Planning a work virtual happy hour
June 5, 2025
We recently published a post on promoting employees wellness and focused on the importance of bringing the team together to promote inclusion. One of the ideas we gave was to hold occasional work happy hours, something especially useful for remote teams. Popular during the pandemic, they are a fun way to build rapport and provide something work-related for your team to look forward to.
It is important to be prepared for your happy hours rather than having your team show up in your virtual space only to have the time be boring or awkward. Here’s our guide to planning a great virtual hangout that leaves your team looking forward to the next one.
Schedule with intention
Timing matters! Host virtual happy hours around holidays to help you plan with fun themes, or on a quarterly basis to build excitement in between. Plan during the week to avoid weekend competition and at the end of the work day – think Thursday at 4pm.
Be sure to promote the event well in advance and require an RSVP. This allows time for people to mark their calendars, plenty of time to create a fun event, and ensures that no one shows up to an empty Zoom room.
Create a buzz!
Getting attendance can be tricky due to so many remote team members spending days in front of their screens and possibly being burnt out. Create a buzz with some fun incentives.
- Host a raffle with fun prizes for virtual goodies (Doordash, Amazon, etc.)
- Encourage everyone to take the last hour of the day off to attend. Framing it as paid social time signals that you value connection, not just productivity.
Make it fun
Make your virtual happy hour an escape from their normal screen time.
Don’t just show up with a Zoom link and hope for the best. Have more planned than asking everyone to do an intro or update. Some “think outside the box” ideas include:
–Themes
Holidays and seasons present a lot of options for themes. Is it summer? Ask everyone to bring something to share that they brought on a vacation or makes them think of a place they’d like to travel to. Christmas? Ask someone to teach the group how to make a simple craft or share a family tradition.
-Icebreakers
Make sure to get especially creative with this and avoid activities your team members will be overly used to in our new remote world.
Here are resources to get you started:
Virtual Team Building Activities
The 9 Best Games to Play on Zoom
Virtual Happy Hour Games, Ideas, and Activities for Teams
-Be your own bartenders
Send out a recipe for a fun cocktail ahead of time and encourage everyone to make the same drink to have during happy hour.
Remember: no one wants to think they are attending another work meeting. Plan a special evening and your team will get to know each other more and look forward to your next team happy hour.
More resources on employee wellness:
Five ways to promote employee wellness in a virtual workplace
<< Back to Blog Posts