A thriving company comprises employees with different personalities and skill sets. They often work in isolation, especially in remote work models, which expands communication gaps and diminishes cooperation between co-workers. This is why companies have started prioritizing HR team building activities, to promote team unity.
Human resource team building activities, Includes fun games and exercises, that boost collaboration between employees. They can be organized weekly, monthly or annually, depending on company workload, employee spare time, budget, space availability and other factors.
Plus, while HR team activities present a perfect getaway from routine office hustle, they also allow employees to exercise their soft skills for problem solving and teamwork. The ability to trust each other plays a key role in a dynamic work culture that thrives on situational adaptability.
However, the idea of HR team building activities can often be met with disapproval or eye rolls from employees, because they feel that office trivias or scavenger hunts will eat into their personal and professional time. But, if you play your cards right with the most imaginative team building games and exercises, then not only will you create comradeship between employees, but also keep them coming back for more.
So are you looking for simple team building activities to get started, or are you planning something big for on-site workers? Perhaps you want your remote employees to learn more about each other.
We have got you covered.
What are Team Building Activities?
HR team building activities comprise games and exercises undertaken to boost creativity, communication, leadership qualities, collaboration, and relatability between employees and the company.
There are many funny employee engagement activities for on-site and remote workers, at your disposal.
Organizing human resource team building activities ocassionally is important to eliminate individual differences and bias that fester if employees remain isolated from each other for long. Sometimes spending time together talking about mutual interests or brainstorming ideas to clear challenges, is all employees need to understand each other and perform collectively in inclusive and energetic workspaces.
HR Team Building Activities For On-Site Employees
Random PowerPoint Presentation
You can do this creative and fun HR team building activity in small or large employee groups. You can start by creating a few PowerPoint slides on a random topic and pick an employee to do the presentation.
Use dice rolls, rock paper scissors, names from the hat or other methods to select this employee. This is where the fun part begins.
Watch the employee make up explanations as they go along, since they have never seen the presentation before. You will see giggles bursting amongst the crowd, which is great for a wholesome team building experience.
Team Lunch/Dinner
Team lunch and dinner are one of the most commonly used relation building activities in the corporate world. Managers or team leaders invite employees for a lunch or dinner date. This is a perfect socialization setting where workers can come together to talk about their day, share ideas, discuss their interests and more over food and drinks. Casual conversations improve inter-team dynamics, reduce stress and build positive perception about the company.
Escape Rooms
Escape room is one of the most versatile HR games for employees today. You can execute this exciting team building activity inside office spaces with a storyline and complementary clues.
Escape rooms can take anywhere between one to two hours. So, ensure you pick the right time for the game, most preferably lunch breaks or post working hours when employees are free.
Start the game by dividing the participants into groups and giving them a storyline brief. This team building activity relies on the use of critical thinking, active listening, feedback, and decision making to overcome challenges, compelling employees to work as a team.
Community Service
Sometimes giving back to the community can also be one of the most beautiful team building activities out there. You can do this in many ways.
- Select a neighbourhood for a cleanliness drive or to plant new trees.
- Organize a community kitchen and distribute food.
- Organize blood donation drive
- Visit nearby animal shelter
- Distribute toys to kids
Community service is a team building exercise that relies on teamwork and gratitude. It gives employees the chance to appreciate the importance of spreading positivity in different surroundings. They also become more connected with the company’s ideals.
Office Trivia
Office trivia is an intellectual team building exercise, where people answer questions related to their job, company, and industry. However, ensure that you do not make your employees uncomfortable by asking sensitive questions, like questions around their immigration status or income.
Furthermore, consider workforce diversity before framing the questions. Every employee should feel included in the conversation and part of the company. Extend this idea by creating groups of individuals from diverse backgrounds.
This human resource activity gives you insights on employees’ feelings towards their work and their future ambitions.
Two Truths And A Lie
Like the name suggests, participants of “Two Truths And A Lie”, have to share two true facts about themselves and one lie. The players with the question have to make others believe the lie, while the opposing players have to make the right guesses. This is another one of the HR team building activities thamakelow employees to learn more about their co-workers.
- Select a player randomly to start the game with three questions.
- Set a time limit for other players to answer the questions.
- The player who guesses all the answers correctly in the shortest time, gets to go next.
HR Team Building Activities For Remote Employees
Online Scavenger Hunts
Scavengers are often associated with games played outdoors, but you can create your own virtual version of the game, using video conferencing platforms like Zoom or Skype.
This is how you can organise the game.
- First, pick one employee to name the items and ask others to stay on mute.
- Employees can then scramble to find the items and present them on the screen.
- The fastest person to get all the items right gets to select the items for the next round.
