Keeping remote employees engaged is crucial to maintaining a strong online workspace. A recent survey by Gallup noted engaged employees are 22% more productive than their peers, making workplace engagement a cornerstone of remote employee management strategies.

Here, we cover ten affordable and fun team event ideas to help strengthen your team’s connections without adding to the team leader’s workload. From Slack-integrated games perfect for taking a break from the daily grind to live events and hosted games for special occasions, these event ideas are perfect for remote and hybrid teams of all sizes.

1. Live Events

With employee engagement as a crucial need for remote and hybrid teams, what better way to engage your team than with a live game event? Live events from Luna Park make your team members feel in on the action, and with short, 10-minute game sessions, they’re easy to integrate into any team-building event.

A live host ensures that all employees feel included and participate in the gaming session, making this a great investment toward team connection and engagement. If you're looking for a way to drive engagement at your next event instantly, try a live gaming event in partnership with Luna Park.

2. Instant Slack Games

Taking a break from work can change your outlook and stave off burnout. With a full library of free-to-play and paid game options, CultureBot’s instant Slack games can revolutionize employee burnout and act as a fun team-building exercise for the office.

With games like Over Roasted, a barista take on the sensation Overcooked, or the pictionary-like Drawing a Blank, similar to the hit JackBox game Drawful, your team will have a great time building bonds with one another. If you're looking for a Slack integration to turn break time into fun, these games are right for you and your team.

3. Virtual Office Tours

This fun activity doesn't require any games to get off the ground. With physical workspaces, employees can connect by visiting each other's offices. However, this connection is lost with virtual and remote workspaces. This is where virtual office tours come in.

Not only can employees give coworkers a tour of their office, you can easily turn this video event into a game by having team members guess which office belongs to who. This is a great way to break the ice and help give team members a glimpse into each other’s workspaces and personal lives.

4. Virtual Happy Hour/Coffee Breaks

With virtual workspaces, going out for coffee or an after-work drink becomes complicated. One way to continue this time-honored workplace tradition is to host virtual happy hours/coffee breaks in your Slack channel.

This is a great way for team members to connect, and it pairs well with other social prompt apps like the CultureBot watercooler feature. That way, you can keep the conversation moving while each person enjoys their own beverage of choice.

5. Remote Book Club

A remote book club can be a great option if you’re looking for an event that doesn’t require a video call. By setting up a Slack channel for weekly book discussions, everyone can read at their own pace and post their thoughts as the topic arises. Using threads to keep conversations organized makes running a book club easier than ever.

Team members can choose a book for each month, or each person can read their own book and discuss it in the channel. However you run the book club, it’s a great chance for employees to better themselves while taking a nice break from the daily grind.

6. Monthly Challenges

External motivation can help us achieve our goals and strive to surpass them. By holding monthly challenges for healthy incentives, personal wellness, workplace growth, and more, you can keep your team members engaged while showing them you value their progress. Using a wellness program integrated with Slack allows you to track monthly progress easily, and offering incentives like gift cards can drive your employees to strive for greatness each month. This is a great way to encourage your team members to take care of themselves to stave off burnout and ensure they’re performing at their best while also striving for personal goals each month.

7. Online Birthday Parties

Who doesn’t like celebrating a birthday? Keeping track of workplace birthdays and anniversaries is a snap with a Slack extension for your work channels, meaning you can focus on throwing a virtual birthday bash. If you have a large office, you can break birthday celebrations into monthly parties to ensure no one feels left out.

While there are countless ways to celebrate employee birthdays, we’ve pulled together seven of the best in our recent blog post, so be sure to check that out for inspiration.

8. Trivia Night

Everyone loves a good trivia night. Whether using a trivia extension for your Slack channel or something like Kahoot!, trivia is a great way to engage your employees. You can host a normal trivia night or set up your workplace trivia extravaganza to test their knowledge and promote engagement. Be sure to offer virtual or physical prizes to encourage participation and drive friendly competition.

9. Recipe Swap Party

A recipe swap party is a great way to engage team members during lunchtime. Hosting monthly recipe swaps can be a great way to build team unity and, on the plus side, builds your recipe book, too. Whether you host a cooking hangout where everyone makes their own lunch or have a recipe swap Slack channel, trading recipes is a great way to bond as a team and gives you plenty of delicious foods to try in your spare time.

10. Watch Party

Thanks to the ability to share your screen on Slack, hosting a watch party is a no-brainer. From movies and TV shows to remote conferences, hosting a watch party can be a great way to engage employees. Consider setting aside a work snack fund so each member can buy their own snacks for the next watch party.

No matter what you decide to watch, keep a Slack channel open for a fun discussion. Just remember: no spoilers allowed!

If you’re looking for great ways to keep your team engaged, check out what CultureBot offers. Our unique suite of employee engagement tools helps take the stress out of employee engagement. Contact us today to learn more, or check out our features in the tabs above.

~ Amy