50 Festive Ideas to Boost Employee Morale Year-Round Employee morale is a common buzzword in the HR industry because of the significant role it plays in daily office operations. Once a month, set a book title and a time and place where your team will meet to dis­cuss a book. They are not a resource to consume. At the end of the day, taking steps to boost employee morale will help all of your workers feel happier and more engaged with their work. You get access to all of our courses, as well as the chance to connect with forward thinking HR professionals in our various communities. Ice Cream Parties . to make this work but that shouldn’t be too hard to find. You want your employ­ees to feel a sense of belong­ing and of being part of a tight-knit team. Send them a hand­writ­ten note, get your cowork­ers to sign a card or organ­ise a birth­day cake. By playing games that people associate with their childhood, you’ll boost morale and employee happiness tenfold. For some easy and fun employee engagement ideas, see our post here or make up your own team-building game. Employee morale refers to the overall attitude and satisfaction that workers have in the workplace. Final Thoughts. It’s harder than it sounds and you may want to see – while shooting for a minute – who can go the longest. Conclusion Yeah, you’ll feel a little silly, but themed workdays are an easy way to boost employee morale and get everyone excited to go to work. Here are our top six recommendations. Food stands that serve snow cones, popcorn, corn dogs and cotton candy are also fun. Time each member of the team, add up the individual times, and the team that has the longest time wins. It helps to alleviate stress and build teams and relationships. So, grabbing a few drinks after work is a great way to boost morale, and bring your team together around things that are, well, not work. If you have a vari­ety of ques­tions and sub­ject areas, it allows employ­ees of dif­fer­ent back­grounds and tal­ents to show off their strengths. Manager, Get a free Employee Engagement PDF guide + all the blog articles straight to your inbox, This party game is a quick and fun way to organize a one or two-minute break in the workday. Let's get started! 12 Virtual Team Building Activities and Games to Boost Morale This post may contain affiliate links. It's very different to normal work (unlike Game #2 so it should be very effective at cutting stress). While everyone is out, have the office freshly painted with bright colors. Game #4: One-minute treasure hunt Label two sets of items with team names (team 1/team 2, red team/blue team, etc.). 1. Create opportunities to celebrate and have some fun with your employees, like a company potluck … A pre-match hud­dle is pop­u­lar for ath­letes — it serves to ral­ly them and get them enthused and ener­gised for the task ahead. 10 Fun-filled Activities to Help Boost Team Morale. Some offices may not want their employees to engage in office games, but it is always a good idea to present this idea if it is not on the minds of upper management yet. And turn the right ones into reality. To boost morale, con­sid­er host­ing a fam­i­­ly-friend­­ly event or out­ing dur­ing work hours. Permutations abound for this game so use your imagination. It's very different to normal work (unlike Game #2 so it should be very effective at cutting stress). Make it a barbecue and offer fun prizes for the winners to level up the fun factor. The team of three who collects the most tails by the end of the game wins. Purchase two bags of kidney beans and two bags of chickpeas (or any type of beans that differ in color or shape). It’s a collaborative game that includes intrigue and teamwork. What’s more, certain types of music make repetitive tasks more enjoyable, improve focus, and can even make us more creative. Learn how a bizarre year catapulted performance management thinking. Inter­est­ing­ly, it has been found that an act of kind­ness of any type can boost hap­pi­ness. 04. The answer is that you can inject more fun into your office environment! Once you have com­piled a list, split your employ­ees into teams and watch them work through the check­list. Game #3: Blow up balloons In the weeks pri­or to the hunt, get your employ­ees involved and ask them to send you anony­mous sug­ges­tions for items that they believe should be includ­ed in the hunt. There are a lot of ben­e­fits to a hap­py employ­ee. Did you know that exer­cise has the abil­i­ty to improve men­tal focus and per­for­mance? 2. Examples of the available activities include Online Office Games, which is a series of virtual team building games/activities like typing-speed races, spreadsheet pixel-art and print-paper origami, and Murder in Ancient Egypt which is a murder mystery that uses “escape the room” mechanics to … 12 Ways to Help Boost Team Morale. The person with the most wins. Periodically playing games with your employees (no, we’re not talking mind games) is a great way to build camaraderie and provide a much-needed break from the stresses of a workday (or workweek), all while building team morale. 44.Caught Ya In The Act. An ice cream social can be a fun way to bring staff members together. Encourage In-Office Play. This idea, submitted by Steven, incorporates this principle, and the object of the game is to have agents pretend they … Arrange a Scavenger Hunt A scavenger hunt may seem like a children's game. Some com­pa­nies decide to take a seri­ous stance on issues such as obe­si­ty and imple­ment office​“Biggest Los­er” style com­pe­ti­tions and con­tests. If both teams get all items, the team to get all items and return to start fastest wins. It can boost morale and, more importantly, it can help spark each person’s creativity, which can be extremely beneficial for meetings. Game #1: Pick up M&Ms with chopsticks This is a great game to play as teams or individually. While technically this treasure hunt game takes more than one minute, the entire game start to finish will probably take five minutes or less. Triv­ia is a great way to get employ­ees to work togeth­er, while also get­ting them engaged and ener­gised. Social con­nec­tions play an impor­tant role when it comes to employ­ee morale. Employee morale boosters are fast and simple ways to boost your staff’s mood and productivity. Keep reading for 5 effective ways to boost employee morale and keep boredom from settling in. Organ­ise a pic­nic or a bar­beque. They then need to find and solve clues to allow them to escape. Game #1: Pick up M&Ms with chopsticks “As a way to boost morale and encourage teamwork while we’re apart, my company has been hosting virtual trivia nights every week. You’ll need a lot of M&Ms, bowls, chopsticks if you play it as individuals but it’ well worth the outlay in materials (plus everyone gets to eat the M&Ms when the game is finished). What’s more, most employ­ees are eager to be more fit and active, but they lack the oppor­tu­ni­ty and moti­va­tion to do it alone — par­tic­u­lar­ly if they are stuck behind a desk for eight hours each day. Let people choose one: the day before, the day of, or day after their birthday. You will need plenty of desk space and a fair amount of beans for this game but it’s a quick and fun diversion. Divide into two teams (names should reflect how you labeled the items).