Team building day ideas that will bring your remote SME team together

Almost 60% of UK employers now offer remote work opportunities, with many more embracing hybrid work environments. While this comes with plenty of perks, from cost savings to increased productivity, it also means your team might not get together so often. In business, though, a strong connection between employees is vital for seamless collaboration.

That’s where team building days come in. Learn how to engage remote employees and bring your SME team together with these fun team building ideas.

Outdoor Sports Day

Try a DIY remote team building event with an outdoor sports day. Set up a series of games in a local park or indoor sports centre, or carry out sporty tasks as checkpoint challenges. Games could include:

• Classic relay races
• Tug of war
• Giant Jenga
• A scavenger hunt

Add an extra layer of competition with team colours and a leaderboard to track progress throughout the day.

This is a super cost-effective way of bringing your team together, making it great if your small business is on a budget. It encourages teamwork, boosts morale, and gets everyone moving and laughing in a relaxed environment.

It’s well-known, too, that spending time outdoors reduces stress, making this a great way to give your entire team a mental health boost. Whether breaking the ice or blowing off steam, an outdoor sports day delivers big results with minimal spend.

Race Across the World

Race Across the World is a hit TV show, following different teams as they race across countries with no phones and no flights allowed. Now, you can bring the adrenaline-pumping adventure to your team building day with Race Across the World: The Experience.

In a fun foot race across the city, your employees can either split into smaller groups or compete as a single team racing against the current leaderboard. They’ll have to budget (with virtual money) and plan, using their creativity to find the quickest way around the city without using public transport.

There are puzzles, riddles, and plenty of twists and turns along the way. In terms of team building, this is a great chance to develop communication and collaboration skills, as well as how to think strategically under pressure. Your team will need to delegate tasks and adapt quickly if they want a chance at winning this race.

Current locations for Race Across the World: The Experience are London and Manchester.

Host a Cooking Class

Bring a new twist to your next team building day with a fun cooking class. Whether you're a foodie who wants to lead the session yourself or you'd rather bring in a local chef or catering business to run the show, this is a hands-on, feel-good activity that everyone can enjoy.

Learn to roll sushi, make pasta from scratch, or cook your own pizzas in an outdoor pizza oven - the choice is yours!

Cooking together is a great opportunity for team building. You can split your team into two or more groups and host a mini masterchef, or focus on building connections and having fun by cooking up a shared menu. 

The best part? Once you’ve cooked up a storm, you can sit down to eat your culinary creations, bringing your remote team together over a meal they’ve cooked themselves.

Get Together to Volunteer

Embrace team building with employee volunteering and make a positive change in your community. Organise a group day out to help out at an animal rescue centre or food bank, for instance, or clean up your local beach.

Volunteer days bring tons of perks, including encouraging teamwork, helping remote staff get to know each other, and boosting morale.

They’re also a great way to showcase your company’s values in action, highlighting to your team and your community that you’re committed to making a difference. It’s a win-win; your team bonds, and your community benefits.

Online Games Competitions

Team building for remote teams can be done entirely online, too. If you have a workforce spanning the country (or globe!), this is a simpler way to help your team get to know each other.

Try hosting an online games competition, for instance. Fun, engaging, and easy to put together, you can make this a regular event to improve communication across your remote team. 

Some standout online games that are great for bringing people together include:

• Skribbl.io: A free drawing and guessing game. Players take turns illustrating words while teammates race to guess them in real time. It's like Pictionary, but with a digital twist.
• Gartic Phone: One player writes a quirky prompt, another draws it, and the chain continues. At the end of the game, the final guess and original prompt are compared, and your team can see just how far they strayed from the original idea.
• Codenames: A clever word‑association game where spymasters guide their team to guess secret words on cards with one‑word clues, without accidentally picking the assassin card.

These are all budget-friendly, a lot of fun, and a great way to cultivate a positive work environment, even when your team works remotely. 

Themed Dress Up Calls

Another remote team building idea is to host themed dress-up calls. Simple but fun, use these as an opportunity to encourage your employees to get to know each other. A great team, after all, is one that can communicate with ease.

You might host a call where everyone has to dress up as their favourite film character, for instance. This is a brilliant conversation starter and a way to move the chat beyond work. Looking for something a little easier? Hawaiian shirt days and pyjama parties also go down a treat and take less effort. 

To add another level to these calls, carry out voting for the best-dressed team members and award fun virtual prizes. 

Final Thoughts

Running a business isn’t just about deadlines and targets. With these team building ideas, you can boost morale, strengthen collaboration, and keep your remote team feeling engaged and valued.

Looking for more SME business tips? Check out the latest on the Business West blog.