Are you starting to notice a disconnect or lack of motivation from your employees? It sounds like it's time for a team building activity.

Team building activities are a fun way to bring your employees together as a team. They help employees get to know one another on a personal level creating a connection beyond the workplace. After the completion of a team building exercise, you will find that employees will enter the workforce with a newly formed bond with one another leading to a renewed sense of motivation to perform for the business.

So, what are the best team building activities for your employees? Find out by reading below!

Team Building: Volunteering

What does team volunteering have to do with motivation in the workplace? More than you think! When your company gives back to the community, your company will get something in return - a more united and motivated workforce.

You may be thinking, how? Well, volunteering gives employees the chance to work towards a common goal outside the workplace. Having a common charitable goal will unite employees and give them the chance to connect on a personal level. Working as a cohesive unit outside the workplace will give employees a renewed sense of motivation to work as a more cohesive unit in the workplace.

At Grand & Toy volunteering is something we are passionate about. On May 3rd, we were involved in kicking off Depot Days of Service, Office Depot's flagship volunteer initiative. Our volunteer initiatives focused on hunger relief. So, our employees in Toronto volunteered at Black Creek Community Farm to help prep gardening projects to increase healthy access to food. Our employees in Ottawa volunteered at Ottawa Food Bank Food Sort Challenge, our employees in Edmonton volunteered at the Edmonton Food Bank, our employees in Montréal volunteered at the Robin des Bois, our employees in Vancouver volunteered at the Salvation Army Food Bank New Westminster and our employees in Calgary volunteered at the Calgary Food Bank.

We hope our initiatives have inspired you to volunteer. Some other volunteer activities you may want to consider include: build a home, work at a soup kitchen, join a charity walk or let your team decide!

Team Building: Sports

Nothing says, "there's no I in team," quite like playing a sport together. When employees play a sport together, they share a common goal - winning the game. To achieve this win, employees will need to communicate with one another. They will have to learn one another's strengths and weaknesses, to put a winning strategy in place.

Playing a team sport gives employees the opportunity to learn how to support one another, "on and off the court." With this understanding in play, employees will begin to work as a more cohesive unit, increasing productivity in the workplace.

Team Building: Professional Development

When employees start a new job, they enter the role with enthusiasm and motivation to do their best. After a while, some employees may begin to lose their motivation. So, what can you do to ensure employees are motivated throughout their time with your company? We suggest providing them with the team building activity of a shared learning experience.

Providing this opportunity will give employees the chance to learn or develop a new professional skill. Employees will appreciate that you are investing in their professional development skills that will help further their career. This will result in employees feeling a renewed sense of motivation.

Team Building: Get Cooking

Take a different approach to corporate team building activities by introducing your employees to a culinary team building experience. Before the activity begins, divide employees into groups of 3 or 4. Make sure that the people in these groups are not very familiar with one another. Next, have everyone cook a meal containing a certain ingredient. Once everyone has completed the task, have employees vote on a winning dish. Make sure to communicate to employees that they cannot vote for their own dish. Lastly, reward the winning group with a prize.

Introducing this type of team building activity will help create relationships that lead to a more collaborative culture. Cooking together is a fun activity that will encourage teams to communicate and work together. Another added benefit is that it will inspire employees to get creative and think outside of the box.

Team Building: Escape Rooms

Escape rooms have become very popular in the last few years. If you're someone who doesn't know what this is, don't worry. Here's how to play. A group of people get "locked" in a room together. They then need to find hidden objects, solve puzzles and clues to locate a key that will set them free. The key must be found in a certain amount of time, depending on the difficulty of the room.

Escape rooms help a team work better together as it encourages team bonding, leadership skills, teamwork, logic and patience. It facilitates collaboration and motivation to escape and creates responsive and meaningful communication amongst employees. All of which can be brought back to the work environment.

Team Building: The Amazing Race

Take this unique spin on a scavenger hunt by creating a race for your employees around the city. This type of team building activity is a fun competition that builds teamwork skills that can be brought to the workplace. Use this activity to help employees form new relationships. To do so, separate employees from different departments into groups of 4 - this will help build bridges amongst different departments.

Once employees have divided into their teams, you will need to provide them with their first clue. To encourage excitement, we suggest putting the clues in an envelope for the groups to open. Each clue should take your employees to a different "checkpoint." A "checkpoint" is the location employees will need to go to complete specific team building games.

After a team completes a task, they will be given a new clue. It is up to you to decide how many clues and tasks you want to give. These different tasks should incorporate problem-solving, time management, communication and planning skills. They can range from solving a puzzle or having two team members blindfolded, while the other team members guide them with their voice to have them pick up objects. Make sure that there are prizes at the end, so employees are working towards achieving a common goal.

Team Building: Team Lunches

Some may say one of their favourite times of the work day is lunch. Lunch is a time where employees can take a step away from their work and relax. So, we suggest taking this favourite time of day and turning it into a team building activity. We suggest implementing team lunches on a once a month basis. Team lunches can help improve company culture. It also gives employees the opportunity to get to know one another on a personal level. Eating lunch together is a meaningful activity that can create bonds that will result in a higher employee performance and a more cohesive team.

Choosing Team Building Activities

Team building activities are more important than you think. Providing employees with the right activities can encourage workplace collaboration, team bonding, and staff motivation. So, are you ready to connect your team by implementing team building exercises?

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