Why Use Virtual Reality For Team Building?
Updated: Jan 01, 2024.
When planning an in-person or virtual team building event there are many great options to consider. From deciding on your overall goals to thinking through the specific activities to help you achieve them, your plate is undoubtedly full. Team building can take on many forms and different goals require completely different experiences. That’s where virtual reality (VR) comes in as a powerful team building tool. With VR, anything is possible. No matter what your goal is, there is a virtual reality experience that can help make it happen.
This flexibility is achieved through VR’s ability to create any type of experience for your team. We’ve helped plan events where teams are taken on a an amazing virtual field trip to Mt. Everest, where guests are asked to collaborate with each other to achieve objectives in a virtual environment, or even where attendees foster a sense of friendly competition through VR challenges that make sure everyone is having a great time. It’s not often that you can offer your team a chance to work together while exploring a completely virtual world and creating memories that they will never forget.
How To Use VR For Team Building:
A powerful aspect of using virtual reality for team building is that you get to decide exactly how your attendees interact with the experience as well as with each other. It can be beneficial to have experiences where each attendee is guided in their very own VR landscape; however, it can be just as useful to create a fun, engaging group dynamic with multiple people interacting at once. Additionally, sometimes you might want both, and with virtual reality that's no problem!
We’ve put together a list of our favorite team building themes and goals, along with specific VR experiences for each, that will help you make a decision on what type of virtual reality team building event is right for you and your attendees. Ranging from relaxed experiences perfect for getting your team to take a breath, to exhilarating adventures that will have you and your co-workers ready to tackle any challenge, these examples should give you an idea of what to expect when planning a team building event using virtual reality.
Check Out Our Featured VR Team Building Experiences
Before you jump in to our top ten team building experiences, check out our current featured options. To give you a more in-depth look at these experiences, we've included videos, a mock up of your event space, specific benefits of each option, customer reviews, and more. We're always excited to bring fun, engaging, and unique to team building events, and we're confident that we can help develop your perfect event plan! Between these featured experiences and our top 10 experiences, this is the place to start thinking about your upcoming event.
Our Top 17 Virtual Reality (VR) Team Building Experiences
1. Virtual Worlds - Interact With Your Team When You Can’t Be Together
Uses: Collaboration / Communication / Teamwork / Meetings / Games / Happy Hours / Presentations
Let’s start with Virtual Worlds! This is a great option if you’re looking to get you team together when you can’t physically be in the same room. It acts as a VR meeting space where you can throw a dance party, host a team discussion, hop on a VR happy hour, and more. you can customize your avatar to mimic your real world style, or maybe try something new in the VR world.
We can help you set up every step of creating a team building event through altspace. From equipment, to guiding you through the experience and supporting your event, we’ll share the best practices we’ve learned to make sure you and your guests have a great time.
2. Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes - Intense Group Puzzle Experience
Uses: Collaboration / Communication / Teamwork / Problem Solving / Friendly Competition / Fun
Are you ready to see your attendees prove their team working skills? In this intense VR experience, one person wears a VR headset while up to four teammates are equipped with instructions that will help them diffuse a virtual bomb. The only way to overcome this challenge is by working together, and this experience is a great way to get people communicating in order to achieve a common goal.
We recommend this team building experience for any event where teamwork, collaboration, and communication are important focuses. While there is no doubt your guests will have a great time in VR, they will also get the chance to work with their teammates in an exciting, new way, while seeing if they can keep calm under pressure.
3. Sports Bar VR: Get to Know Your Team Outside of Work
Uses: Communications / Games / Happy Hour / Friendly Competition / Fun
Sports bars are an old standby for getting to know new friends. Sports Bar VR merges the laid back vibe with modern technology to take the fun to new levels. Give your team a chance to really blow off steam at your next event. Sports Bar VR offers a perfect environment to relax between, before, or instead of formal team building. Up to eight players can partake in darts, ramp ball, or shuffleboard at a time. (It’s no problem if your team is larger. We’ll simply set up multiple stations.) Participants rave about the realistic range of pool games, too. Just make sure you warn your attendees not to lean on the table!
