10 mins 
1. What are Virtual Wellness Activities?
Virtual wellness activities for work include programs, initiatives, and ideas to help remote employees stay mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy. These activities promote a positive work environment and support overall health and work-life balance.
2. 10 Best Virtual Wellness Ideas to Keep Your Team Motivated
2.1. Mindfulness and Mental Health Workshops
2.1.1. Chair Yoga Class by Hooray Teams
The Chair Yoga session by Hooray Teams is perfect to help your team improve body posture and energy flow. Their immersive Chair Yoga experience is a simple 60-minute session that helps improve body posture and energy flow.
A skilled instructor will lead you through gentle stretches, mindful breathing exercises, and calming meditation techniques—all from the comfort of your home space while you're seated in a chair. Whether you're just starting or dealing with limited mobility, this all-inclusive practice aims to enhance flexibility, build strength, and ease stress.
2.1.2. Guided Meditation Sessions
Mental strength must be given as much importance as our physical strength, and online meditation sessions are a way to do so as part of virtual team wellness activities. Hooray Teams can help you kick-start the journey with weekly or fortnightly Online Meditation Classes under the guidance of professional instructors.
Seven months ago, we added meditation sessions to our list of virtual wellness activities. We all experienced increased feelings of calmness, heightened focus during work hours, and a sense of collective camaraderie as we shared this wellness journey. So, we recommend that you and your team give it a shot.
Check out the article on virtual meditation classes and virtual yoga classes for enhancing mindfulness, reducing stress, and promoting overall well-being in the digital age.
2.1.3 Zen Doodle Jam
Doodling is perfect for teams to reduce stress and improve focus at work. The Hooray Team’s Doodle Art Jam is ideal for teams to relax, unwind, and enjoy a creative break. An expert host shares mindful prompts for teams to imagine and sketch whatever comes to their mind, promoting inner calm.
The prompts may include, ‘Draw your comfort zone’, ‘Sketch your mood as a pattern’, or ‘Doodle what peace looks like to you.’ It’s a simple wellness activity where teams largely draw simple shapes, patterns, and repeating lines, so no drawing experience is required.
2.2. Fitness and Exercise Challenges
2.2.1. Online Group Workouts
While a desk job is already sedentary, working from home adds insult to injury as movement is reduced even further. You can conduct online group workouts for your remote team, with a fitness instructor leading these sessions. Set a ‘Workout Wednesday’ or a ‘Fitness Friday’ schedule in your Google Calendar, send invites to the employees, and work out together.
Following our company town hall meeting, we decided to offer weekly workout classes to anyone interested. And nearly 90% of the staff signed up, indicating how long everyone had been waiting for something like this. Group workouts work wonders as virtual wellness activities because everyone is in it together, creating a communal experience!
2.2.2. Digital Step Challenge
Working from home saves you from those long commutes, but may lead to reduced physical activity. It is essential to be mindful of how often you walk by tracking your steps with a Digital Steps Challenge. Most smartphones and fitness wristbands have built-in step trackers, or pedometers, making it easy to set daily goals and stay consistent in the journey.
Decide on a daily goal you want your employees to achieve - say 7000 steps. Those who achieve or even exceed the daily minimum target earn their spot on the leaderboard. Every fortnight or once a week, the first two employees with the highest step counts can be awarded an Amazon gift card or a one-month healthy meal subscription. This will keep your teams healthy and motivate them to increase their steps!
2.2.3 Dance Wellness
Give your teams the chance to move and groove as they shake their stress off with Hooray Team’s Virtual Dance Wellness Session. An expert instructor will guide teams through a series of gentle warm-ups with easy stretches and light movements.
This will be followed by an energetic, wellness-themed dance routine in styles such as Zumba, freestyle, or even Jazzercise-inspired moves. You can also customize the session to match your team’s preferences so they can participate in something they actually like.
2.3. Online Games and Activities to Relieve Stress
2.3.1. Murder Mystery Events
An exciting whodunit party is a surefire way to get everyone involved in a team bonding experience. These events combine logical and critical thinking with fun to create a playful atmosphere for you and your team members.
Our team had so much fun participating in the Hooray Teams Virtual Murder Mystery - Murder at the Manor game, which spanned 60 minutes.
We were given some clue materials before the event, including a last will, a newsletter, a title deed, and more. The suspects were played by professional actors, adding an extra layer of fun to the investigative journey.
2.3.2. Virtual Escape Room
Virtual team escape rooms are among the fun virtual wellness activities and make for an excellent stress-buster. The immersive and challenging nature of these experiences provides a refreshing break from the monotony of daily tasks. Remote employees are divided into teams to escape a room against a ticking clock via any supported video conferencing platform. They need to solve riddles and puzzles and unearth hidden clues to escape successfully.
