We often spend up to five days a week interacting with our colleagues more than our family members at our workplace. Hence, why not transform our office into an enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing space for hosting small parties with engaging activities? So, this article will provide some ideas on office games that can rock any work party. Let’s get started!
Who should organize company meetings? | HR Department |
Who should organize office games? | Anyone |
Shortest office games? | The '10-second game' |
How long a break should be at work? | 10-15 minutes |
Table of Contents
- Tips For Hosting Office Games At Work Successfully
- Office Games For Adults At Work
- Office Games - Trivia
- Office Games - Who am I?
- Office Games - Minute to Win It
- Two Truths and a Lie
- Office Bingo
- Speed Chatting
- Scavenger hunts
- Typing race
- Cooking competition
- Charades
- Pitch a Desk Item
- Office Survivor
- Blind Drawing
- Pictionary
- Key Takeaways
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The Importance of Office Games
1/ Office Games create a more positive and productive work environment
Office games are a great way to promote employee engagement and enhance workplace culture with several benefits as follows:
- Boost morale: Playing games can help boost employee morale, as they provide a fun and lighthearted atmosphere that can improve the overall mood of the workplace.
- Promote teamwork: Office games encourage cooperation and collaboration, improving bonds and connections among colleagues. It can also promote healthy competition, enhancing communication and problem-solving skills.
- Increase productivity: Playing games during work parties can increase productivity. It provides a break from the workflow, which can help employees recharge and refocus, leading to better productivity.
- Reduce stress: Office games allow employees to relax and have fun, which can improve their mental well-being.
- Enhance creativity: Office games help employees think outside the box and develop unique solutions to challenges posed by the game.
2/ Office games can also be very convenient to implement.
Office games are convenient and require minimal resources to implement.
- Low cost: Many office games are low cost and require minimal preparation. This makes it easy for companies to organize these activities without spending a lot of money on them.
- Minimal equipment: Most of them do not require any specialized equipment. They are simple to set up in a conference room, meeting room, or common area. Companies can use office supplies or inexpensive items to create the necessary game materials.
- Flexibility: Office games can be customized to suit the needs of employees. Companies can choose games that can be played during lunch breaks, team-building events, or other work-related activities.
- Easy to organize: With online resources and ideas available, organizing office games has become easier than ever. Employers can choose from various games and themes and can efficiently distribute instructions and rules to employees.
Tips For Hosting Office Games At Work Successfully
By following the below steps, you can successfully prepare and execute office games that are engaging, enjoyable, and beneficial for your employees and workplace.
1/ Choose the right games
Choose games that are appropriate for your workplace and your employees. Consider their interests, skills, and personality when selecting them. Make sure the games are inclusive and not offensive to anyone.
2/ Plan the logistics
Determine the location, time, and resources needed for the games. Will you need additional equipment, space, or materials? Will you be playing indoors? Make sure everything is planned and prepared in advance.
3/ Communicate the rules
Ensure that everyone understands the rules and objectives of the games. Provide clear instructions and explain any safety considerations. It will help avoid confusion or misunderstandings during the games.
4/ Encourage participation
Encourage everyone to participate in the games, including those who may be hesitant or shy. Create an inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable and welcome.
5/ Prepare rewards
Offer incentives or rewards for participation or for winning the games. This can be a simple prize or recognition, increasing motivation and engagement.
6/ Follow up
After the games, follow up with employees for feedback and improvement suggestions. This feedback will help you refine your approach for future events.
Office Games For Adults At Work
1/ Trivia
A trivia game is a fun and engaging to test employees' knowledge. To host a trivia game, you need to prepare a set of questions and answers related to the topic you have chosen.
These questions should be challenging but not so tricky that employees feel discouraged or disengaged. You can choose a quiz mix of easy, medium, and hard questions to cater to all skill levels.
Some trivia you can choose are:
- Spring Trivia Questions and Answers
- Fun Science Trivia Questions
- Best Movie Trivia Questions
- Holiday Trivia Questions
2/ Who am I?
"Who am I?" is a fun and interactive office game that can help encourage communication and creativity among employees.
To set up the game, provide each employee with a sticky note and ask them to write the name of a famous person. They can be anyone from a historical figure to a celebrity (you can encourage employees to choose someone that many people in the office will be familiar with).
Once everyone has written down a name and placed the sticky note on their forehead, the game begins! Employees take turns asking yes or no questions to try and figure out who they are.
For example, someone might ask "Am I an actor?" or "Am I still alive?". As employees continue to ask questions and narrow down their options, they have to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to figure out who they are.
To make the game more interesting, you can add a time limit or award points for correct guesses. You can also play multiple rounds with different categories or themes.
3/ Minute to Win It
Minute to win It is a fast-paced and exciting game. You can host a series of minute-long challenges that require employees to complete tasks using office supplies.
For example, employees might have to stack cups into a pyramid or use rubber bands to launch paper clips into a cup.
Once you have chosen your challenges, it's time to set up the game. You can have employees play individually or in teams, and you can choose to have everyone play all of the challenges or select a few randomly with a spinner wheel.
4/ Two truths and a lie
To play the game, ask each employee to come up with three statements about themselves - two of which are true and one that is a lie (they can be personal facts or things related to their job, but make sure they are not too obvious).
After an employee takes turns sharing their statements, the rest of the group has to guess which one is the lie.
Playing "Two truths and a lie" can help employees get to know each other better, and it's a great way to encourage communication, especially for new hires.
5/ Office Bingo
Bingo is a classic game that can be adapted to any office party.
