Companies that inculcate strong bonding and connection within their team members can grow and achieve more compared to others. Socializing and building positive relations with your colleagues is one of the best ways to improve productivity at the workplace. Team spirit does not only fosters healthy relationships among team members but also helps them resolve issues in a short time. Team building activities can be short and sweet or more complex depending upon the needs and the culture of an organization.
Here are 10 things you can do to instill team spirit in your employees.
Lunch or Dinners
Arranging a monthly lunch or dinner for team members after achieving a milestone can go a long way. You don’t have to limit these social events to the food only. Create some room for ice-breaking activities and games. For instance, before having a meal, encourage your team members to show their talents by singing a song, dancing, mimicking, or any other creative side. Make sure to engage shy or reserved staff members of your team by sparking conversation off and on. Such types of social events can build a strong team where members feel connected to each other. Team members from different departments can also share their funny stories at the workplace to promote harmony.
A Themed Day Event
You can uplift your team’s spirit by celebrating a themed day at the office or throwing a costume party, offsite. To make it more productive and fun, include some promotional company items in your list, such as branded clothing, promotional bucket hats or other company merchandise.
Alternatively, you can ask the employees to style these promotional products for the costume party and announce prizes or other perks for winners to encourage participation. Announce incentives for the workers who wear the company products most creatively. It would promote a sense of belonging in the team members and also boost their imagination and creativity. Furthermore, wearing a branded product of the workplace helps your employees represent its values and culture creatively.
Escape Room
Escape rooms are a fun and widely popular way to test the skills of team members by dividing them into groups. It is a great bonding activity as it forces your employees to work together to solve a common problem. These rooms are built around a variety of themes such as TV trivia, movies, or games. The group activity usually comprises three to five members per group, so you need to split your large team into smaller groups.
Make sure you make groups based on equality. For instance, don’t include all genius brains in the same group or all reserved persons in another group. You can also make groups of people who did not get a chance to work together before. At the end of the activity, offer a prize or incentive to the winning group who escapes first.
Community Service
Community service can also become fun if you try to engage your employees in a charity service by announcing a competition. Create different teams in your workplace based on different departments and announce a charity drive. They can collect money or goods for donation to nearby shelter homes or local charities. Additionally, you can motivate your company workers to spend some time with orphanage houses or pet shelters. Introduce an empathy-based program by collaborating with different charity organizations. Enlist your employees as volunteers at these charities and encourage bonding outside of the workplace.
Office Trivia
Challenging your team members by arranging office trivia is a fun-filled activity. Split the team into small groups and find trivia answers. These questions are available either online or at most departmental stores where games are available. Use a timer to give each group a set amount of time or spark the hottest competition among groups by allowing them to pick who answers first. You can also use trivia questions submitted by employees or about the company.
Story Sessions
Engaging your team at the end of a hectic corporate event or a meeting is a fun retreat. Ask everyone about the funniest moment or a story they’d like to share.
They can also make stories on their own. Test the observation skills and judge the power of your team by asking them about the story being true or fabricated. Your employees will have fun as others guess if the story being told is the truth or a lie. This activity serves as an icebreaker for your team and helps them get to know each other more enjoyably.
Scavenger Hunt
The scavenger hunt is an excellent team-building activity where teams search for different clues or solve puzzles by working together to win a prize. A good scavenger hunt is a combination of photos, videos, trivia, puzzles, etc., and requires a different skill at each level. You can either set up a scavenger hunt at an office by placing clues strategically at the workplace or in your local area. It depends on how long you want to continue the activity.
Group Meditation
Sometimes, it’s fun to invite your workers for a mental break and take some rest. Introducing brain health exercises or meditation sessions can prove fruitful for improving the concentration and attention span of your employees. You can start a weekly group meditation at your workplace with the assistance of a professional. Also, encourage your workers to install meditation apps and designate some time of the day for reflection. You can call it “the mental health-boosting hour”.
Sports and Games
Sports and games are effective tools to rejuvenate physical energy and stimulate the brain for more hectic tasks. Outdoor sports like football, volleyball, cricket, etc can boost sportsman spirit while building teamwork. Indoor games like board games or card games are fun ways to bond with each other. Pick popular games like Spades, Uno, Pictionary, etc. You can either organize a sports tournament annually or host a gaming night with a combination of card games or board games.
A Recreational Trip
Arrange annual trips for your team to give them a break from the hectic office routine. Employers who maintain work and fun balance at workplaces can be more productive and bring in profitable results for the company. A fun-filled outing in a city or somewhere remote can be wonderful. In this way, workers can test their sense of adventure and participate in different activities like horseback riding, birdwatching, dart games, etc.
Final Thoughts
You can achieve better and have loyal employees by building a strong team. A company that promotes teamwork and creates a conducive environment for work has low turnover rates and is loved by the workers. Team-building activities also instill a habit of healthy competition and develop a greater sense of appreciation among employees.