- You can even ask employees to tell a brief about their items.
Once everyone is comfortable with the game, you can increase the difficulty by presenting hints instead of naming the items and setting time limits. Using riddles or themes will allow the employees to get more creative in their item selections. Give every employee a chance to explain the reason behind their selections and why they deserve to win.
Introduce rewards like gift cards, extra coffee breaks, or an employee picture in the office, to encourage active employee participation in the hunt.
Fun Challenges
You don’t always need big interactive events to boost engagement between your remote workers. Sometimes, fun challenges between colleagues will wsfv the job just fine. You can start by asking employees about a goal that they would like to accomplish. The goal can be related to their personal or professional lives – like completing x number of steps or a certification course. Make a note of the same and check in every day for progress updates. You can also ask the employees to support each other’s goals with constant encouragement.
If the employees have no goals, then you can assign one for them. Ensure that the activity you pick will benefit them. Do not set strict result quotas or deadlines, because at the end of the day it is about helping remote team members understand each other.
Post-work Happy Hour
Speaking of low effort, high reward HR team building activities, you can invite employees to group video chat sessions to relax after a long day of work. Create a space where they can talk about hobbies, sports, and pop culture over some snacks. You can even throw in fun HR team building activities like charades, Trivia contests, book reading, to help employees connect with each other on relatable topics.
Teaching A New Skill
Giving employees the opportunity to learn new skills is one of the best human resource team building activities for co-worker knowledge transfer and relationship building.
The mantle of the teacher can be taken by the team leader or a fellow employee.
First, finalize the dates after discussing with the employees. Give teachers enough time to gather the teaching materials.
Keep pauses between sessions to allow employees to voice their doubts. You should also ask them to summarize the learning at the end. Lastly, end the session with words of gratitude for the teachers who complied with the request.
Movie Day/Night
Because why not? Everyone loves a good movie to pass their time, so why not use it to bring employees together.
- You can have a movie streaming session once a week or month.
- You can use votes to select a movie or take turns, assigning the task of picking a movie to every member of the team.
- Ensure that everyone has a camera on to view their reactions.
Movie nights help employees bond with co-workers with similar genre preferences.
Start Snapshot Sharing Trend
Remote workers rarely interact with each other unless it is through a virtual screen. Employees have limited options to learn about their co-workers. However, by turning moments of their lives into pictures and sharing them on group chats, employees can provide an important glimpse into their personal lives.
Staff members can click pictures when they are taking their dogs on a stroll or eating lunch. They can even share match scorecards and funny memes. Furthermore, they can pair the pictures with relatable and funny captions. Having a picture of the week’s announcements can significantly boost employee participation in the team building activity.
Benefits of HR Team Building Activities
Better Communication
HR team building activities eliminate invisible speech barriers, especially among teams scattered across geographical distances, by promoting open dialogue. Teammates understand each other better when they share opinions on similar topics. Going forwards, they are more likely to talk about their personal interests, leading to more understanding between teams.
Morale Booster
Opening the laptop, but this time to engage in fun activities with fellow co-workers, is a significant morale boost for the employees. Sharing moments from their personal lives, participating in friendly competitions, and identifying shared interests, make employees feel like they are part of something big. Workers also develop a positive attitude towards the management for organizing team building activities.
Encourages Creativity
Most of the equipment resource team building activities force employees to think outside the box, employees move away from the solitary work-self and into a pool of diverse minds. By working together to complete quests or find answers, they start viewing similar situations with different perspectives. The joint effort allows them to approach problems with more creative solutions.
Builds Trust
HR team building exercises or funny employee engagement activities, create common ground where employees from different departments and locations can work together towards a common goal. Accomplishing targets together, for instance, working in pairs of twos, to answer trivia questions, builds a sense of dependency amongst workers. They learn to rely on each other’s judgment during office work.
Finding Future Leaders
Under the silhouette of a human, the resource team building activities, you will find a handful of potential candidates taking charge during trivia contests, quizzes, ice breakers, etc.
HR team building activities provide useful insights on employees’ potential that you would not have noticed in an everyday work environment. Keep an eye out for people who are actively communicating, strategizing, first to take actions, adaptive, motivators, and active listeners.
Challenges In Implementing HR Team Building Activities
Lack of Employee Engagement
Scarcity of employee involvement poses a serious challenge in carrying out team building employee engagement activities.
Some employees may see these programs as forced or unimportant, specifically if they do not align with their own interests or professional ambitions. Additionally, prior unpleasant experiences with lackluster team building efforts might hold the employees back from engaging.
