Friday? Fri-YAY! On Fridays, it is common practice for many workplaces to observe special office rituals, which may include the adoption of a more relaxed dress code, the provision of a catered lunch, the holding of an afternoon happy hour, the reduction of the length of the workday, or the organization of an after-work activity for the team. A celebration of all of the hard work that you and your team have accomplished over the week should take place on Friday. Putting in extra effort to express appreciation for your team has the added benefit of boosting employee morale and contributing to the development of a positive culture in the workplace. The question now is how we might adapt these Friday workplace traditions to an environment where they take place online. Here are five exercises for team building that you may conduct on Friday with your remote team.

1. Order delivery and host a “Lunch and learn“

Even if we may not be able to provide a catered lunch over a Zoom call, we can nonetheless arrange delivery to the homes of each individual member of our team. When you combine getting lunch delivered to your office with discussing a new subject each week, you and your colleagues are effectively participating in a lunch and learn event together, albeit in an online setting. Explore the alternatives for local meal delivery services in advance, and be sure to make appropriate preparations, since restaurants tend to have limited delivery areas. Make sure that every member of your crew is able to have a lunch and that they are located within the restaurant’s delivery zone if that is the option you decide to go with. And if your team is too big to effectively organize the lunch delivery possibilities, give each member a stipend that they may use to order whatever meal they like from a restaurant that is located within their delivery zone.

2. Virtual happy hour

Even if there isn’t a liquor cart being wheeled around the workplace late on a Friday afternoon, that doesn’t mean you can’t still organize a virtual happy hour for your coworkers! You should get together with your staff on Fridays around the close of the workday and treat them to a relaxing drink (or two!) in the convenience of their own homes. Maintain an atmosphere that is professional, but yet casual, so that you and the other members of your team can feel comfortable letting loose after a hard week of work. In addition to having fun in each other’s company outside of the confines of a business setting, you should also organize some ice breakers or little games to round out the virtual happy hour. This will provide you the opportunity to get to know the individuals of your team better outside of their professional duties, allowing you to build deeper relationships within the team.

3. Pub trivia

A fun night out playing pub trivia is enjoyed by everyone. And because none of us can really go to the pub during social distancing for an evening of brain-exercising conversation, why don’t you arrange your very own trivia session with your remote team? Invite the members of your team to participate in a conference call, then separate everyone into smaller groups or, if you have a very small team, let solo play. Prepare a few rounds of questions that adhere to a common subject, such as history, geography, pop culture, science, or the arts; alternatively, think creatively and come up with a topic that is more narrowly focused. Play the game for no more than an hour at a time, and have fun while doing so by testing your team’s knowledge of many amusing and interesting topics.

4. Show and tell

Show and Tell is an engaging game that is played at the primary school level, and you may bring it to your coworkers if you work in a virtual environment. Because the majority of us work from the comfort of our own homes, finding an item around the house that has personal significance to us or that is associated with an intriguing anecdote should not be a difficult task. Ask every member of the team to give a brief presentation on something they have in their home and the reason why it is significant to them. This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know your coworkers on a deeper level and to acquire a better knowledge of each individual member of your team on a more personal level.

5. Go on a virtual tour

You may not be able to send your workers out for a team excursion, but you can surely be creative and take your team on a virtual adventure tour instead of going anywhere in the real world. You could go to a museum, a gallery, see a city or nation using Google Street View, or you could go a little bit more intimate and have some fun touring each other’s houses. If you are going to be giving each other house tours, you should definitely confer with your team ahead to see how comfortable everyone will be with the idea. There are a multitude of museums and galleries that are now operational online and provide free access to their collections.

Even though we will be working offsite throughout the COVID-19 conference, it does not mean that we cannot continue to let our hair down and have a good time with the other members of our team. It is a difficult time for all of us, so introducing some team building activities into our work week is a terrific approach to shift our attention and energy on to something good and socially-driven that will help us get through this stressful period. Because the personalities of the members of each group and their numbers are unique, determining which kinds of online games are suitable for your team might be difficult. Maintain a straightforward approach at first, and as you gain experience and learn from your mistakes, you may expand upon the activities. Encourage participation from your team members by soliciting their opinions on the weekly Friday activities you plan to run. First and foremost, don’t forget to have fun and be creative; Fridays are for celebrating all of the hard work that your team has put in over the week. Demonstrate to the members of your team that you value each of them for who they are as a person by planning a fantastic Friday activity for the team to participate in together.