Best Online Escape Room for remote team building?
Due to increased remote working, the need for remote team-building activities has also risen rapidly to address the team morale issues presented by the new COVID working world. This increase in demand for remote team-building activities has led to more and more creative ways of connecting teams across the world.
Online escape room games for remote employees are one of those creative solutions. Remote teams can play online scavenger hunts using any preferred video conferencing platform (Zoom, Teams etc.) The sole aim of an online scavenger hunt for remote employees is to quickly engage teams and improve team morale, all while staff are at their workstations without it even feeling like work. Online escape room games can also be custom made to align with a business' brand to add an extra layer for remote teams to engage with.
To get the best remote team building experience, select the right online escape room for your team's ability and team size. Split your staff into teams, explain the rules and set up the team video calls. Appoint a staff member to coordinate the game, award team prizes and emphasize the team-building aspect of the activity.
Follow these 7 simple steps when organising a virtual escape room game for remote employees:
Off-the-shelf or custom made game?
Decide time limit
Assign teams
Team video call setup
Play the game!
Award team prizes and share experiences!
1. Decide on an off-the-shelf or custom built game
Off-the-shelf games are ready to be purchased and played right away. As a result, they are cheaper and have been played by thousands of players. All you need to do is purchase a game on the product page (purchase one ticket for each team). Then follow the link to the game portal and enter the unique code shown in the email receipt to start the game for each team.
Custom made games use an existing game template that is tailored to your business or organisation. By working closely with your company representative, we are able to learn about your business and personalise an online scavenger hunt game to your organisation. This personalisation can be included in the story line, clues, images, characters in the game and even the company slogan or special/memorable brand information. The more information we have to include in the game, the more memorable and engaging the online escape room will be for your remote team members.
See information about our off-the-shelf and our custom made games here: online escape rooms for remote teams.
2. Decide the game's time limit
Work out how long you'd like your team-building activity to be. Our online scavenger hunt games usually range from 45 to 90 minutes. We usually recommend planning a 90 minute time slot for the team activity. This leaves time for a setup and game introduction as well as a team follow-up and networking opportunity following the game. If teams are running behind schedule the staff member who is game coordinator can prompt teams to take more hints and answers to finish on time. Custom made games can also be designed to meet a specified finishing time.
3. Split your staff into teams
Online escape room games are typically played in teams of 2-5 players. When played by remote teams over a video call, teams of 3 or 4 players are best. Teams of this size have enough players to bring together different ways of thinking but not too many that it affects the game experience or slow the team down. Once the teams have been assigned, give each team their unique game code. When splitting your staff into teams, think about the aim of the team-building experience. Do you want team members from different divisions to get to know each other? Would you like certain teams to get a chance to strengthen their team bond? These questions can help you decide how to create your teams.
4. Set up the team video calls
Have the staff coordinator instruct each team to set up a private video call with their team members. This can be done by having the staff coordinator communicate the game instructions to all remote employees at once at the start of the activity and then split the teams into groups in Zoom or Microsoft Teams. These separate groups can then breakaway into their teams and start the game. Otherwise, teams can go into their own private video calls and start the online escape room activity. This can work with smaller staff teams.
Usually, having a central staff member to coordinate and communicate the game instructions and split the teams into different video chat groups helps seamlessly lead the teams into the start of the game.
5. Play the Online Escape Room game!
Here's for the fun bit... Teams have been chosen, the game instructions have been explained. Now it's time for you to enter the game portal and solve your first clue! Make sure that teams read the game narrator's directions carefully and use hints and answers accordingly to finish in good time. In our online escape room games, each hint carries a 3 minute penalty and each answer taken adds 5 minutes to the team's finishing time. The key to succeeding at our online scavenger hunt games is teamwork. Listen to all the ideas that your team come up with. There's no such thing as a silly idea when it comes to remote team online escape room games!
6. Award team prizes and share experiences
To make the most of the remote team-building experience why not award prizes for the top three teams after the game? You could also award a funny prize for the team that finishes last to add to the lighthearted nature of the remote team activity. Remember, one of the main reasons you've gone to the effort to provide your remote team with a fun activity like an online scavenger hunt is to promote team working and boost team morale. So, it's a great opportunity for the team coordinator to deliver a message about how important their remote staff are to the business and how team morale is key to the success of a happy working environment and business, especially during these isolated COVID working times. After the game is finished, it's also a great chance for teams to network and chat for 10 minutes about what they enjoyed about the team experience and reflect on any learning outcomes that can be applied to the teams' ways of working!