Performance & Culture • 7 MIN READ
Team Building for Remote and Hybrid Teams: What Actually Works
MAY 12, 2026
Traditional team-building activities do not translate directly to remote and hybrid environments. Here is what the evidence says actually builds connection across distance.
What remote teams need differently
Research from Microsoft's Work Trend Index found that weak ties, the casual connections between colleagues who do not work closely together, atrophy significantly in remote and hybrid settings. Strong ties within immediate teams remain relatively strong because daily work provides natural interaction. It is the broader organisational connections that remote work erodes, which matters for collaboration, innovation, and the sense of belonging that sustains engagement. Effective remote team building targets this weak-tie problem specifically.
What works and what does not
Virtual escape rooms, online quizzes, and video call social events have mixed effectiveness: they can be enjoyable but rarely build the sustained connection that in-person time produces. What works better: structured cross-functional projects that give people a genuine reason to collaborate with colleagues they would not normally work with; mentoring or peer-coaching pairings that create a sustained relationship over months; and deliberate investment in a small number of in-person gatherings per year (research suggests two to four per year is sufficient to sustain connection for teams that are otherwise remote).
