The Benefits of Corporate Team-Building Games

Updated 27 December 2022

A positive working environment helps both employers and employees by reducing stress and increasing productivity. One way to create a more positive working environment is by taking breaks from work to interact with coworkers using team-building games. In this article, we explain what corporate team-building games are, give some examples of these games and discuss the advantages of using team-building games.

What are corporate team-building games?

Team-building games are activities that employers use to improve interpersonal relations between colleagues. They offer breaks from work activities, which can increase levels of enjoyment at work. Many corporate team-building games involve collaborative tasks to improve teamwork skills in the workplace.

Corporate team-building games also help improve organisational performance. They increase positivity and cooperation within individual teams and in the organisation as a whole.

Examples of team-building games

There are plenty of different team-building games that you can incorporate into an organisation. Choose ideas that need collaboration and problem-solving to ensure that the games involve everyone.

If you are looking for a game to help your fellow employees relax before a meeting or seminar, choose something simple, whereas games for corporate retreats can take more time and effort. Longer games help people focus on working together, which forges positive relationships.

Here are some examples of team-building games to consider:

Soccer
Scavenger hunt
Office trivia
Improvisation workshops
Escape room games
Cooking competitions
Charades
Video game tournaments

Soccer

Soccer is one of the most popular outdoor sports in Australia. It is an excellent team-building game suitable for office retreats. This sport requires 11 people on each team, so you will need many employees to play a full game. To motivate your colleagues to play, turn it into a competition. Divide into teams based on departments to help increase competitiveness.

Scavenger hunt

Walking is a common recreational activity in Australia, and scavenger hunts introduce a fun and exciting element that can help you create a team-bonding activity that gets everyone moving.

Divide your colleagues into teams. Each team should scavenge for miscellaneous objects that you hide in selected locations, such as around the workplace or the surrounding area. Give clues using work-related or themed questions, which should encourage everyone to work together to find the right answers. For extra motivation, offer rewards for the winning teams.

Office trivia

A simple game of trivia can be a wonderful way to warm up before a meeting. It can help employees learn about your organisation or industry. Divide everyone into small groups and begin asking questions. This is also an excellent way to prepare people for what they will learn in a conference or seminar.

Improvisation workshops

Improvisation workshops are interactive and fun team-building games. During these activities, make up a story or ask the audience to come up with suggestions, then ask your colleagues to come up and act them out.

Escape room games

Escape room games involve people staying in an allocated room or space for a set amount of time. During this time, teams must collaborate to find solutions to escape the room. They have to solve puzzles and find clues that enable them to escape in the fastest time possible. You can either go to a professional escape room with your colleagues after work one day or try to create your own version in the office.

Cooking competitions

Consider holding a cooking competition among various teams in your organisation. You could determine the menu beforehand, or you could choose a theme and let teams be creative.

When holding a cooking competition, create several group challenges. The goal is to get your employees to work together under intense pressure. You can hire local chefs as your judges for the day, or you could opt for blind taste tests that allow members of your company to taste different foods and grade them based on what they enjoy the most.

Charades

Charades are one of the easiest team-building games to play. All you need to do is to come up with a list of relevant words or phrases. Base these on fun facts, workplace situations, or another specific theme. One member of the team chooses a word or phrase and acts it out without talking. Everyone else must guess what that person is trying to communicate. Once someone is successful, the next person picks a new word or phrase.

Charades are not just for kids. Use these games in corporate settings to break the ice and improve camaraderie among coworkers. It can be a wonderful team-building tool to use when people don't know each other very well. You can also use charades to introduce new concepts within the organisation. These games are also great for promoting creativity in employees and collaboration within teams.

Video game tournaments

Video games are not just fun to play. They also boost creativity and increase focus, so they are great for team building. As a fun way to take a break from work, bring in a video game console or advocate to get one specifically for the workplace. The goal is to get people to work together, so make sure to choose games that need multiple players. Your coworkers can then divide themselves into teams and take turns playing the games to accumulate team points.

Video game tournaments can take place after hours or during one or two lunch breaks every week. Schedule these games when it works for most people in the workplace. Those who are not playing can take turns spectating and cheering for their teams.

These competitions are beneficial on their own, but you can also choose to include a reward at the end of the tournament. It could be something as simple as a trophy that the winning team gets to keep for a month. That way, the winners get bragging rights, but everyone else gets another chance to try to improve their game.

The benefits of using team-building games

Team-building games offer incredible benefits to an organisation when played regularly. These benefits include:

Enhanced collaboration and trust
Improved communication
Improved productivity
Increased creativity
Identification of individual strengths and weaknesses
Improved interpersonal relations
Improved employee engagement

Enhanced collaboration and trust

Playing games motivates people to work together to complete tasks, which improves collaboration and trust among colleagues. The team members have to depend on one another to complete the tasks, which can later reflect on projects in the workplace.

Improved communication

Employees who take part in corporate team challenges learn to listen to each other. They also learn how to communicate more effectively to find solutions together. This helps improve their interpersonal relations and their ability to communicate in the workplace.

Improved productivity

Employee productivity determines business revenue. The more productive a business is, the better its economic outlook will be. People willing to work cooperatively are often more productive, so encouraging your coworkers to engage in team-bonding games can help increase efficiency in the workplace.

Increased creativity

Many people need to use creativity and original thinking to solve problems at work, and team-building games that use strategic thinking to find clues and solutions can help employees think more creatively. Improvisation workshops are a good example of team-building games that are fun and creative. They also encourage people to think quickly because participants must respond rapidly to suggestions. In general, increased creativity can boost innovation within an organisation.

Identification of individual strengths and weaknesses

In an organisation, it may be difficult to identify strengths and weaknesses. This changes when you incorporate corporate team building into your work calendar. By letting people take part in smaller team events, you give them a chance to shine. Competition motivates people to contribute to the best of their ability, and employers may begin to see new leaders emerge.

Improved interpersonal relations

Fun team-building games provide a relaxed environment that helps employees get to know one another. When playing, they learn to trust each other and work together. They also learn to respect their coworkers' abilities and bond with each other to develop stronger relationships. A unified workforce provides a better organisational culture that attracts great talent.

Improved employee engagement

Employee engagement refers to how committed employees are to their jobs. It also refers to how passionate they are about their organisation as a whole. Corporate team-building games can enhance bonding and help employees become more interested in who they work with. They learn to appreciate their colleagues, which increases motivation and productivity in the workplace. This may even help reduce employee turnover.