many team members can join simultaneously. Plus, you can create more breakout rooms for games with a number restriction to bring in more people.
Choose a game depending on your team member's skill level and interests. One way to identify that is to conduct a team or company-wide poll on the most popular games.
Use Poll Everywhere’s Open-ended activity to create an open backchannel and let the responses trickle in. Pick a few games out of the recommendations and set it up.
A few recommendations include Ludo, Among Us, League of Legends, and Scrabble.
Tip: Conduct a poll using the Open-ended Question activity.
Time needed: 30 to 60 minutes every two weeks
6. Myers-Briggs personality tests
Personality tests create a sense of excitement when your employees are interested in learning more about themselves and their peers. This is a fun way to do that.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a famous personality assessment tool that helps individuals understand their preferences and behavioral patterns across four key dimensions:
- Extroversion-introversion
- Sensing-intuition
- Thinking-feeling
- Judging-perceiving
Employees will have to take a 93-question survey. In the end, they will find out their personality type. Plus, using these test results, you can pair team members and understand team dynamics much better, resulting in a more productive work environment.
Tip: Set up reveal your personality type in your next team activity using the Myers-Briggs activity.
Time needed: five to 10 minutes at the beginning of a meeting/presentation
7. CEO ask me anything
One way to increase employee engagement and promote transparency is by hosting fireside chats with the CEO. This activity can also be done with other top executives.
At Poll Everywhere, at every annual retreat, we host a Fireside Chat with the executive leadership team to gain more insights into the workings of the company. It's an excellent way to clarify questions about the company's vision, strategy, or challenges.
But these activities don't have to be an annual affair. You can do them at your quarterly retreats or team-building sessions too. These candid conversations create a sense of openness, trust, and connection between leadership and employees.
Tip: Use the CEO Ask Me Anything activity at your next town hall meeting.
Time needed: 30 to 45 minutes for each session
8. Trivia competition
Trivia competitions are an entertaining way to bring employees together for a fun activity. You can curate a set of questions based on a specific theme like “Game of Thrones,” Marvel, or sports.
Make it more exciting by adding time limits and bonus points for creative answers. It’s a way to energize your employees and let them flex their memory. It creates lasting bonds between team members in the long run.
Time needed: 30 minutes every week
Tip: Use the Competition Activity to host your trivia competition.
9. Virtual L&D events
An SHRM report found that 84% of organizations human resources (HR) say building a learning culture results in stronger organizational resilience. And the reason is that employees fill in skill gaps they identify in their role.
Also, by offering learning and development (L&D) opportunities, you show them that your company cares about their career too.
So offer employees a stipend to take part in virtual events like conferences and workshops. Due to the rise in remote work, many events like this exist, so make them visible to your remote workforce.
Time needed: Depends on the session duration
10. Virtual happy hours
The usual happy hours involve food and drinks at a local restaurant or bar. But when you're at home, you need to get creative.
Schedule these informal gatherings on the last day of every work week and give employees a chance to unwind. Maybe ask them to order in and play a few games or discuss something fun.
A few recommendations include a cooking class, playing an online board game, or conducting an ice cream social.
Time needed: 30 minutes on the last day of every week (after work hours)
11. Home office tours
Remote employees usually don't get the benefit of accessing standard office supplies. So offering a remote office setup stipend is an incentive that many companies are investing in. The range can be from $500 to $2,000, depending on the employee's seniority.
Encourage employees to use this stipend to build the home office of their dreams. And then ask them to share their unique setups with everyone. It could be an excellent topic of discussion, and other team members might walk away with new ideas to upgrade their virtual office.
Time needed: 15 minutes occasionally
12. Pin the Tail on the Pony
Remember the popular birthday party game Pin the Tail on the Pony? Well, this is a virtual version of that game.
It's a great way to bring that energy into your virtual meetings. Unlike the original game where you're blindfolded, the host displays a custom background image, and the players are supposed to drop a pin wherever they find the object in question.
For example, you can spin up a world map and ask them to drop a pin on “Kazakhstan” or “The Black Sea.” The team that gets the most answers right wins.
This game allows you to get creative and funny. For instance, pin up an X-ray image and have people identify specific bones or share employee baby pictures and try to guess who it is.
Tip: Use the Clickable Image activity to display these interactive images.
Time needed: five-minute games in each session
13. Book clubs
If many employees in your organization love books, this will make the perfect activity for them. It'll bring people with different tastes and experiences together and give them the space to discuss their love for books.
You can host a dedicated #book-club channel on Slack or have a virtual meeting for this activity. Before doing so, determine if there's an interest in this activity by polling them and asking them about their favorite genres.
