We are living in a time of turmoil in the workplace. Turnover is high - younger generations are more frequently job hopping and moving from one company to the next much sooner than before. And the pressure to keep employees engaged is high.
Making an effort to promote engagement in the workplace can help build a stronger company culture. If you’re looking for ways to make engagement more fun, well, why not consider games? Use the power of play to bring the team closer together!
In this article, we’ve put together a list of employee engagement games to help you elevate performance.
Let the games begin!
The Power of Play: Games for Employee Engagement
When it comes to motivational games for employees, incorporating elements of collaboration, teamwork, and skill-building is a smart way to make fun productive. Switching between work mode and play mode will bring a whole lot of fresh energy back to the team – and a bit of friendly competition too!
Games are a great way to connect through interactive challenges, team-based exercises, and gamified learning experiences.
You can discover more about the evolution of engagement and other employee experience trends reshaping the workplace in this guide.
Engagement as Corporate Currency
It’s no secret that employee engagement has a direct influence on some of the most important areas of a business:
An engaged workforce makes the difference between a successful company and one that struggles to meet its goals.
Companies with engaged employees report higher profitability and less turnover.
Engaged employees put extra time and effort into getting things done.
According to recent analytics, engaged employees are 22% more productive than employees who feel disengaged, demotivated, or unfulfilled at work. A Gallup study also reveals that engagement has 3.8 times more influence on employee stress than physical work location does.
Key Benefits of Bringing Games into Workplace Dynamics
Introducing engagement games can be beneficial in more ways than you think. The power of fun is subtle and transcendent. It stimulates the mind, sharpening your team’s problem-solving skills and sparking creativity and innovation.
Here are a few other advantages of games:
Foster a sense of shared victory
Promote collaboration and creative problem-solving
Increase productivity through mental energy recharge
Help with focus and efficiency
Encourage out-of-the-box thinking
Create a fun and relaxed space for brainstorming
10 Fun Games for Employee Engagement in 2024
Breaking up the monotony of the daily grind with some fun activities allows employees to take a breather – and maybe even focus on something else for a while without actually having to leave the workplace.
Need inspiration? Here are some ideas we hope can help you!
1. An After-Office Sports League
Whether it’s softball, volleyball, basketball, football/soccer, or any other team sport, this is a great way to mix things up a bit at the office. It’s also an opportunity to get employees from different teams to learn more about each other through a friendly sports match.
If there’s a park nearby, it’s the perfect excuse to get some fresh air. Those who aren’t into sports can still join the fun as cheerleaders and supporters!
2. A Cooking Class or Competition
This one is for the foodies and cooks on your team – and those who are neither one or the other will surely want to sign up as judges! Organize a tournament where participants go through different cooking stations or challenges around the office.
A simpler idea? Organize a Friday Food Day in which staff can bring their own culinary masterpieces to work.
3. Escape Room
The concept of this game is to put a team of diverse people in a room where they’re stuck until they’ve solved the puzzle that will let them out. It’s a high-intensity game that requires lots of mental energy.
This is a great exercise for strengthening communication and collaboration if you have a team that tends to disperse.
Is your team remote? No worries. Today there are plenty of virtual escape room games that can be played from anywhere using Zoom, Skype, or alternative apps!
4. A Fitness Challenge
Looking for ways to promote wellness in the workplace? Then a fitness challenge could be a good idea.
When it comes to fitness challenges, there’s a lot to choose from – like the step challenge and the walking challenge, the hydration challenge, and the healthy eating challenge. The list is endless!
Set a goal for the office before you start. Then set a timeline and schedule. After that, have every participating employee record their progress in a Google Doc. At the end of the challenge, see who got over the finish line and declare the winner(s) – perhaps with a small prize!
5. Outdoor Games
Get the whole team out of the office for a day of fun and games. There’s no limit to what you can do on a workplace field day. Trekking in the woods, anyone?
Here are some other engagement games for the outdoors:
Tug-of-war competition
Corn-hole tournament
The Amazing Race
Fort building
Goose Chase
6. Trivia Night
Here’s a classic that lets everyone show off their general knowledge skills. You’ll get to know the pop culture junkies of the team, the hobby historians, and the niche experts.
The idea is to divide the office into teams. Each team wins a point every time it answers a question correctly. Depending on the number of teams, you can go several rounds until there’s just one team left.
Just like Escape Room, you can adapt Trivia Night for remote teams by playing over Zoom or a digital Trivia platform.
7. A 5K Challenge
Organizing an annual 5K challenge is another great way to promote health in the workplace. Put together a team for a fun relay race or a dead-serious marathon. You can even make it a charity run and donate all proceeds to a local NGO.
8. Charades
This is another classic that plays well in a virtual setting. Charades is all about communication in a non-verbal way. And sometimes it can put the teams in the most hilarious situations!
In this game, a team participant gets to act out a word or a phrase (no speaking allowed). The other team members have to guess what they’re trying to say before the clock runs out.
Charades make for a good laugh, but they’re also a great team-bonding game!
9. Bingo!
Bingo night is definitely an activity that you can bring your grandma to! Or maybe not. When it comes to bingo, you can either get a professional game host to come to the office, or take the whole team to an after-hour bingo bar.
Bingo is a traditional in-person game, but you can organize it virtually for your remote team too. All you need to do is choose a virtual platform, like Zoom, Google Meet, or Discord. Then, create the bingo cards and email these to your team before the game.
As numbers are called out, you can mark them off in the chat.
10. A Scavenger Hunt
Planning a scavenger hunt can be a fun way to end the workweek. Ask the team to bring their hidden treasures to the office. Make a list of all the items to find, then set a time limit. The first player to bring back most of the items on the list is the winner.
The prize? That’s up to you, but a fun gift card or a shiny badge would certainly add excitement and motivation to the game!
Making Part of Work About Fun
Something as simple as bringing a bit of fun into the workplace can really be a game-changer. With the right type of engagement activities, you can improve team morale and transform the way your employees interact with each other.
Employee engagement games are an excellent tool for bringing joy to the team after a week of hard work. Choose the right kind of play for your team, and help them refill their creative juices with each session of fun!
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