8 Fun Team Building Activities & Ideas to Improve Your Team’s Morale in 2024

Are you seeing a decrease in your team’s morale? Perhaps you are seeing signs of a lack of motivation, bored faces, and lackluster energy levels? 

Tagvenue is a remote-first company, so we understand the threat posed by employee dissatisfaction. But we’re not letting it get the best of us – instead, we’re making sure everyone is happy with their job! Yes, it’s no mean feat, but it’s SO worth it! 

We prioritize honest and transparent communication between team members and various teams. Our company culture is also oriented towards keeping employees satisfied by helping them set clear goals and encouraging them to grow.  Every one of us at Tagvenue embraces the challenges that we face each day, knowing that they help us get better at our work. 

Obviously, work is important, but that’s not all! And that’s why we’re such big fans of team building activities! While they tend to get a bad reputation and are often associated with tedious mandatory HR practices, they can also be a lot of fun. 

The right kinds of team building exercises can bring people closer together, make them feel comfortable with each other, improve future effectiveness, and finally – reveal strengths and weaknesses in individual team members. 

Have we got your attention yet? We hope so! If you’re struggling with team morale at your organization, read on to discover our tips and tricks to improve your business and, more importantly, your employees’ satisfaction with their workplace!

8 Fun Team Building Activities

Are your employees disinterested in their assignments? Are they not meeting deadlines and you are seeing a decline in the quality of their work? It’s definitely time to figure out what’s wrong and how you can fix it! 

We know that for managers, boosting employee confidence and mood can be no mean feat (especially if the whole team is working remotely) but it’s crucial to meet the challenge!

We want to keep employees engaged in their work and keeping up with their responsibilities while also making sure that they feel comfortable in their workplace. And we can’t name many better ways to boost company morale than with a fun activity or game! 

Team building activities are great for team bonding. They give long-term employees a chance to meet the new hires and also enable new hires to learn more about the company they’ve just joined. Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Then have a look at our list of activities and get inspired!

1. Do a Silent Line-Up

It’s a simple game, but you have no idea how much fun and laughter it brings! Various teams compete against each other in a few rounds. During each round, people must line up in differing order, for example, by age, height, number of siblings, number of pets, etc. But there is a catch – they must get in line without saying a word. 

Your team will have a chance to learn a bit about each other while playing. So what do you say? Are you up for an unusual challenge?

2. Lunch and Learn

Are you wondering about a fun way to have lunch? We’ve got an answer for you! Host an educational lunch. And we don’t mean hiring a lecturer to drone on as people passively listen while eating their pasta salad. No! We mean lunches where team members share their hobbies or things they’ve recently discovered and would like to share with others. 

If your company is quite big, we suggest organizing team lunches to enable coworkers to learn a lot more about their peers – not just their day-to-day work.

3. Organize an Office Trivia

Come up with questions and answers about the entire office and test your team’s knowledge! Divide employees into smaller groups and gear up for lots of laughter and surprising facts. “What color are the kitchen tiles?” “How many people are in the IT department?” “How many plants are there in the entire office?” “What brand of headphones do we use?” “Who joined the team last?” 

We’ve already given you some questions you could use, so why not give this idea a try? An office trivia is a quick team-building activity that tests how observant your team is, and can be done either on-site or remotely!

4. Pictionary

It’s an oldie, but a goodie! And you might not think it’s that beneficial for company morale but trust us – a little healthy competition can go a long way towards improving morale. A game of Pictionary lasts just a few minutes and is a great way to break up a dull work day. Have each person in your team write down a word (it could be anything they like as long as it’s work-appropriate), exchange the pieces of paper, and take turns drawing! 

You can either make groups of two or three, or play all together and guess the objects being drawn as a team.

