Here are 20 ideas you can steal for your next virtual lunch at work. We have included a range of ideas from fun and entertaining breaks in the workday to icebreaker games to play for 5 minutes before you begin a meeting to lift the team’s energy. We have also included some ideas to help inspire and support your employees and help them to feel valued.
All of these activities have been chosen for their ability to act as virtual team-building exercises and help you and your colleagues stay connected online. We have also included some instructions and helpful links to get you started and assist your virtual lunch planning.
How Do You Do A Virtual Lunch?
To organise the perfect virtual lunch, you will need to choose a virtual group video chat software and do some prior planning for the games you want to play or events you wish to organise. You may even need to book with a professional third party.
Once you have chosen your virtual lunch idea, inform your team so they can secure the virtual lunch in their diary or online calendar and let them know what you plan on getting up in case they need to prepare in advance for the virtual hangout.
Group video chat application options:
Virtual Lunch Ideas For During The Working Day
These virtual lunch ideas don’t take long and aren’t too distracting so that you can get back to work after your lunch break. In addition, these ideas can help boost company morale and promote interpersonal connections in the workplace to enhance your teamwork.
1. Organise a Speaker
Tune in to a ‘virtual live podcast’ and enjoy a 30-minute talk by a speaker of your choosing. You can choose from motivational speakers, nutrition experts, comedians or whatever tickles your fancy. Employees can list while on a walk or just pottering around in their homes. After the call, you can gather to chat about the topic and discuss your thoughts.
2. Meditation
Practising mindfulness or meditation can help improve relaxation and stress management. There are tonnes of online guided meditations to follow on sites such as Headspace or even just on YouTube. Meditation can be a great way to reset your intentions for the day and reduce workplace anxiety, even if you only allocate 5-10 minutes a week.
3. Share Your Recommendations
Bring everyone together to share their opinions and discoveries with the group. Inform everyone to offer 1-3 recommendations. E.g. great books, a new app, TV show, kitchen gadgets etc.
4. Award Ceremony
Reward hard-working employees and recognise achievements as a group with a virtual award ceremony.
5. Virtual Coffee Meetings
Similar to a meeting, but the agenda is to discuss all things non-work related for 30 minutes over a cup of tea or coffee. Virtual coffee catch ups are a great way to book in time to chat about your personal lives so that your meetings can stay on topic while also allowing you to get to know each other on a more personal level during the working day.
Icebreaker Games For Virtual Introduction Lunches
Icebreaker games are a fun, engaging way to introduce two teams together virtually or a new team member to the group.
So what are some fun ways to start a virtual meeting? Glad you asked. Here are five games you can play in under 5 minutes to help get the ball rolling in your next virtual meeting.
6. Two Truths and a Lie
Two truths and a lie is a quick game that can help you and your team get to know each other on a different level and allow time to tell some outrageous stories that don’t often make it into the boardroom. Tell your three stories and have everyone guess which one is a lie. Just be sure to let everyone know you are playing this a few hours in advance so they can prepare their stories.
7. Guess Who?
This game is better if your team knows each other somewhat already. The host can list traits, accomplishments or facts about an individual and everyone has to try to guess who it is. Keep it professional.
8. Riddles
Bring a list of riddles and brain teasers to lift the mood before a meeting and get everyone’s brain in action. You can find riddles online, such as which has teeth but cannot bite? (a comb) or what has one eye but cannot see? (a needle).
9. Quickfire Questions
There are two routes you can take with a game of rapid-fire questions, either you ask facts, or you can put individuals in the hot seat and ask them to answer some opinion-based questions quickly. This game can be a great way to get to know people and spark some funny conversations in the group.
10. Would You Rather?
Prepare some would you rather questions for the group to debate. This game can be a great way to spark healthy discussion between your team and get to know everyone a little better.
Fun Virtual Lunch Ideas
11. Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Divide into teams or play individually to win points by retrieving everyday household items before the clock runs out. For example, the host may read out a list of things and whoever brings back the most in the time frame wins a point. You can include items such as wooden spoons, a green pen, a tv remote etc.
12. Send Out Food
If you have a small team, you can organise for the company to send them lunch from the same restaurant. Then you can enjoy your lunch over a virtual meeting together. Besides, food purchased by your company always improves the team morale.
13. Charades Online
Charades is a popular team game that many people are already familiar with. Simply organise a list of tv shows, films, books, songs ahead of time, divide into teams on your virtual meeting and then as the host, you can use the online chat feature to send the ‘actor’ a word to describe using actions only (no words or sounds) to their team for them to guess. If they guess in the timeframe their team wins a point.
14. Talent Show
If your team is comfortable showing their skills on camera, organise a talent show. Whereby each member can showcase their talent to the group. You can suggest talents such as writing a poem, singing, showing off your pets new trick, solving a Rubik’s cube etc.
15. Dance Workout Videos
To liven the mood in the middle of the day, choose a silly dance workout video on Youtube and gather your friends or workmates to let loose over zoom. The cheesier the music, the better!
16. Online Escape Rooms
Although this remote virtual lunch idea may take around 1 hour to 90 minutes to complete, a virtual escape room is a wonderful collaborative exercise to improve communication and teamwork. It is also something a little bit different and memorable than just a virtual catch-up.
17. Cheese or Chocolate Tasting
If you are a group of foodies, a food or drink tasting event is a great option! Whose mood isn’t improved by a little cheese and wine anyway? You can plan the event yourself and research tasty cheeses or chocolates to try and send a box of goodies to everyone’s home in preparation for the event. Alternatively, you can book with a company that specialises in virtual tasting experiences.
18. Cooking Class
Cook a meal together with an instructor and get a predetermined list of ingredients. Then enjoy your food over zoom and chat as if you were eating in person. The cooking class can act as an ice breaker, and eating the same meal will help you feel as though you are at a dinner party.
19. Virtual Happy Hour
What are virtual happy hours? Enjoy a virtual social gathering on Zoom, Microsoft Team, or Google Meet instead of down in the pub. Ok, it might not have quite the same atmosphere, but you can bring a beverage of your choice and play some background music to set the scene.
These events are great for a Friday lunchtime where you can catch up with your colleagues and chat about all this not related to work.
20. Recipe Share
Each week choose a person to share their favourite recipe for a main course or baked good that everyone can try at home. Like ‘cake Fridays’, where employers bring in dessert to share in the office, you can share food and recipes virtually for everyone to try at home.
Enjoy Your Virtual Lunch!
Sometimes virtual group meetings can seem somewhat forced or awkward, especially if the team members aren’t familiar with each other or haven’t been able to meet face to face. Hopefully, this list of ideas can get your next virtual lunch or pre-meeting chat can get off to a roaring start.
