Your Guide To Hosting A Virtual Happy Hour With Your Co-workers

While there are many perks to working from home (constant access to your fridge, extra time with your pets, the ability to wear comfy pants all day... The list goes on.), it’s hard not to feel a little nostalgic for water cooler chats in the breakroom and long Friday lunches to catch up with your co-workers. The next best thing? Some virtual quality time to reconnect and enjoy a few NA beers.

This simple, four-step guide outlines the basics to consider when planning a virtual happy hour for your team.

Step 1: Send A Calendar Invite So They Know It’s Real

Sending a calendar invite lets your co-workers know that you mean business about taking a break from business. It also ensures that your work team has a few days’ notice and can plan the rest of their day and week accordingly. In your calendar invite, be sure to outline what your co-workers can expect during the happy hour, including any activities you have planned (keep reading for suggestions!).

To top it all off, add a Giphy to the calendar invite to set the tone for good times ahead and to remind your co-workers to throw a few craft non-alcoholic brews in the fridge before the festivities begin.

Step 2: Choose A Virtual Background

Why settle for the regular view of your home office as your background for happy hour when with the power of technology, you can choose to appear anywhere else? Tropical destinations, outer space, under the sea—or even just a nicer home office—you name it, odds are there’s a virtual background for it!

To get your co-workers set up with entertaining virtual backgrounds for the event, relay instructions on how to change your background that are specific to the software you’ll be using to connect. We suggest directing your work team to Unsplash or Pinterest where they can download a virtual setting of their choice.

Step 3: Make It Fun

If you have a large work crew, consider planning some virtual games so all can partake in the event! For simple online group games that your whole team will enjoy, try out Backyard.co or Jackbox.TV. With a little bit of planning, you can also run a trivia game using Kahoot. For an added twist, collect fun facts about your co-workers before happy hour and have everyone guess whose fact belongs to who. You never know what you might learn!

Step 4: BYOB

Partake in happy hour with the freedom to enjoy as many craft brews as you choose! Make sure you pick up a few craft non-alcoholic beers to fill your fridge before the happy hour begins and encourage your work team to do the same.

That’s all there is to it—have a happy happy hour!