5. Battle of the bands

Don’t worry – we don’t mean a battle of the actual bands. We’re talking about a battle of air bands! Split your team into groups of 3-4 people and let them decide who will be the singer, guitarist, drummer, etc. Give them 5 minutes to choose a song, quickly rehearse, and then get ready to perform! Each group will have a chance to share a lip-synced version of whatever tune they’ve chosen (all work-friendly, obviously)! 

After the performances, teams can vote on the winner. As a reward, the winning group could be given the responsibility to decide what the next team building activity will be. 

6. Back-to-Back Drawing

Split the entire group into pairs and get the competition started! Once everyone is sitting back to back, one person gets a simple picture while the other is handed a piece of paper and a pen. Next, the person holding the image gives verbal instructions to their partner on how to draw the object they’re staring at (without telling them what it actually is). 

After a set amount of time, have all the pairs compare their pieces of paper and decide which team drew the most accurate replica.

7. Scavenger Hunt

We think an excellent way to make people move and get a break from work is a Scavenger Hunt! It will bring lots of joy, strengthen bonds between coworkers, improve their collaboration, and test their problem-solving skills. 

Split everyone into groups and make a list of fun things to find or do in the office. Then, make it each team’s mission to find and photograph everything on that list within a certain time limit. The first team to complete the list wins! And if you’re feeling brave, why not take the scavenger outside of the office and carry out a scavenger hunt in your local neighborhood? 

If you don’t have a spot to organize your team building event, feel free to browse our platform for a venue that will fit your activity perfectly.

Fun Team Building Activities for Remote Teams

As a result of recent turbulent pandemic years, many companies choose to work remotely or in a hybrid way. But even before then, some places had employees located all over the world. 

Either way, keeping employees not only engaged in their work but also ensuring that they feel comfortable with each other has been a challenge for many HR professionals, CEOs, and team leaders. 

But we have found an amazing solution for international teams: virtual team building activities. What are those? They’re an exciting range of activities and games that you and your employees can enjoy from home. 

Remote workers can feel the lack of human interaction during their workdays. So, in order to boost employee morale and to help them get to know their co-workers better, why not check out virtual team building activities for your remote teams?

8. Whose Office Is This?

Why not enjoy this fun game in which people have to guess whose home office appears in the photo? And it’s ridiculously easy to set up! Have each team member send you a picture of their home office, and then have everyone guess whose workspace is whose! Keep the game going with photos of everyone’s coffee mugs, desktop backgrounds, or bookshelves. Let’s see how well your employees really know each other.

BONUS: 4 Ways to Improve Your Team’s Morale

You’re probably familiar with this scenario: employee morale is running high and it feels like there’s nothing your team can’t accomplish. Everyone is super-productive, they have a positive outlook and their work quality is absolutely stellar. 

But lately, you’ve been noticing that something isn’t quite right and their output has been suffering? Does trying to motivate your team feel like trying to roll rocks uphill? 

Low morale in the workplace isn’t necessarily the byproduct of a toxic office environment. Employees might be juggling personal problems alongside work, such as caring for family members or going through personal struggles. 

We’re all humans after all and there might be a number of reasons that can make it hard for them to stay engaged and upbeat about work. We’re certain you want to help them feel more satisfied and avoid losing your top talent. Luckily, we’ve got a few easy tips for you to help sort out this situation! So get reading and start implementing these methods today!

1. Communication Is Key

The heading says it all: communication is key. That’s why improving communication among the staff is so important. You can start by scheduling regular one-on-one meetings, setting clear goals for each employee and always being open to feedback. 

Make sure to share company announcements, whether it’s a positive review or new product development, and bid official farewells to employees. It’ll help them feel like they’re a valued part of the company – which they are.

Tagvenue’s strategy: At our company, teams have daily meetings for each employee to share what they’ve been working on, their struggles, and what they have in store for the day. 

Once a week, we have a company-wide meeting (the famous Town Hall) during which each team shares their achievements, highlights, and learnings over the past week. The Town Hall is also an amazing opportunity for discussions and exchanging ideas. 