Not only does Sports Bar VR include all of the games you’d find in a traditional pub, but players are also permitted to cut loose. Get creative. Whether your team wants to test a theory about how high they can build a tower of chairs or they aspire to host a full pool stick sword fighting championship, we’ve got you covered.
4. Rec Room: The Ultimate Group Hangout
Uses: Games / Friendly Competition / Relaxation / Teamwork / Fun
The Rec Room VR game is as multipurpose as its namesake. Paintball, laser tag, dodgeball, charades, and nearly any other team-based game you can think of are waiting for your team with thousands of user-generated and custom game and event rooms to choose from. Casual mini games and co-op quests provide an added opportunity for your attendees to bond by facing challenges together. In between the excitement, your team members can enjoy a peaceful stroll through a colorful park or a nice chat with a colleague in a calming lounge.
Are you unsure which of the games will fit best into your broader team-building experience? Not to worry! Our expert team is available to collaborate with you. Together, we can create a custom, private Rec Room that fits the theme and end-goal of your event.
5. Ruckus Ridge: Team Building Exercises That Just Feel Like Fun
Uses: Teamwork / Friendly Competition / Fun / Problem Solving / Collaboration / Communication
Team building retreats just got a lot more tense - in a fun way! You won’t find any trust-falls here. In Ruckus Ridge, one colleague does their best to interfere as three others take a cooperative approach to achieve a variety of missions. Up to 4 team members can play Ruckus Ridge at a time. For larger groups, we can set up multiple stations to accommodate more participants at once.
Colorful game environments and endless strategic possibilities make this game a refreshing team building opportunity that never gets old. It’s up to the players to choose whether they’ll form alliances or become enemies, which can lead to some surprising insights into the interpersonal dynamics of your team. Best of all, there will be lots of laughs along the way. If your attendees are fans of classic local-multiplayer games like “Mario Party,” Fuzion Frenzy,” or “Hidden in Plain Sight,” they’ll take to Ruckus Ridge like potatoes to couches. Now your only problem will be getting them to give up the controller when it’s over.
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6. The Experiment Escape Room: A Heart-Pounding Approach to Team Building
Uses: Team Building / Fun / Cooperation / Communication
Everyone loves an escape room. Working together to defeat the “villain” is an exciting feat that can only be achieved through communication and teamwork. The Experiment Escape Room makes it easy to bring the thrilling challenge of an escape room - and all of its team building benefits- to your team anywhere, anytime.
If the members of your group enjoy mystery, intrigue, and horror, this game is a sure way to spice up your next team building event. The Experiment: Escape Room feels like a genuine, in-person escape challenge. Up to six team members at a time can work together in VR to solve puzzles, uncover hints, and unlock doors to gain access to new areas with new atmospheres. Have a bigger team? We can set up multiple stations to let everyone in on the fun.
Each team will only reach safety through putting their minds together. Communicating carefully and quickly is key. For some added friendly competition, your team can also opt to be locked in separate rooms and work alone to see who can escape first.
7. Reiko’s Fragments: Terrifying Teamwork
Uses: Fun / Friendly Competition / Team Building / Cooperation / Problem Solving
How well do the members of your team know each other? Can they work together so well that it’s scary? Choose your venue carefully: It’s impossible not to scream while playing this VR vs crowd game. Described as a “genuinely scary horror game” and “the best VR can offer,” it’s no wonder that Reiko’s Fragments earned an award for being the “most immersive game”.
One participant steps into a VR haunted house to solve a mystery and escape alive, but up to eight others are determined not to let them. Acting as ghosts, your team will use phones to manipulate the highly detailed, downright eerie environment to stop the escapee from their goal. Additional group members can watch the VR player’s experience play out on the big screen like a new favorite horror flick. It may sound a bit mean at first, but we promise it’s for a purpose! By the end of it all, your attendees will form new friendships and bonds, and you’ll gain new information about their personalities, too. Working with a large group, and want more team members to be able to participate at once? Not to worry. We can create multiple stations that minimize downtime between games.