We’ve made it a practice to play a virtual team escape room game once a month, resulting in a positive team-building experience and a fun time with each other!
Check out these intriguing escape room games from Hooray Teams:
2.3.3. Stress Buster Bingo
The Stress Buster Bingo by Hooray Teams is great for teams to enjoy a fun break and unwind together. A lively host will share digital bingo cards filled with wellness-themed prompts with the team members before the game. Participants just need to listen to the host’s call, mark off the matching squares to create a winning combo (row, column, or diagonal), and shout ‘Bingo!’ to win.
2.4. Skill Enhancing Workshops
2.4.1. Terrarium Building
The Terrarium Workshop by Hooray Teams is a calming activity that lets teams slow down and connect with nature. Guided by an expert, teams assemble rocks, soil, sand, moss, and succulents in a glass jar to create their mini gardens. By the end of the class, they will have a green desk decor to elevate their workspace.
Before the class, the platform will deliver all the necessary materials to the participants' doorsteps so they don’t have to source anything in advance. Also, if you have any questions or requests, their event managers will help you with them during the booking process.
2.4.2. Healthy Cooking Classes
Gourmets and epicureans will love a healthy or vegan cooking experience beyond anything. Starting a healthy cooking club can be one of the best virtual employee wellness ideas for remote employees, helping them eat nutritious, balanced meals to stay fit while working from home. You can motivate them to share healthy recipes they can cook and upload snaps of the dishes for community engagement.
You can also schedule real-time virtual cooking sessions where employees can watch each other cooking and have fun! We started this activity with Hooray Teams, and to our surprise, there were many hidden ‘chefs’ in our team! A couple of us who hardly step into the kitchen have now mastered Pasta Making for a perfect Sunday brunch. We strongly suggest giving it a spot on your list of virtual wellness activities.
2.5. Virtual Social Events
2.5.1. Virtual Happy Hours
Virtual happy hours are a must on your virtual wellness program ideas list! It provides a much-needed break from the daily grind and creates a space where colleagues can relax, be themselves, and engage in casual conversations, contributing significantly to mental well-being.
The ideas for virtual happy hours can be mutually decided based on your team’s preferences. For those who enjoy relaxing with fine spirits, try Hooray Team’s engaging Virtual Cocktail Making class. Some other options could be Elixir mocktail-making (perfect for non-drinkers), a Netflix marathon, a paint-and-sip, or a themed Virtual Trivia Game.
We make it a point to bond with our remote employees and regularly arrange virtual happy hours, where everyone shares what they’ve been up to or just jokes around, and we always leave the meeting feeling better.
2.5.2. Play Coffee Roulette
Coffee is a universally loved beverage and you can use this love to strengthen your employees’ friendships. You can sign up with Coffee Roulette, choose the frequency of coffee meetings, add all employees’ email addresses, and set the start date there. The employees will receive an email invite to accept and enter their available days. Based on the same, it will pair up employees and send invites with details of their next “coffee partners”.
We enjoyed it because it helped us get reacquainted with team members we weren’t regularly in touch with. What’s more, it introduced us to various employees from different departments whom we barely knew. Over the past year, we have gotten to know them well, thanks to coffee roulette parties!
Explore our articles on employee wellness boxes, and corporate wellness companies to boost productivity in remote teams.
3. FAQs
3.1. How do you host a virtual wellness program?
- Select a video conferencing platform, such as Zoom or Google Meet, that suits your team size and provides the necessary features.
- Schedule the virtual wellness sessions in advance after checking the availability of all employees.
- Choose virtual wellness activities for remote employees to boost team building.
- Hire a professional instructor if needed.
- Set calendar reminders for recurring virtual wellness activities.
- Include optional rewards such as Amazon gift cards, meal vouchers, and online subscriptions to encourage participation.
3.2. How can you improve wellness while working from home?
- Eat a healthy and nutritious diet. Cut down on junk and unhealthy food items.
- Keep yourself hydrated throughout the day.
- Dedicate some time to virtual team wellness activities workouts, yoga, meditation, or even just 15 minutes of daily walking.
- Set up your home office for more comfort, proper posture, and a conducive work environment.
- Maintain a healthy work-life balance.
- Establish strong connections with your remote colleagues.
- Set up a daily routine and stick to it.
3.3. What are the best wellness activities for employees?
Some of the best wellness activities for employees are walking meetings, mid-day fitness, fitness challenges, employee surveys, mental health workshops, meditation breaks, and flu shots.
3.4. What are some examples of free virtual wellness activities for work?
Some popular free options for virtual wellness activities include home workout challenges, icebreaker games, and free wellness webinars. Also, mindfulness and meditation sessions conducted via video conferencing platforms offer a calming and rejuvenating experience.
3.5. What are some fun virtual wellness activities?
Doodle jams, dance wellness, and laughter yoga are some fun health and wellness activities for teams.