To play office bingo, create bingo cards with office-related items or phrases, such as "conference call," "deadline," "coffee break," "team meeting," "office supplies," or any other relevant words or phrases. Distribute the cards to each employee and have them mark off the items as they occur throughout the day or week.
To make the game more interactive, you can also have employees interact with each other to find the items on their bingo cards. For example, they can ask each other about upcoming meetings or deadlines to help mark off items on their cards.
You can also make the game more challenging by including less common items or phrases on the bingo cards.
6/ Speed Chatting
Speed chatting is a great game that can help employees get to know each other better.
To play speed chatting, organize your team into pairs and have them sit across from each other. Set a timer for a specific amount of time, such as two minutes, and have each pair engage in a conversation. Once the timer goes off, each person moves to the next partner and starts a new conversation.
The conversations can be about anything (hobbies, interests, work-related topics, or anything else they want). The goal is to have each person chat with as many different people as possible within the allotted time.
Speed chatting can be a great icebreaker activity, especially for new employees or teams that haven't worked together before. It can help break down barriers and encourage communication and collaboration among team members.
You can also ask each person to share something interesting they learned about their partners at the end of the game.
7/ Scavenger hunts
To host an office scavenger hunt, create a list of clues and riddles that will lead employees to different locations around the office.
You can hide the items in common areas, like the break room or supply closet, or in more challenging locations, like the CEO's office or the server room.
To make this game more fun, you can add challenges or tasks at each location, such as taking a group photo or completing a puzzle before moving on to the next clue.
8/ Typing race
Office typing race can help employees improve their typing speed and accuracy while also promoting friendly competition.
In this game, employees compete against each other to see who can type the fastest and with the fewest errors. You can use a free online typing test website or create your own typing test with specific phrases or sentences related to your workplace or industry.
You can also set up a leaderboard to track progress and encourage friendly competition.
9/ Cooking competition
The cooking competition can help promote teamwork and healthy eating habits among employees.
Divide your team into groups and assign them a specific dish to prepare, such as a salad, sandwich, or pasta dish. You can also provide a list of ingredients for each team or have them bring their own from home.
Then give them an amount of time to prepare and cook their dishes. This can be cooked in the office kitchen or break room, or you can also consider hosting the competition off-site at a local kitchen or cooking school.
Managers or executives will taste and score each dish based on presentation, taste, and creativity. You can also consider having a popular vote, where all employees can sample the dishes and vote for their favourite.
10/ Charades
To play charades, divide your team into two or more groups and have each team select a word or phrase for the other team to guess. The team that is up first will choose one member to act out the word or phrase without speaking while the rest try to think what it is.
The team has a set amount of time to guess correctly; if they do, they earn points.
To add a fun and engaging twist, you can choose office-related words or phrases, such as "client meeting," "budget report," or "team building activity." This can help to be funny while keeping the game relevant to the office environment.
Charades can also be played more casually, such as during a lunch break or team-building event. It's a great way to encourage team bonding and a positive office culture.
11/ Pitch a Desk Item
This is a highly improvisational game where participants can exercise their marketing and sales skills! The game is that you pick up any item on your desk and create an elevator pitch for that item. The goal is to ultimately sell the item to your colleagues, no matter how dull or boring it may be! You come up with an entire plan for how to go about the sale and even come up with logos and slogans for your product to truly get the essence of it!
The fun part of this game is that the items present on the desk are generally hard to develop marketing strategies for, and they require some brainstorming to really come up with a pitch that sells! You can play this game in teams or individually; it does not require any external help or resources! The game can last a few minutes, and you can understand your coworker’s creative skills and ultimately have a good time.
12/ Office Survivor
Divide the office into teams and set up different challenges for each team to complete. Team-building survival games help enhance social relations and offer collective responsibility to individuals. The team with the least points at the end of each round is eliminated. It develops the utmost communication skills and bonding among your colleagues.
13/ Blind Drawing
Blind Drawing is a great communication game to play at work! The game's objective is to get the player to draw correctly based on instructions provided by the other player. The game is similar to charades, where one player draws something based on the verbal clues or action clues offered by the other player. The remaining players guess what is being removed, and the one who thinks correctly wins. You do not need any special skills to be able to draw, the worse you are, the better! You only need a few pens, pencils, and pieces of paper to play this game.
14/ Pictionary
Split the office into teams and have a person from each group draw a picture while the other team members guess what it is. This office game is really fun to play with your teams since this one requires a lot of thinking, and the drawing skills of your colleagues might also surprise you.
Key Takeaways
Playing office games can be fun and engaging, promoting teamwork, communication, and creativity. Moreover, they can also be adapted to fit any office environment or setting, making it a versatile and enjoyable activity for all employees.
Office games help keep the environment in the office lively and cheerful. It helps people get along, get to know each other, and foster new friendships. After all, it is important to have a bond with the people you see on a daily basis! We hope you have fun playing these office games with your colleagues!
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Author's Bio
Madhura Ballal - From Amber+ - plays many roles- a cat person, a food lover, an avid marketer, and a postgraduate from the National University of Singapore. You can find her painting, doing yoga, and spending time with her friends when she's not playing one of the most critical roles that she has taken on- writing.
Frequently Asked Questions
The importance of office games in the workplace?
To enhance work capacity, reduce stress levels, encourage teamwork and improve bondings between people.
What are 1-minute games to play in the office?
The gravity game, scoop it up and lonely socks.
What is a 10-second game?
The 10-second game's challenge is to check if the phrase is right or wrong in only 10 seconds.
How often should I host an office game?
At least 1 per week, during the weekly meeting.