Best Team Building Ideas To Welcome Employees Back To The Office
For workers, coming back to work from office after a long leave might be intimidating. Many people are eager to return to the office space and interact with their coworkers, but many people are also still anxious about the dangers of the corona virus or taking on new challenges away from home.
A well-thought-out work from office programmed that eases the transition and offers a structure for reestablishing connections and credibility with your coworkers should be part of your work from office planning.
Team building activities provide you the chance to use your creative thinking when you get back to the office space. There are approaches to encouraging collaboration in person.
While a professional, it is your duty to make sure that your team members are safe and encouraged as they acclimate to going back from work from home to work from office. We’ve all been through a lot, and while you should accept that, you should also be optimistic about the future. You must ensure that your team members return to work feeling valued, driven, and respected.
Here are 8 fun ideas you can use to welcome your team back to work from office:
1. Send A Personalized Welcome And Hygiene Kit Before They Return To Office
Consider surprising them with a customised welcome kit only a few days or a week before they actually return to work from office space if you’re intending on personally welcoming your staff back. This can be an excellent chance for you to let them know how much you value them and how much you care about keeping them safe.
Giving away meaningful presents, whether it is employee appreciation cards, hand sanitizer, or branded face masks, is a great way to express your appreciation for your staff and ensure that they feel secure while returning to work from office.
2. Personalize Their Desk Space
Employees should receive a reward as soon as they enter the office space. It might be as straightforward as a brief word of welcome return and some chocolates, like a team kit with merchandise with the logo of the organisation which helps in bringing that office vibe while they start with work from office. Leave a bag of their favourite candies or snacks on their desk as a small gift, or print out a photo of them with their family or another nice memory.
If you can afford it, offer them both, albeit a kind note left on their desk will mean far more than a gift. Any employee would like receiving a personalised note from the CEO, which would help them feel, appreciated and valued after being away from office space for so long.
3. Surprise Them With Their Lunch
Deliver lunch from one of their favourite place to their work space as a surprise. On their first day back or once a week, whichever comes first, you could do this.
After months of being away from office space, hosting a work lunch is an easy way to bring everyone together. Whatever is the safest course of action for you, take the staff out to lunch or order takeaway.
4. Throw A Theme Party
Time to have some fun! Throw a party to mark the team’s return to work from office. Have a cake-cutting ceremony or invite everyone and their families to an after-work celebration. You might also take your group bowling.
The celebration’s theme needs to be enjoyable and memorable; it doesn’t need to be anything remarkable. Another excellent strategy to increase employee engagement is to host themed parties.
In the office space, you can celebrate a wide variety of occasions. The most crucial thing is to make time during this celebration to thank and appreciate your colleagues.
Recognize the individual contributions made by each member of your team from the start of the pandemic until the present.
Allow your staff to discuss their highs and lows while they worked remotely on significant projects and how are they feeling about work from office.
5. Organize A Social Distancing Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are a great way to enjoy an activity with a group, and they are not only for children. Scavenging is a competitive, creative, and communicative game that fosters teamwork and collaboration among players. And this can aid in removing obstacles amongst your personnel.
There are many different themes to select from, so planning ahead and organizing your quest around one of them will help you make the most of this event.
Here are some ideas:
- Employee versus boss scavenger hunt
- Find hidden clues to the future on a treasure hunt
- Scavenger hunt as a workplace inside joke
- A scavenger hunt on your first day of a new job
6. Start With Some Icebreakers And Team Building Fun On Day One
On the first day, get the team building and icebreakers going to create that office vibe. To assist the team in getting back on track, have an agenda. Start by holding icebreaker events at work space as it won’t be long before they can meet up for lunch and catch up over off-sites.
To give everyone a chance to mingle before diving back into work from office, it would be a fantastic idea to have a brief, following lunchtime or during the tea break. When the entire team gathers in one location, you may also start preparing for some major icebreakers. Create icebreaker activities that will assist the team in reestablishing contact.
7. Karaoke
Ask your team to assemble in the break room with some music playing. They have the option to sing or simply listen to others. In either case, everyone will have a good time that evening.
You can also order pizza or another takeout favourite to encourage participation and foster bonding among your staff members as they return to work from office.
8. Memory wall
Building a memory wall is an excellent way to break the ice and rekindle connections. Ask staff to compile images of previous outings and team-building exercises, then pin them to a wall in the office where people frequently congregate and mingle. The break room or close to the water cooler are a few of viable places.
If there are many new recruits, you can also ask team members to list on a note card what they are most anticipating and what their goals are for the future year. You can invite staff members to discuss their progress at group staff meetings.
Conclusion
To fully guarantee that your team has a joyful and memorable experience upon their return to work from office, include a few more welcome back touches. Prepare a fun office space scavenger hunt and other enjoyable teambuilding exercises to rekindle their sense of camaraderie and get them back to work.
Even though they have been experiencing some issues and production has been declining lately, try to be optimistic. Today is not the day for reprimands, so resist the desire.
We sincerely hope that these eight suggestions have been helpful to you and that you will be able to successfully reintroduce your team to the workplace and manage the transition.