Team building activities can be simple, fun, and even happen right on-site, rather than being a wilderness retreat that employees dread. When done right, team building exercises can build rapport, confidence, and energy within your HR department, in turn bolstering their efforts with your overall company. And that can be the key to improving company efficiency. Here are some great on-site examples to help connect your HR team.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Bayzat, a top provider of small business HR software. I have been compensated for writing it, but all opinions are mine.
1. HR Team Building Exercises: Share a Workplace Memory
Get the group into a circle in your meeting room or another common space. One by one go around the circle and have each person share a memory from work.
As each story gets told, people get to know more about one another. It’s sharing personal moments like these ones that can bring your HR workers closer together than before.
2. Two Truths, One Lie
Take turns with this one doing exactly what this HR team-building exercise sounds like. Each person says two truths and a lie. Make it related to the office though as a rule of the game. For example:
“Since I’ve been working here, I’ve (1) lost 6 pens, (2) learned to type 70 words a minute, and (3) worn my shirt inside out twice.”
Upon hearing the three things, the HR team must decide together which one is the lie. Final answer? Yes. They’ll work as a unit to make the decision, which is good practice for when they’re back on the job.
3. Group Lunch, with a Twist
Who doesn’t like free food? But there’s more to it than a great-tasting lunch that breaks up the workday. Of the HR team-building exercises here, this one is my favorite.
Put numbers on the bottom of plates (use sticky notes on dinnerware, for example) and stack them in random order at the end of the lunch buffet table in your building’s eating area. Ask everyone to take a plate and then before they help themselves to the food, ask them to look at the numbers.
Divide them into groups based on whether they’re “1,” “2,” or “3.” Of course, go even higher for numbers if you have a bigger HR section. Then once they have their food, have all the “1”s go into a certain meeting room to eat, “2”s into a different room, etc. It’s a great way to get people who normally wouldn’t be talking to communicate and get to know each other.
4. Involve Managers in the HR Team Building Exercises
Another great idea is to ask managers to participate in group activities. Doing so can help make those supervisors seem more approachable to your HR staff and open up the lines of communication.
Exactly what this looks like can vary. A fun example is office trivia. Have employees and managers come up with trivia about the work environment, such as:
- What brand are the printers?
- What cloud HR software do you use?
- How many people work in the HR department?
5. They Create the Activity
Put the power in the employees’ hands as they divide themselves into teams before coming up with a group challenge. They must come up with the challenge in their teams and then present it to the overall group.
Once the rules and other details have been explained, the group then decides which of the HR team-building exercises they will do. The final step is then doing the most popular challenge activity.
What are some other ways to build trust within an organization’s HR department?
really good
Thanks Map.
Most of these sound like good ideas, Christy. Sometimes team building exercises tend to be pretty lame. I remember being at one workshop where we were asked to describe what kind of car we were and why. Hunh? Team building should be fun in addition to giving everyone the opportunity to participate and share their voice. Too often these things end up being situations where the participants make fun of the activity.
Yes, I’ve been in some activities too that had me wondering what the purpose was, really. I understand where you’re coming from, Pete. Hence the need for some useful team building activities here! Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.
These are great ideas. With a group retreat coming up I especially like the numbers on the plates idea. I always try to suggest that the groups mix up so that they can get to know the others instead of just sticking with where they are comfortable. Afterwards I always get … well..I tried. This would be a do not a try :)
Yes, the numbers on the plates idea can be good because then people aren’t with those who they hang around with most often. It’s great that you try to do that at your work functions. Hope the next retreat is wonderful!