How to Plan a VR Team Building Event

Team building is the foundation of strong company culture. Your team members need to know each other, trust each other, and rely on each other during various projects and assignments. In these COVID-riddled times, in-person bonding and team-building exercises have taken a back seat. Due to social distancing rules, many organizations have turned to virtual team building – and that is precisely where VR team building shines.

A VR group experience contributes to increased motivation and higher productivity, especially if your employees are limited to working in isolation from home.

Here is everything you need to know to plan a successful VR team-building event.

• Innovative Scenarios

In virtual reality, you can do anything! Transport your VR team to another planet, a date in history that’s long past, or come up with a fun balance game on top of a skyscraper. There is no limit to what your team-building experience can entail. Whatever you imagine can be realistically developed in VR. This enables you to generate honest responses from your team members that you otherwise would never be able to glean.

• High Levels of Engagement

In most team-building events, some stay on the sidelines, content in observing their teammates have fun. However, in virtual reality team building, engagement and interaction levels are through the roof! Design inclusive events where everyone gets a turn. These unique immersive experiences will foster friendly competition, strengthen your employee’s communication skills, and improve teamwork.

• Cost-Effective

Compared to spending money on transportation, accommodation, food, and other expenses of a traditional team building event, group VR activities are much more cost-effective. The initial investment in a VR headset and a computer that can run VR experiences may be high, but your teams can use and reuse those headsets time and again.

Furthermore, it isn’t wise to gather all your coworkers together in one space in the middle of a global pandemic. They can participate in virtual reality team building from the safety and comfort of their homes without exposing anyone to a potential respiratory infection!

When you consider traditional team building requirements (venue selection and booking, searching for props, coming up with games, etc.), virtual reality team building activities don’t require much.

• VR headset

The headset can be standalone (untethered to any device) or connected to a PC or console. It should come with VR controllers that people can use to interact with the VR environment. Additionally, your headset may have special sensors that track your body’s movements in space, making for a more immersive experience.

If you want better performance and more powerful graphics, you might need to sacrifice the freedom of movement for a professional-grade tethered headset such as the VIVE Pro.

If you’d rather that your team can move around without being connected to a computer or console, then a standalone headset such as the Oculus Quest 2 is a good option.

• PC or Console

For tethered headsets, you need something to connect them to. This something should be a powerful PC that can run VR applications or a gaming console such as a PlayStation. The PC should have a top-of-the-class graphic card and CPU to run VR team-building games smoothly.

Standalone headsets do not require any computer or device to be attached to – they already come with accessible platforms where you can browse the internet, watch movies, or play the VR applications you have installed.

• VR Application

Lastly, you need to choose the activity or game your team will participate in. There are dozens of published games and VR apps that will fit your needs out there. However, if you want something unique that you can’t find anywhere, you can always commission a software company to develop a VR game specifically for your business and your teams.

When considering a VR team-building event, you can go down two paths: either organize it yourself and acquire everything necessary for it, or hire a company to set it up for you.

If this is your first time stepping into group VR activities, maybe a short-term rental of VR devices and software is a good way to try everything out. It will be less expensive, and if you or your team end up not liking the experience, you can easily opt for a different activity or hardware set-up. Furthermore, professional VR team-building agencies often have facilitators and trainers who can help your staff get comfortable with the technology.

However, if the feedback is positive and you want to make it a more permanent thing in your company, continually renting VR devices and software is not the best financial move. In that case, you might want to consider investing in your own VR headsets, PCs, and equipment and setting up a more or less permanent VR team-building installment in your company. (Or, due to COVID-19, setting up a remote team building network.)

In the process of deciding whether to go solo or with a professional organization, consider the following:

• Short-term and long-term costs
• The interest (and excitement) levels of your staff
• The benefits of VR team building vs. traditional team building

Here are some of the best VR games for team building that you and your employees will absolutely love.

• Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

This adrenaline-packed game is all about defusing a bomb. One team member is in direct contact with the bomb – they need to accurately relay information to the other members so they can all work together to deactivate the explosive device. Time is running out, and the only thing that will help is to keep talking!

Best for: collaboration, communication, problem solving, friendly competition

• Fantastic Contraption

The goal of the game is to get the pink ball through the pink goal. To achieve this, you will have to build contraptions out of this world! This VR game stimulates your brain cells by making you think outside the box – build bridges, transportation devices, musical instruments, and so much more. What fantastic contraption will your team come up with first?

Best for: innovation, collaboration, problem solving

• Arizona Sunshine

If your team isn’t too squeaked out by zombies, they might get a kick out of this zombie apocalypse survival game! Arizona Sunshine pits you against hundreds of zombies coming your way that you must take out before it’s too late. Each employee should have their turn to see who survived the longest in the zombie assault!

Best for: friendly competition, communication, adrenaline rush

• Guided Meditation VR

In these uncertain times, we’re all under a lot of stress. Even if your team works remotely from home, they’re bound to be pressured by dozens of fears and anxieties of the modern lifestyle. Offer them an opportunity to kick back and relax in this Meditation VR experience. As a team, you will all take a moment to breathe, recenter yourselves, and prepare for future work challenges.

Best for: relaxation, collaboration, mindfulness

• Everest VR

One of the best VR team-building games is centered around summiting Mt. Everest. Team building often involves traveling to new and exciting destinations. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this is no longer possible in most of the world. However, with this one-of-a-kind VR experience, you and your team will get the opportunity to climb the tallest mountain in the world. No prior training required!

Best for: collaboration, communication, virtual field trip, problem solving

VR team building is experiencing a meteoric rise not only because it allows teams to come together remotely. It is also cost-effective, drives high levels of excitement and engagement from employees, and offers unique scenarios for corporate groups to try out.

All you need for a great enterprise VR team-building event is a VR headset (or several), a PC or console that can run a VR app (if the headsets aren’t standalone), and a VR application that will wow your employees!

We hope that our list of the best VR games for team building will prove helpful for you and your team members. If you’d like to have a custom-made VR team-building game for your company, don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us at ARVRtech. We’d be more than happy to help you build a fun solution that your organization will be able to use repeatedly!