11 Aug 2023
Office parties or office networking events are two of the many ways to improve teamwork, build a better working environment and contribute to positive wellbeing at work.
You don’t need a special occasion to arrange these types of events - they could be things you choose to do on a monthly basis, or ad hoc, and involving colleagues in the organisation of these will go a long way to improving employee engagement.
We’ve put together some ideas to help you get started.
Firstly, you should try to plan something different for each event to keep it new and exciting. If you’re planning events like these on a tight budget, then you may need to be extra-creative too!
Escape Room
The first idea is to turn your office into a mini escape room. Put together clues and riddles and have employees split into teams. Have the riddles lead to everyday office items where they will find the next clue. This can make it quite exciting: by giving teams a timed exercise, they will be working together under pressure to solve the clues. This takes a degree of creativity and also challenges the employees to work together and solve problems.
Murder Mystery
Create a murder mystery themed event: they are great fun and really get the brain working. Instead of an office event just being a little buffet and tedious conversations, it becomes a fun event where teams simply enjoy a good laugh and some mystifying escapism. It works even better if someone “kills'' the boss. Showing you have the ability not to take yourself too seriously will go down well with the employees.
Wine & Food Tasting
Blindfolding your co-workers isn’t something you’d expect to do too often, but this type of event can really help with building trust. Ask people to split into two teams; one team will help with feeding the blindfolded team member.
Breakfast Events
If evening events aren’t great for everyone, plan breakfast parties each month and provide food, or if budget permits, take the team out for breakfast at a local restaurant or café to help build a bit more morale between coworkers. You can have a work-related discussion, or presentation, in a much more relaxed environment, and help build team relationships at the same time.
Office Olympics
This could be a great yearly event in the office where teams are split up into ‘sporting’ competitions, such as cycling, running, or even throwing contests. If you don’t have the room, go to a local park and use a field.If you have enough interest in this, it could be a very fun event but don’t make participation mandatory or you risk alienating people.
Quiz Nights
Instead of a pub quiz, why not make up an office quiz night where teams get to compete for prizes. You could do a decade’s quiz or something a little more exciting.
Lots of opportunities here for fun and team building, which will all help to build a great working environment for you and your colleagues!
