How to host team bonding without leaving the office

Fostering team bonding is crucial in the workplace, boosting employee satisfaction, engagement, and productivity. We know it’s a workspace, but it doesn’t have to be boring. We all need human connection to thrive, and the workplace is not an exception.

However, 43% of employees don’t feel connected to their colleagues, and 38% don’t trust them. 

Team bonding activities can help encourage meaningful connection, collaboration, and a competitive edge, and the best part is that team bonding doesn’t have to be complicated; you can have them in the corner of your office with a bit of intentional effort. 

Why is team bonding important?

If teams don’t bond, team members could feel their work relationships are solely transactional and find it really hard to trust their colleagues.

At the base level, team bonding allows people to get to know each other—their interests, their weaknesses and strengths, how they communicate, and when they communicate, among other things. 

Team bonding allows people to reach their full potential, develop skills, and communicate their emotions in a fun way. When people don’t have the confidence to do that, they hold back, thus sometimes limiting their ability to do their best.

Finally, team-bonding activities can help remind people that work is never just about them—it’s about the entire group. When you’re encouraged to do something together rather than solo, it brings to life the idea that the group’s success (and ultimately the company’s) should be a priority.

This can be a particularly useful learning experience for teams that struggle with teamwork, are overly competitive, or lack unity and confidence as a result of a bad manager or hard times.

So what do these exercises look like? Check out some of our favorites.

How to host team bonding without leaving the office.

1. What’s My Name?

This is a great game to spark conversations between employees. It also awakens the creative side of employees as well as logic. The game is simple to play. Have everyone write the name of well-known individuals within an industry, say sports, on a post-it and stick them on foreheads or the backs of one another. Then have the participants move around the room and ask questions about who they are, such as am I a man or woman?. The first employee to guess the name written on the note stuck to their forehead or back wins. To make this even more interesting, you can make the game about people in the organization.

2. Board team bonding games

When it comes to board games, you can never go wrong. Board games are great for stimulating the mind and encouraging logical thinking. It also cuts across hierarchy and is an excellent opportunity to get employees at different levels to sit at the same table and interact. The best part is that they don’t cost much, and you can pretty much play them anywhere. Some of these board games, including Monopoly, Codenames, Scrabble, and Chess, are some of the hottest games right now. 

You can purchase fun games at YellowLyfe HQ.

3. Happy hour team bonding games

A team happy hour is a great way to encourage your team members to get to know each other. 

For example, you could host a “Paint and Sip” happy hour in the office, where employees get a canvas, paint, and a glass of wine to drink while they hang out. Whether it’s virtual or in-person, having time dedicated to fun, not work, will create space for plenty of team bonding.

4. Try a “say a word” circle.

You can simply spend five minutes having individuals compliment one another, whatever pops into their mind (if you’re the manager, you should start to get the ball rolling!).

This can be as easy as saying, “I wanted to tell Seyi I loved his proposal this week” or “Big shoutout to Nnena for helping us last week when we were all heads-down to meet a big deadline.” Or everyone can go around and say something someone has done to hurt them in the past and resolve it. 

5. Have a hack day

Hack days are big in the tech and engineering sphere, but they can be beneficial for just about any team.

The idea is simple: Have everyone drop what they’re working on and spend the day completing a special project that benefits the team or company. If you can, have multiple departments (if not the whole company) participate and require employees to work with people on different teams. The point is to have people think outside the box by creating something that requires a new set of skills or way of thinking.

6. Start a book club

Grab a book related to your field and have everyone read it over a few weeks. Then, set aside some time to sit and chat about it (over snacks!). You’ll spark interesting conversation, encourage colleagues to share ideas, stories, and input, and help everyone learn a bit more about their role within the team.

7. Team Lunches

Everybody loves to eat, or almost everybody loves to eat. So, what’s the most effortless team bonding activity? You can decide to order pizza and ice cream for every team member. For one, almost everybody will be available, and through food choices, among other things, employees can get to know more about each other, interact, and eventually bond.

Experience YellowLyfe team bonding activities.

A strong team cannot happen without effort and intentionality. Yes, you can have a team that meshes naturally.

Still, to cultivate a team that supports each other through thick and thin, you will need to strengthen relationships with practical team-building activities for employees, and that is where YellowLyfe comes in.

Along with the fantastic ideas above, YellowLyfe is an experience company that promotes workplace productivity via exciting team bonding, game experiences, corporate gifting, and event production.

To see for yourself, send us a message at {brands@yellowlyfe.com} to book a session and create a memorable experience for your team members.