Looking for an effective way to encourage your employees to break out of their shells? Try fun team bonding activities. Team bonding exercises can be useful for improving collaboration, productivity, and motivation in the workplace. They can also prompt positive reinforcement and encourage creativity. Team bonding challenges teach people how to work together more efficiently which is key for successful projects and co-worker relationships. All businesses, both big and small, can benefit from engaging in the occasional team bonding activity. Here is a look at some fun team bonding activity ideas to try in your own workplace.
1. Potluck Dinners
Bonding over a shared meal certainly has its appeal. Consider hosting an informal potluck lunch or dinner with a small group from your company. Potlucks allow coworkers to enjoy delicious food as they get to know each other, share recipes, and essentially ‘break the ice.’ By having everyone bring a dish to share with the office, you can keep costs to a minimum, and allow team members to showcase their culinary expertise.
2. Scavenger Hunts
If your employees enjoy a challenge, consider hosting a scavenger hunt. A corporate scavenger hunt can be done right at the office. Divide your employees into teams and provide a list of items to find. You can make the game even more fun by giving different point values to items. Employees can use their smartphones to keep it simple. Have them take photos of the items with their phones instead of carrying around the physical items. Give the teams an incentive by providing a prize to the winner, such as a $20 gift card.
3. Happy Hours
Happy hour is a long-standing team bonding activity that can have amazing results. A few drinks and a little social interaction are all it takes to get people to warm up to one another. This office outing does not have to occur at a local bar. You can also choose to host a happy hour at a different location. Schedule an appointment for your group to sample fine wines from a nearby vineyard or head to a local brewery for handcrafted beers. Some breweries even have classes where guests can brew their own products.
4. Recreational Sports
Sports are one of the most popular team bonding activities that employees of all ages can participate in. Companies can sponsor sports teams, such as basketball, baseball, bowling, golf, soccer, or bowling. Other types of physical activities, such as yoga, can also encourage employees to come together. Companies can also choose to pay employee registration fees for various walking or running events. Choose events where the proceeds are shared with local charities to put your business in a positive light. You can boost employee morale by making team t-shirts for the events. In addition to increasing collaboration between co-workers, these activities can help workers get fit which in turn affects productiveness.
5. Corporate Retreats
During a corporate retreat, your employees are taken out of the office to a location where they can learn to work together. Retreats are often aimed at developing co-worker relationships by encouraging proper communication and collaboration. Through a series of activities, employers can see their team’s strengths and weaknesses. Using this information, you can determine where your team can improve. Corporate retreats also allow employees the opportunity to step away from electronics to focus on face-to-face communication skills. When management joins in, employees are able to gain trust which ultimately influences job satisfaction.
6. Escape Rooms
Escape rooms have quickly become one of the most popular team bonding activities around. An escape room is a live-action game where teams must come together to solve puzzles, discover clues, and complete tasks before time runs out. Escape rooms can consist of one large room or can span multiple rooms. You will also discover a number of fun themes, such as themes involving horror, mysteries, crimes, or espionage. If your employees are able to work together to solve the escape room, they are ‘set free’, while ‘saving the day’ and winning the game. Through escape room events, employers are able to see how each member contributes and in what fields they thrive.
Escape rooms help employees master a variety of skills, such as problem-solving and creative thinking. To solve the complex puzzles and riddles, team members must use their cognitive abilities in a way that they ordinarily would not. As escape rooms tend to be fast-paced, employees may also face a number of problems resulting in the need for conflict resolution. All of these skills are important for employees to build over time and escape rooms can help team members develop these key skills. For more information about escape rooms or to schedule a team building event, contact Room Escape Fairfax.