5 Best Ways To Incorporate Fun Into The Workplace
Image from Freepik
Imagine the most fun workplace. What do you see? A slide from one office floor to the other? An ice cream machine?
Fun is defined differently for everyone, but one thing is clear: Happier employees are more engaged at work, which means productivity increases.
Hence, it’s in every employer’s best interest to incorporate fun into the workplace. Engaged employees are more likely to increase productivity potential by 21%.
As a business owner yourself, you can show your employees that you care about boosting morale, and prioritizing your employees’ mental health pays dividends—literally.
A Study by BrightHR looked at work patterns and found that “44% of those believing fun in the workplace increases work ethic”.
Moreover, “62% of employees who took no sick days in the previous 3 months had fun at work”. This makes total sense, so She’s A Given is helping you with the 5 best ways to incorporate fun into the workplace.
And if you have new ideas, reach out to us.
HELPFUL: CAN I AFFORD A VA?
Adding fun into the workplace doesn’t have to be over the top. No slides necessary (but who doesn’t like ice cream?). Let’s go over 5 simple ways to incorporate some fun in your workday:
Recognize Milestones and Achievements
Recognizing milestones and achievements is easy and effective. Employees like to feel valued and appreciated. It’s as simple as recognizing their birthday or even celebrating/acknowledging their years of service at the company.
Here are some ideas for birthdays or years of service:
Have the team sign a birthday card
Give a small desk plant
Order a pastry basket to share with the team in honor of birthday/anniversary
Cater lunch
Send flowers
Make Social Media Fun
Social media should be fun and engaging, and allowing your team to be a part of an in-office social platform brings fun into the workplace.
Capture the events of your day through pictures or videos that you can share on your social media. Your employees will enjoy participating, and these posts also can serve as a marketing perk.
Draw in new business by sharing the fun your employees have and your business offers.
Here are some ideas
Cubicle/desk decorating (specific theme or holiday)
Dress up days
Sharing about birthdays and anniversaries
Company offsites
Community volunteer days
Office Competitions
Everyone loves a little competition. So, why not have some fun with them? If your employees enjoy sports, you can utilize things such as fantasy football and March Madness.
You can also bring these same brackets to popular TV shows like The Bachelor. If sports aren’t a favorite of your team don’t worry, have a desk or cubicle decorating contest (bonus: you can use photos from those events on your social media).
It can also be as simple as planning a potluck lunch but making it a “chili cook-off” or something similar. The team will love using their brains for something creative and competitive, plus the bonding between different teams and departments is invaluable.
You can have a grand prize winner for a gift card or even leave it at the office bragging rights (with a small trophy or award, of course). That is part of the fun—for you to decide together.
Encourage Engagement
Encouraging your team to bond and interact is important. You don’t want your team to be strangers. If you have routine company meetings, allow your team to have “small group time.”
You can have a small group engagement activity—something to share at the meeting. The time they spend together will create bonding.
People love sharing about their travels, pets or children. Encourage them to share; offer to have them tell you about a fun trip they took, bring in photos, or even turn it into a game; have employees submit photos of their pets and then make the rest of the team guess which pet belongs with which person.
Good times! This is also great for teams full of remote employees. Have a chat dedicated to sharing personal things.
Team Outings
Spending time together out of the traditional workplace is a great opportunity to learn about one another.
Whether you are having the team volunteer in the community, enjoying a happy hour or eating a company dinner.
These get-togethers allow your team to let their “walls” down and have more fun since they aren’t isn’t inside the same “four walls” of the workspace.
As you can see, there are many ways to incorporate fun into your workplace, and many activities can overlap.
The possibilities are endless! Go incorporate some fun into your workplace and increase your company’s productivity today!
-
Ideas for celebrating milestones and achievements include having the team sign a birthday card, giving a small desk plant, ordering a pastry basket to share with the team in honor of a birthday/anniversary, catering lunch, and sending flowers.
-
Ideas to promote fun and engagement on social media include cubicle/desk decorating (specific theme or holiday), dress-up days, sharing about birthdays and anniversaries, company offsites, and community volunteer days.
-
Activities for team outings include volunteering in the community, enjoying a happy hour, eating a company dinner, and participating in team building activities.