8. Takelings House Party: It’s Eight Against One in This House Full of Fun
Uses: Fun / Cooperation / Friendly Competition / Relax / Happy Hour
You’ll want plenty of space for this, “chaotic, disastrous, hilarious mess”! Takelings are a new kind of pest, and Hal wants them out of his once-peaceful, suburban home immediately. They may look silly, but they must be exterminated. In a frantic and whimsical VR experience, one participant will do their best to hunt the Takelings, played by up to eight phone participants, down. Tear down the walls. Put them in the toaster. Do whatever it takes to win.
If your team talks among themselves to develop a solid strategy, they just may drive their assailant crazy. Each room of the house features a different game for your team to face off in. It’s a party! This local multiplayer game is exactly what you need if your team has a tendency to take things too seriously. Participants can’t help but smile all throughout Takelings House Party. Your attendees won’t even notice the work they’re putting in building their team until a victor is crowned.
9. Chicks and Tricks VR: Fast, Easy Fun for Two
Uses: Friendly Competition / Fun / Happy Hour / Problem Solving / Relaxation
Whether you want to ignite friendly competition on purpose or simply want to offer the attendees of your team building event an opportunity to laugh, Chicks and Tricks VR makes it fast and fun. Effectively simple, the game pits a farmer protecting his chickens against a hungry fox, named Tricks. Armed with a VR headset, a net and sheer willpower, the farmer player fights off the fox’s pc-based onslaught with fervor until someone breaks down giggling or the player with the most points wins the round.
Silly sound effects and colorful animation make Chicks and Tricks VR a lighthearted break from more “official” team building activities. It’s easy to learn, and doesn’t require large scale cooperation as much as a keen eye and quick reflexes. However, it is possible to create your own mini tournament with multiple rounds to make the experience even more engaging across the group!
10. Fantastic Contraption - Problem Solving Experience Designed For Fun
Uses: Innovation / Problem Solving / Collaboration / Teamwork / Fun
If you want your attendees to have a great time while solving unique challenges and showing off their critical thinking skills, then this VR experience is a great choice. In “Fantastic Contraption”, your guests will be equipped with a set of tools allowing them to build anything they can imagine in order to solve virtual reality puzzles. We can guarantee that none of your guests will have the same solution, which highlights the specific strengths of your team members while showing that there are many different ways of thinking through challenges.
This experience is perfect for team building events where you want your guests to think outside of the box. You’ve never seen a challenge like this before, and your attendees will have a great time figuring out how to create the best solution. If you’re looking to promote innovation and problem solving, it doesn’t get much better than this.
11. NBA 2K VR - Friendly Competition Sure To Bring Your Team Closer
Uses: Friendly Competition / Fun / Teamwork
One of the best ways to get your next virtual reality team building events going is by giving your guests the ability to compete against each other. One of our favorite ways to do that is through NBA 2K VR, a basketball themed challenge where guests get to transform into professional basketball players and test their shot-making skills . Additionally, we’ve found that keeping the scores posted on a whiteboard is a really fun way to keep attendees wanting to top each other’s best mark.
A little friendly competition might be exactly what you need to get people excited for your next team building event, and this experience definitely delivers. Plus, if you love the idea of fostering this type of group dynamic, but you aren’t sure about the basketball theme, don’t worry! There are plenty of similar experiences to choose from whether you just want to play a different sport, or you want a different type of experience all together. Keep reading for a few more of our favorite examples!
12. Meditation VR - Teams That Relax Together Come Together
Uses: Relaxation / Mindfulness / Collaboration / Communication
In any workplace, you’re bound to find stress somewhere. Whether you’re putting in extra hours to meet an upcoming deadline or you’re trying to set up your next project for success, there are times when it’s valuable to take a step back. A meditation based VR experience is a great way to show your attendees how to unwind so that they can take on their next challenge with a renewed focus and energy.
If you’re looking to host a team building event that shows your guests the power of meditation, or if you just want to have a place for your attendees to take a break from other planned activities, then you should consider incorporating the Meditation VR experience.
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13. Everest VR - Journey Together To The Top Of The Mountain
Uses: Virtual Field Trip / Collaboration / Fun / Communication / Teamwork / Problem Solving
One of the most common team building tactics is to take your attendees somewhere outside of their every day environment, but have you ever taken them to Mt. Everest? In virtual reality, you can take your entire team anywhere in the world in an instant. Whether you want to transport your guests to mountaintops, forests, ocean depths, or even show them a different perspective on your own backyard, we can help you make it happen.