Designing events that are inclusive, fun, and align with the interests of all team members helps to overcome this obstacle. Employee involvement in the planning process, as well as providing a range of activity alternatives, can assist to increase engagement and excitement.
Time Crunch
Well-planned HR team building ideas are often hampered by hectic work schedules. Employees and management alike may look at these activities as a diversion from work obligations, especially during peak business seasons.
In deadline-driven settings, determining a comfortable time that fits everyone may be difficult. Hence, HR departments should plan team-building events in advance. They should also request employee participation during meetings. If possible, HR executives should focus on short team building activities that can be finished without hampering business operations.
Budget Limitations
Financial limitations can degrade the quality of HR team building exercises. Although bigger corporations could have specific funding for such projects, smaller businesses could find it difficult to distribute resources. This makes it challenging to deliver compelling and meaningful experiences.
To overcome financial limits, HR teams should consider cost-effective solutions such as virtual events or in-house training. Creativity and resourcefulness in planning ensures that even lightly financed programs can inspire collaboration and connection amongst teams.
Diverse Workforce Needs
A scattered workforce brings unique requirements and interests, which can complicate the design of human resource team building activities.
Employees from diverse cultural origins, age groupings, and professional levels may have varied expectations. Furthermore, physical or cognitive disabilities might prevent certain team members from participating completely.
To achieve inclusion, HR teams should offer a variety of activities that appeal to every member’s interests and abilities. Offering multiple alternatives and requesting input from employees can nurture an inclusive ecosystem and make HR team activities more meaningful for everyone.
Measuring Effectiveness
Evaluating the impact of team-building exercises is another big difficulty. Without specific targets, it is impossible to tell whether these activities are enhancing communication, teamwork, or general morale. Many businesses fail to assess long-term effects and depend on subjective perceptions rather than data-driven insights. To combat this, HR teams should establish clear, quantifiable goals before adopting activities and solicit employee input via surveys or focus groups. Regular assessment helps identify what works, allowing for continual growth.
Remote and Hybrid Work Environments
More emphasis on remote and hybrid workspaces creates new challenges for HR team building exercises. Engaging workers working from remote places needs innovative interaction techniques, as typical in-person events are no longer practical for all team members.
Virtual team-building exercises are widely successful in tackling this issue, but online tiredness and scheduling issues can affect participation and activity success rate.
HR departments should provide interesting and diverse virtual experiences to address this, while also giving in-person communication choices if the remote employee is open to the option. A balanced physical and virtual approach to human resource team building activities ensures all employees feel connected and involved.
Resistance to Change
Resistance to change is a major challenge when adopting new team-building efforts. Employees may be suspicious about the benefits of these activities, especially if earlier encounters have been fruitless. Furthermore, basic HR team building exercises may be ineffective in navigating corporate barriers and established work practices. To overcome these limitations, it is crucial to clearly explain the benefits of team building exercises and how they correspond with wider corporate goals. Gaining leadership buy-in and building a culture that promotes cooperation helps inspire active participation and long-term success.
FAQs On HR Activities For Team Building
How Can HR Measure The Success Of Team-building Exercises?
Utilizing employee comments, success indicators, and team dynamics observation, HR may gauge the efficiency of team-building efforts. Focus groups and surveys allow you to gather participants’ ideas and experiences.
Monitoring important measures including retention rates, output, and teamwork offers numerical analysis. Also showing progress are changes in communication skills and less disagreement. Reflective meetings following events help to further analyze how activities affect teamwork. These methods used together allow HR to assess both short-term and long-term effects, therefore ensuring that future team-building initiatives support company goals and employee demands.
How Frequently Must Team-building Events Take Place?
Team dynamics and business goals decide how often team-building events take place.
- Quarterly events promote long-term teamwork.
- Monthly informal events such as team lunches provide regular involvement.
- Annual HR team building exercises give employees a greater chance to connect with business values and future aims.
To sustain connection among distant workers, virtual check-ins and activities should be performed more regularly. New hires gain from team-building during onboarding.
HR should also strike a balance between frequent involvement and employee tasks, modifying the frequency based on input and participation levels. This promises great events without burnouts and dislikes.
How do you plan an effective team-building activity?
A successful team-building activity includes clear goals, understanding of team preferences, and commitment to inclusion.
HR should have a goal to link with the HR team building tasks. For instance, improving conversation or morale.
Then comes Logistics. Location, event scheduling, and budget must be properly managed. Clarify details about the HR team activity to improve worker participation. During the program, an engaging facilitator and interactive elements stimulate participation.
Gather feedback through surveys at the end of the event. This helps in measuring the activity’s effect and discovering areas for improvement. Initiate steps to boost positive outcomes from future human resource team building activities.
