You and your employees walk into the office daily, turn on your computers, and grind away for a productive day at work.
While some core collaboration needs to happen, most of the work will typically be done separately, which means you and your employees may not socialize as much as everyone would like. Over time, this may start to hamper both your and your employees’ moods slowly, and your employees could begin to drift apart slowly, which could cause communication issues and breakdowns.
To avoid all this, you could plan fun trips and events to partake in or even get a coworking space day pass to mix things up and get out of the office. In this article, we’ll describe some things you can do together to give you some ideas and help keep your employees happy and connected.
Cannon Day Pasa
While this may sound like a trip to a historical reenactment, it’s actually a coworking space day pass, meaning that you rent out a dedicated spot in the shared workplace for a day. You and your employees would get access to their fully stocked and functioning kitchens and unlimited coffee from an array of high-quality brands.
On top of this, they offer enterprise WiFi, and their online community could help you connect with many different people—they even have meeting rooms you could utilize! The change in environment could lift your coworker’s spirits and give you some ideas on improving your workspaces and break rooms for when you return to the office.
While it may seem like a downgrade to return to your office the next day, the change in environment will have broken up the monotony of your regular work week and may even make you more excited to return to work the next day. You may not have access to the same facilities and amenities, but creativity ultimately thrives in change.
You and your employees may have had several breakthroughs during your stay and now have new products or projects to pitch or ideas to pursue. At the very least, it will have boosted everyone’s mood to have worked elsewhere for the day.
Karaoke Night
An activity that you may or may not have considered before is partaking in a group karaoke night together.
You could create a playlist with the help and suggestions from your employees and either utilize an online service, rent a karaoke machine, or even visit a karaoke bar and enjoy the fun of stumbling your way through songs you may or may not know. Some online services will even allow you to connect your phone or other device to it, which you can use as the microphone.
Many have a catalog of dozens of popular songs from throughout the years, so you can select one of these existing playlists or create one on your own using suggestions you get from your employees. Make sure to add a range of songs from many different genres, and you could even create multiple playlists that fit with the types of weeks you may have been having.
For example, a popular, easy-to-sing pop song playlist could help your employees feel better and uplift their spirits. If you’ve been having a good and productive week or month, then a playlist with popular songs from throughout the ages, employee favorites, or even a few tunes from musicals would add some difficulty, help create fun discussions, and even open the door for some laughs.
Laser Tag
Sometimes, a karaoke night or company picnic may not be intense enough to blow off some steam and encourage your employees to work together.
Luckily, a fun group activity is built just for times like these—laser tag. Laser tag has you put on a vest and a few other pieces of protective equipment like helmets, team up, and grab your laser guns to try and hit the opposing team members before they knock your team out.
Hitting players can do many things based on the selected mode of play, with the one common denominator is that the team with the most points at the end wins. Sometimes, it works like dodgeball, while other times, hitting other players gives you a point, and the game continues until a timer hits zero.
Some game types available are capture the flag, free-for-all, and team deathmatch. Of course, when you think of laser tag, you probably envision the team deathmatch mode, where two teams try to hit each other with the lasers while running and ducking behind the cover. When someone is hit, the other team gets points, and the game ends when the timer runs out—the winning team has the most points.
A free-for-all game is pretty simple; each player is on their team, shooting others to try and increase their kill count while avoiding getting hit by other players—once again, the player with the most points in the end wins.
Capture the flag is similar to a team deathmatch, except instead of shooting players to earn points, you must infiltrate the enemy team’s base, grab their flag, and take it back to your base to earn points. It works the same as the others—once the time is up, the team with the most points wins.
Game Night
Why not host a game night if you like to stay in more familiar surroundings but yearn for the excitement that a game of laser tag or paintball offers? Collect a few board or card games, rearrange the tables in the breakroom or the desks in the office space, and let chaos ensue.
You’ll need various games since most board and card games have a limited number of players, and each type of game appeals to different types of people. You could also go digital and purchase a collection of games that can be played digitally since these tend to have higher player limits if they have limits at all.
Mixing Up the Work Routine
From changing your work environment for a day to hosting a karaoke night, there are many ways you could boost employee mood and morale and have fun simultaneously. However, while it may be fun to plan these activities, it’s best to keep the preferences and personalities of your employees in mind before committing to something.
Once you plan these activities, give your employees plenty of heads up and ensure they know they’re optional where applicable. Forcing these fun times on people can stress them out and cause some of the same problems you’re trying to fix.
With these suggestions and tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to building stronger coworker relationships and fostering a better workplace culture in no time.
