Christine Dunbeck
Marketing Manager

The spread of COVID-19 has forced us to find ways to keep employees engaged while remaining socially distant. Our full team is working from home, which can be lonely and cause us to feel disconnected from our peers. Thus, we’ve been working to establish enjoyable, and virtual, get-togethers to stay in touch.

Encouraging fun activities for the team can help maintain a sense of camaraderie and normalcy during these trying times. Staff will be thankful for the distraction of the stress from living through a global pandemic and a chance to connect with their team. At MARS, we plan a weekly hour-long call where we schedule an activity, such as:

  1. Personalized photo guessing game – We have everyone anonymously submit a photo and have their coworkers guess who submitted it. It could be of a pet, a home workspace, a plant, a favorite vacation, family, friends – the possibilities are endless. It’s a fun way to learn about each other while giving employees control over what they share.
  2. Trivia – We nominate one employee to think of questions and run a trivia game. They find or brainstorm questions and ask them while on a call with colleagues. Each participant keeps track of their responses. At the end of the game, go through the answers and have each person tally results (have everyone share their answers before giving the results if you want to verify). A fun twist is to personalize the questions about your coworkers (e.g., Who has the longest commute? Who has a cat named Fluffy? Who dreams of one day visiting Greece?)
  3. Bingo – This can be an ideal solution if you have a bigger team. There are free bingo card generators and bingo callers. Increase the competition by adding prizes for winners of various combinations such as 4-corners, full house, or horizontal row.
  4. Ask a question – Send out a prompt that will get a fun and friendly discussion going (but stay away from things that could get heated such as religion or politics). Examples include: If an alien asked you to go to their planet, would you? If you could go anywhere in the world regardless of budget and time restraints, where would you go and why? If you were forced to live on a deserted island and could only bring 3 things, what would they be?