But we don’t wait until Friday to communicate: we have dedicated channels on Slack where we share big and little wins, as well as failures.

2. Give employee recognition

A simple “Great job!” can have a massive impact on your employee’s morale. Seriously! Unfortunately, very often leaders don’t realize how important it is to recognize people the right way. 

We’re here to tell you that you shouldn’t just hand out meaningless compliments. Instead, take notice when a team member has improved or done something outstanding, and tell them how impressed you were with the good work they did. Well-given feedback can go a long way in motivating employees to keep up their high spirits and stay focused on work.

Also, make sure to find opportunities to highlight the individual contributions of your team members in front of others. Giving recognition during company meetings can go a long way to making team members feel valued and improving their job satisfaction. But as a manager, you should find out first which forms of giving praise and positive feedback are in fact the most rewarding to your employee.

According to Gallup, “workplace recognition has the power to motivate employees and give them a sense of accomplishment when they’re working. Telling employees that you’ve noticed their good work can not only increase their productivity but also widely impact their loyalty to the company”.

Tagvenue’s strategy: We not only give shout-outs to outstanding employees, we also share case studies that outline their journey to success. A simple recognition, especially in front of others, can boost morale and employee satisfaction in ways you might find surprising and it can be a source of inspiration for others!

3. Keep Minds Creative Among The Team

Leaders often do not leave enough space for their teams to be creative, which is a shame because, let’s be honest: everyone enjoys a bit of autonomy and loves knowing that their ideas matter. 

Managers should set clear expectations of what the desired outcomes should be and give employees a free hand when it comes to reaching those goals. And when your employees feel that they can’t get creative with their tasks or that there is no room for interesting new projects, they might find their work to be less and less rewarding. 

So as a manager or team leader, try to make mundane tasks more interesting, find new ways to keep your workers engaged, and give them a free hand to show off what new ideas they could bring to the team.  

Tagvenue’s strategy: We try to share our inspirations, new discoveries, and ideas with our team members constantly. 

Our Marketing Team does so either during our morning stand-ups or special monthly meetings that we like to call the “Creative Hour”. It’s an hour-long meeting when we sit down to catch up and share what has been keeping our minds engaged. The inspirations vary greatly, from articles, podcasts, and short YouTube videos to books and movies.

This time together also allows us to take a break from our daily tasks and get a glimpse into each other’s life outside of work.

4. Make room for growth

An opportunity to grow makes a huge part of the positive company culture. But did you know that there might be a morale drop if people at your company don’t have room to progress? 

We suggest that you as a manager make sure that every individual on your team has a sense of purpose and a goal to work towards. And by that, we don’t necessarily mean a job promotion. Instead, you can send them to a course or conference to improve their professional skills. 

Employees need to feel a sense of growth to be truly motivated. This is why it’s so important to give them the right means to do so. 

Tagvenue’s strategy: Growth is one of our company values, so we definitely prioritize it as much as we can. First things first, we encourage employees to seek new ways of gaining knowledge and experience by reading books as well as attending conferences and webinars. 

What’s more, we make sure to give individuals opportunities for project management – no matter if they’re new additions to the team or have been at the company for years. We believe that people only grow by being challenged and empowered!

Summary

To sum up, team building activities are not just a form of entertainment. While having fun, your employees are working on their soft skills, discovering their strengths, and improving their teamwork abilities! 
And remember that team building activities shouldn’t be just a one-time event. It’s a work in progress and should be repeated often, both in and outside the office! We recommend renting a venue where you and your team can bond, whether it’s a meeting room, an art gallery, or a hall. There are plenty of options, all of which you can explore on Tagvenue.

Why not implement at least one of our suggestions in your workplace? We’re certain you’ll only be hearing positive feedback! You’ll be showing your team a great time while increasing their sense of fulfillment and building a great company culture. And who knows, you might become the “cool boss”! How great would that be?

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