Every company knows it’s important to have a culture of teamwork to thrive in today’s competitive environment. As a manager, it is your role to bring the team together through team bonding activities. Games can be a fun and creative way for the team to connect and work together. These team building activities for employees can be hosted virtually, in the office, or at the annual company retreats.
Importance Of Team Building Activities
Here are a few compelling reasons to engage in team-building activities for work.
1. Improve Team Communication
One of the primary focuses of simple team building activities is to increase communication and collaboration between employees in the same team and across various departments. A lack of communication amongst employees is the major reason cited for workplace failures and engaging in these activities will help employees connect with each other better.
2. Increase Employee Engagement
Corporate team building activities, according to research, have shown to drive a substantial increase in employee engagement. It results in an improvement of friendships among employees leading to smoother collaboration.
3. Help Identify Leadership Skills
While engaging in team bonding games, it presents an opportunity for people to take charge of groups and demonstrate their leadership skills. It requires motivating employees and bring them together to achieve a common goal. Employees whose leadership skills would have stayed hidden have a chance to display them in front of top management.
4. Build Company Culture
Lastly, virtual team bonding activities can help you reinforce your core values, bring employees closer to one another, and strengthen the company culture in the process.
Top 10 Team Bonding Activities & Games To Increase Employee Engagement
We have compiled the best team building activities for employees that is suitable for both small and large groups and will help you break the ice and impact communication positively.
1. Minefield
The nature of this team bonding game focuses on developing communication and active listening and increases trust amongst them.
Tools: Numerous soft objects without rough edges (cups, balloons, soft toys), few blindfolds.
Time: 20-30 minutes
Participants: 10-14
Instructions:
- In an open space, place random objects or “mines” across the floor.
- Divide people into groups of two and put the blindfold on one of them.
- The other person has to guide his partner to go from one side of the space to the other without stepping on any of the mines.
- Hold the competition between teams and the one who reaches the finish line without stepping on any of the “mines” the earliest wins the game.
2. Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are great for team building activities for work. The objective is to build a sense of teamwork while getting people to strategize and problem-solve together. It encourages people to think of creative ways and to think “outside the box.”
Tools: Mobile phone, pen and paper
Time: 1 hour+
Participants: Groups of 4
Instructions:
- Assign each group a list of tasks with a time limit.
- Activities can range from taking selfies with strangers, quiz questions about the company, preparing a dish with ingredients available in the break room.
- The game can be conducted within the office or involve multiple locations in the city.
3. Two Truths And A Lie
Virtual team building ideas include this easy game called two truths and a lie. It’s just a fun activity to make people realize how their judgment of someone can be completely wrong.
Time: 15-30 minutes
Participants: 8-12
Instructions:
- Ask everyone to state three facts about themselves out of which one has to be a lie.
- The rest of the people have to figure out which one is the lie and which two are the true facts.
4. Online Gaming Sessions
Host virtual games for team building as this is very accessible for all employees. From better communication to team bonding, playing your favourite game with your remote coworkers is the perfect way to build up camaraderie.
Time: Any
Participants: 2+
Instructions:
- Build consensus on a game everyone would like to play with a preference for teamwork games like Counterstrike or Fortnite.
- Pair all participants in teams and play against each other.
5. Share Your Bucket List
If you want team members to truly understand each other, sharing these motivations is a great way to break the ice and build real team camaraderie. That’s the premise behind these virtual games for team building activities.
Time: 1 hour
Participants: 4+
Instructions:
- Ask people to share the top 3 things on his/her bucket list with the group.
- Also, ask them to share why it matters to them and how they plan to achieve it.
- Encourage people to share advice on how to achieve their goals. Make the conversation fun and casual.
6. Pair Up
If you are looking for ways to hold an ice breaker session among new employees and increase team bonding, this is an easy solution.
Tools: Stick-it notes, pens
Time: 10-15 minutes
Participants: 10+
Instructions:
- Write a bunch of pairs on different stick-it notes (for example, Karan and Arjun, salt and pepper, and Mario and Luigi) and tape them to your employees’ backs.
- Have them walk around trying to figure out who they are—and find their complementary colleague.
7. Shark Tank
Present your own product pitch just like the TV show ‘Shark Tank’ as one of the corporate team building activities. This can stimulate entrepreneurship and big thinking. Since all players have to work in teams and divide duties to be successful, it will also promote teamwork and collaboration.
Time: 1 hour+
Participants: Up to 20 people divided into teams of 4.
Instructions:
- Divide participants into a team of 4 and choose a group of “Sharks” (senior team members) as judges.
- Each team needs to pitch an imaginary product with details like brand name, business plan, marketing plan, and financial data (predicted sales, market size, profit margins)
- The team that secures the most investment at the end wins.
8. Human Knot
One of the best team bonding games for work, it urges people to communicate and cooperate. The teams work to think of creative ways to complete the activity within a fixed time period.
Time: 20-30 minutes
Participants: 8-20
Instructions:
- Divide employees into groups of 6-12 and ask them to form a circle facing inwards.
- Tell them to raise their right hand in the air and grab someone’s hand from across the circle.
- Similarly, do the same with the left hand.
- Set a timer and ask them to untangle the “knot” within the set time.
- The first one to untangle wins.
9. Back-to-Back Drawing
This game is similar to Pictionary and can be used to begin an event to get people in a relaxed state. This game focuses on communication skills – giving and listening to instructions.
Tools: Paper and pen
Time: 30 minutes
Participants: 10+
Instructions:
- Create a list of various shapes, signs, objects. Divide participants into teams of two people each. Make them sit back-to-back.
- One team member has to draw the shape guided by only verbal instructions of the other team member.
- They cannot state what the object is; he/she can only describe its uses or give instructions on how to draw it.
- The team with the most shapes right within a time limit of 2 minutes wins.
10. Team Lunches/Karaoke Nights
If you are looking for simple team building activities, nothing is easier than organizing a team lunch or karaoke night. A karaoke night is a great way to make your team members bond over their favourite songs. Similarly, decide as a team the restaurant to have lunch at and let the company pay for all the employees.
In order to build a team that truly supports each other, it is important to develop relationships that happen during effective team bonding activities. How you use these activities will depend on the size of your team, time available, and location can result in better office culture.