This is a great virtual reality team building option because it immediately allows people to have an amazing experience that they can share with their co-workers. Plus, there is a huge amount of VR experiences that focus on different regions all the way from your hometown to the Earth’s orbit, so you can choose the best destination for your guests.
14. Pictionary VR - Have Jimmy Fallon-Level Fun With Your Team Today
Uses: Fun / Friendly Competition / Teamwork / Collaboration / Communication / Problem Solving
You’ve most likely played Pictionary, a classic game that doubles as a great team building exercise, but playing in VR is a completely different experience. In this VR experience, you get to lead your attendees through the game while attendees attempt to guess what their teammates are drawing in virtual reality. This is a great opportunity to split your group up into teams and create a fun, friendly competition that will have everyone participating.
We suggest this experience for team building events where the focus is on creating a fun sense of competition while also promoting teamwork and communication. It’s rare to be able to give your attendees a familiar experience while incorporating cutting-edge, innovative technology, which is one of the reasons this experience stands as a crowd favorite.
15. Job Simulator - Great For Teams That Have A Sense Of Humor
Uses: Fun
In Job Simulator, guests are transported to a virtual workplace where they get to make coffee, turn on their computer, eat donuts, talk on the phone, and more! You might not think a virtual workplace would be the most exciting team building activity, but don’t be fooled! This is one of the most popular VR experiences in all of virtual reality. Your guests will have a great time exploring the VR workplace, laughing their way through this ridiculous spin on everyday tasks.
We suggest letting your attendees play this experience in turns with the experience shown through an output to a high resolution television or OLED screen as it tends to create audience involvement that keeps everyone engaged even when they aren’t inside the experience. One bonus of this VR team building exercise is that you get to find out who is your best virtual employee! If you’re looking to deliver a fun experience that doesn’t take itself too seriously, this is a great choice.
16. United Nations VR Experience - Great For Teams That Care About Others
Uses: Social Awareness / Social Good
Does your team work in an area of social impact? Whether you’re a non-profit, NGO, benefit corporation, advocacy group, or you just want to deliver a team building experience has a clear social message, this VR experience will bring your team together while also educating them on a world issue, or supporting a specific cause. This video takes you through the creation of a virtual reality video dedicated to understanding the Syrian refugee crisis, and is a great example of how VR can help achieve social good through sharing real world experiences of those in need.
While we think a social awareness VR experience can be a useful tool for almost any type of team building event, we especially suggest it for organizations and groups who actively work to address social issues and challenges, as well as companies who are looking to build awareness for a certain cause among their employees.
17. Arizona Sunshine - Take Out The Zombies & Save The Company
Uses: Friendly Competition / Collaboration / Communication / Teamwork / Problem Solving / Competition / Fun
Nothing boosts focus and productivity like having to survive a zombie apocalypse! In Arizona Sunshine, the undead are coming and it's your job to fend them off for as long as possible. This experience is great for giving your guest an unforgettable thrill, and they will have a great time finding out who truly has the best survival skills.
We suggest letting your attendees take turns seeing how long they make it as the zombie keep coming and coming. This is a great experience for allowing your team to experience the highest level of immersion in VR while also allowing for friendly competition. If you think your guests can handle it, Arizona Sunshine can be a really fun team building exercise.
Summary
Hopefully this list gave you an idea of how virtual reality can help you create an unforgettable team building experience. The options on this list include some of our favorites, but if you don’t see what you’re looking for, don’t worry! We have thousands of experiences to choose from and we’re always ready to help you start through which option is the best for you and your guests. In fact, we pride ourselves on having the best service possible including pre-event strategy, equipment rental, event execution, and no-hassle breakdown so that the entire rental experience is completely seamless.
Our team of experts is ready to get going, so if you think this could be a good fit for your next team building event, let’s get started!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written By: William Griggs
CEO & Founder
VirtualRealityRental.co
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Contact us for pricing details
