Interactive team building activities for the office

Working at a company where nothing else happens except, well, work, can be incredibly draining for any individual and possibly even put them off their career choice.

That’s why company culture and team building activities are so important.

Employees need to feel welcome to have conversations that aren’t all work related, send a meme in the team’s group chat or bring a Bar One cheesecake to work just because they feel like it and not because it’s their birthday which everyone forgot about.

The problem comes in when employers think that team building activities require a day off from work and a large budget. But that’s not the case. There are plenty of in-office team building activities that are interactive, budget-friendly and only need a few hours maximum (the majority of the following activities, however, can be conducted during the lunch hour).

Put together a “culture committee” and start playing around with different activities to see which ones your fellow employees respond the most positively to. Then you can create a team-building activity calendar for the year for everyone to look forward to.

Pop quiz

Setting up a pop quiz can take 10 minutes with the help of the internet and then it’s a matter of sending out a mass email to alert the office and have everyone bring their general knowledge and pens to lunch.

The best thing about pop quizzes is that you can do them at least once a month and have a variety of topics to last you the entire year. Have your employees team up or go it alone and whoever has the highest scores wins a small prize. A pop quiz is a quick, fun and friendly competition that is a great stress-reliever from work-related topics.

Two truths and a lie

If you want your teams to get to know each other better, all you need to do is schedule a “two truths and a lie” gameplay during lunch. How it works is that every person gets a turn to say two true facts about themselves as well as one lie and it’s up to the rest of the group to decide which is the lie.

You’ll very quickly see how much other people on your team know about you and, interestingly, the type of person they think you are. It costs nothing to play except a few minutes of your lunchtime and you can easily enjoy your meal while you play.

A sit-down meal

Speaking of lunch and eating, a great interactive team building activity is to hold a sit-down meal. For employers, this means hiring a caterer or ordering-in food (more affordable than eating out) and offering your employees a free meal and a chance to converse with one another.

This is a great way to treat your employees as a reward for their hard work or as an occasion to celebrate a company goal being met. You can choose to schedule it for breakfast, lunch or even as an after-hours event. Give them the opportunity to relax and enjoy a healthy, freshly prepared meal and maybe some dessert with a Bar One sauce afterwards. That’s always a winner.

A class in something

You might have integrated employee training programmes in your office, but have you considered offering them a class in something that’s not work-related? Again, you can find an hour-long class for employees to take part in and learn a new skill.

Cooking classes are a fun one and an easy way to fill the office with the smell of delicious food and have 10 Bar One cheesecakes ready for the taking. Painting, improv and personal development classes could also be winners amongst your employees. And it shows that you have more than just their professional development at heart which is a great morale booster.

Dress up

An easy way to get all employees involved in something fun is to host a dress up. There are a variety of themes that make your employees think outside of the box to create a costume with items they already have at home. The only incentive you need to give them is a prize for the best dressed.

You can even use the public to help the company decide who has the best costume through your social media profiles. That way you’re improving your social media traffic and company culture at the same time.

Bake-a-thon

If you want to incorporate charity into your team building activities, then you should consider holding a fundraising bake-a-thon. Grab those PDF baking recipes for muffins and distribute them amongst the different departments in the company (those cooking classes would come in handy for this). Each team has to make and sell as many muffins as possible and the proceeds go to charity while the winning team possibly receives a small prize or bragging rights (which is usually enough).

These are only a few team building activities your company can consider. But there’s no denying the bonds that are formed from these types of activities and that, ultimately, makes your company better.