Ultimately, it offers opportunities for employees to develop critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal skills, contributing to their professional growth.
Time needed: 15 to 30 minutes for virtual meetings
14. Themed dinner parties
Like in-person dinner parties, a virtual one is an excellent way to unwind and bond with your team members. Set a theme and budget for a meal for each person.
On the day of the party, ask your employees to order their food and dress up based on the decided theme. Then you can host the party and carry on as you would in person.
If you want to add an extra layer of fun, use some team-building games like trivia night or discuss funny stories. You can also use a music playlist and add funny virtual backgrounds to make it a lively virtual party.
Time needed: Approximately one hour
15. Creative teams icebreaker
Creative teams need a break now and then. And an icebreaker question would do the trick. For instance, ask participants to imagine a fictional vacation to the Red Planet. Ask them to share their thoughts and respond to them in the chat.
If you're using a tool like Poll Everywhere, a Word cloud will grow and show you common themes. As more people use the same phrase, the word cloud will make that phrase bigger. It encourages friendly competition between team members to cheer their favorite ideas.
Tip: Use the Creative Team Icebreaker activity to spin it up in minutes.
Time needed: 30 minutes for each icebreaker activity
16. Show-and-tell
Show-and-tell is a simple yet engaging activity where employees share their latest creations, pets, or anything notable.
For instance, most people love meeting other people's pets and learning about their quirks. Or maybe your peers are indulging in a new creative project and want to share it with the world.
This would be the best place for those things, as you get a better look into your co-worker's life for a solid bonding session that cultivates compassion.
Time needed: 15 minutes in each session
17. Feedback sessions
Feedback is a crucial part of any organization. A report by Nectar found that 94% of full-time employees feel valued when they receive weekly feedback.
Moreover, organizations also function better when they solicit regular employee feedback. So implement regular feedback sessions to improve employee engagement. Create a channel where they can provide constructive criticism to improve the functioning of the workplace.
It creates transparency, fosters trust, and ensures continuous improvement. You can gather feedback after meetings, during a project, or send surveys for specific questions.
Tip: Use the Project Feedback activity for collecting feedback related to specific projects.
Time needed: five to 10 minutes for a feedback session
18. Knowledge sharing
Invite employees to share their knowledge on niche topics others might not know. For example, some might be experts in gardening hacks, while others are experts in product-led growth.
Depending on how formal or informal the discussion is, ask experienced individuals to share their expertise. It doesn't have to be a TED Talk, but it can serve a need that you've recognized.
By creating a platform for active sharing, more employees will be open to sharing their ideas too.
Tip: Use the Knowledge Sharing activity to spin up an open-ended back channel. 
Time needed: 30-minute sessions with a Q&A work best
19. Host a walking sessions
Health is always put on the back burner when employees work in a high-stress environment or become new parents. To encourage healthier activities, host a virtual walking session.
It can be a one-to-one or virtual team-building activity where you dedicate a specific day or period, and employees attend the meeting to walk together virtually.
You can encourage them to do this within their homes or on a safe walking track outside. It'll remove the feeling of isolation while promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Time needed: 30 to 45 minutes for each walking session
20. Conduct a family get-together session
Often, companies conduct a meet-and-greet session where employees bring their spouses and children to the session, but in a remote working environment, that’s not possible.
Moreover, remote workers face the common struggle of having family members, mostly children, come in while they're in a meeting. To make their children feel welcome, host family-oriented or “bring your child to work” sessions. You can also switch things up and host a “bring your pet to work” session too.
It also makes parents feel valued and welcome in the workplace, giving them a day to sit back and relax. Depending on the audience, you can also add board games to the mix.
Time needed: 30 to 60 minutes for each session
Conduct your next virtual employee engagement activity with Poll Everywhere
Employee engagement initiatives are still a massive priority for organizations, especially those with a remote working culture. Even though employees might be more productive, the sense of belonging and unity isn't as apparent as in an in-person setting.
You can foster a cohesive and positive company culture by investing the time to craft virtual employee engagement activities that encourage employee participation.
There are many activities that you can integrate into your team’s schedule to encourage them to play as hard as they work too. Ultimately, they foster camaraderie, strengthen bonds, and boost employee engagement among remote team members, no matter where they are located.
And if you need a tool with pre-built Activity templates that you can plug into your meeting or presentation software, then Poll Everywhere is a perfect choice. It integrates with popular platforms like Webex, Slack, and PowerPoint—bringing fun to every session you conduct. Plus, you can share this via polls or link-based surveys to gather real-time feedback.
Ready to build your remote employee engagement activity? Sign up for Poll Everywhere today.