Going to work is so much more than completing tasks and meeting deadlines. To many people, work is a huge part of their life and identity. Fun activities have been proven to increase job satisfaction and motivation at the workplace. That’s why I strongly suggest that you facilitate and encourage good company activities, for you and your colleagues / employees.
What are the Different Types of Company Activities?
There’s no shortage of activities that might help improve job satisfaction and motivation at your workplace. In this article, we’ll be looking at activities in the form of clubs, social activities, team building activities, physical challenges and professional activities. I’ll be listing my own favourite ideas, activities and favorites, as well as the reasons why I think they are so great!
Clubs, Groups and Associations
Being part of a club usually means much more than simply doing whatever activity the club is formed around. The great part of joining or forming a club is that it facilitates a returning activity that gets easier to do each time. All the while, the benefits of being part of a club get much larger over time.
If you’re looking for suggestions as to what kinds of clubs you might want to start or join, we’ve found some good candidates:
- Pickling Club: You can pickle just about anything, and anyone can do it. It’s quite the stroke of genius, really. You can pickle something over either very short or long periods of time. This makes it easy for new members to take part in the action. When you’ve gotten to know each other well, you might pick the perfect occasion to bring your pickled goods along to a feast or summer party, for the rest of the company to taste.
- Running Club: A classic example of a club that brings with it a strong community. Make sure you focus on the social aspects of the club, without letting the competition take over. You might aim for a local half-marathon, instead of training intensively for an ironman. This way, most people can be a part of the community and have fun along the way. Running clubs don’t suffer as much from members falling ill, quitting or joining, as even two dedicated members can have a great time together.
- Wine Club: A wine club is great, because it has nothing to do with work. It allows you to get to know your colleagues better. A wine club is also easy to jump in and out of, without losing form or having a good pickle going to waste.
Social Activities
The social activities can be difficult to get going when starting from scratch. As a company, it’s often easier minimizing the barriers at hand by providing rooms and facilities meant for non-work-related activities. Here’s a couple of tips on how to encourage more social activities at your workplace.
- Anniversaries: Keep track of birthdays and anniversaries for your employees, and make sure there’s time to celebrate with a piece of cake on the occasion. During these breaks, we get an opportunity to engage in free conversation. This lets us arrange other activities, like trips to the movies or to the local stadium for a football match.
- Social Evenings: Arrange a social evening without any work-related obligations. By inviting your colleagues/employees to a wine tasting, cocktail course or grill night, you leave space for more social activities to form. Perhaps your wine tasters will end up forming a wine club?
Teambuilding Activities
Teambuilding activities are mostly facilitated by the company directly, as opposed to clubs and other social activities. Usually, these activities take place during a dedicated teambuilding day, an annual summer party or a Christmas party. While it’s difficult to please everyone, carefully chosen teambuilding activities can lead to big smiles and great memories. If you’re interested in hearing more about specific activities to perform at the office, you’ll find further inspiration here: Teambuilding Activities at the office.
Here’s a couple of our favorites:
- Ball Track: Ball tracks can be built in many different ways. In this game, you’re competing in building the track that can move a ball the furthest, using different tools at your disposal. The activity strongly encourages natural teamwork and gives great pleasure when you succeed in the task. Read more on ball track events here.
- Escape Room: Escape Rooms have gained continuous popularity for quite some time now – and with good reason! Using story-telling, teamwork and timed challenges, there’s something for everyone. There’s bound to be a room perfect for your team.
- Cooking School: Cooking schools fit several bills in this article, since they both hold elements of being clubs as well as social activities. At its best, a cooking school can strengthen teamwork, create friendly competition and leave you with a bunch of great stories to tell. You won’t even have to think of what to get for dinner!
Physical Challenges
All studies point to physical exercise being great for both your well-being and productivity. One way of ensuring physical activities are encouraged, is by arranging physical challenges for everyone to have fun with. We have a few favorites, but you might find there’s a plethora of fun physical challenges to partake in.
- Kayaking: We love kayaking, because it lets you experience mother nature at her best. During your trip, you’ll get an opportunity to get to know each other in small teams. In the end, you also get to catch up with the rest of the group, and can discuss your individual experiences. Kayaking is great, including when paired with camping and other activities in the wild.
- Company Football: Few things can bring a group together like team sports. Several platforms have made it particularly easy for companies to register and start playing football. Once a season is coming to an end, you might invite everyone from the office for the final game and have it become a social event for all.
- Local Running Events: Many companies take part in annual running events. If you’ve yet to try one of these, we can only recommend it. Those that can’t run can walk the distance instead, while others can join later for a grill event or as part of an audience.
- Bumperball: Bumperball is a jolly good time and lets you – quite literally – bump your worries away, while running around in your own protective bubble. If it sounds a bit intimidating, you might give human foosball a go instead, as it is a load of fun as well.
Professional Activities
Professional activities let you get the breathing room you might need from your assignments at work. They also develop your employees, while giving them something to rejoice over for a long time to come. While relevant professional activities differ from industry to industry, these three tasks tend to be good practices for every company to at least try.
- Go-home Meetings: Go-home meetings are both practical and efficient. They let you and your colleagues be inspired and regain momentum and curiosity, to be utilized in future work endeavours. Go-home meetings are likely to only increase in popularity, so don’t be afraid to explore this growing field of opportunities.
- Webinar: Webinars are great, due to their flexible nature. Transportation and pampering is also taken out of the equation, when preparing a webinar. While you didn’t hear this from us, webinars also allow you to strategically evaluate whether the meeting holds significant importance to you, or whether you might make a discrete exit. Webinars also allow you to include colleagues working from afar or from home.
- Conferences: Conferences demand a larger time frame and budget, but also often pay off tenfolds the dividends. Conferences enforce the sharing of knowledge and help to inspire everyone attending.
How to get Started Fostering Ideas for More Company Activities
While these 14 picks represent some of our suggestions, we encourage you to explore the vast landscape of options, and perhaps also come up with your own ideas. If you want to figure out what activity suits your workplace the best, set up a meeting with a whiteboard, and let everyone come up with their own suggestions as to what activities would be the most fun. The ones with the most votes are probably brilliant first picks for you and your colleagues to try!
