Ensuring a healthy work environment and happy employees is the key to the success of every company.

How can you retain employees, keep them motivated and make sure they are excited to show up to work?

On March 1st, we celebrated Employee Appreciation Day – in the fast-paced bustling world of business, it’s easy to overlook celebrations that aren’t as widely known as Valentine’s Day or Halloween.

This Employee Appreciation Day, Broadwing’s team wanted to find a unique way to show the employees that they are valued, appreciated, and that all their hard work is seen. This day presented an opportunity to foster a culture of recognition for the powerhouse behind the company, and it is important to remember that appreciating and valuing your employees will not only boost their mood but also enhance productivity, creativity and create an uplifting atmosphere in the office.

While something as simple as verbal recognition for your workers can go a long way, and a personalised sticky note can make your employees feel seen, team-building activities are an excellent way to strengthen the bonds among your team members and the leaders. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for successful team bonding for your company, we have a few ideas that have proven to work excellent in fostering a sense of belonging among your employees.

At Broadwing, we recognize that a positive work environment, strong teamwork, supportive leadership, and a healthy work-life balance are interconnected.

– Alan Cini, Managing Director

Let’s dive into our top 5 ideas for excellent, HR-friendly team bonding activities.

1. Enjoy a nice meal together – either by cooking collectively or ordering in, bonding among coworkers will always be more successful over a plate of delicious food. After all, it’s important to connect beyond computer-bound work tasks.
2. Explore creative collaboration together. This can happen by creating something from scratch, writing fun notes or little poems. Regardless, your whole team can work together on small projects.
3. Move your bodies! Exercising together, participating in sports tournaments, or going hiking – either way, you can encourage your employees to participate in healthy competition and foster cooperation. Bonus points if it is done outdoors, as some fresh air can definitely uplift your team’s mood.
4. To ensure that the office’s remote workers are included as well, there are multiple virtual team-building activities employees can engage in. From online trivia quizzes to virtual team challenges, you can be sure that all your employees will get to spend some quality time together, no matter the distance.
5. Organise relaxed and easy-going activities – you can explore an endless variety of games to play. Whether it requires some physical activity, problem-solving riddles or just regular HR-friendly games that can be played at the office, your team is bound to experience some amusement, and everyone can enjoy getting to know each other more.

At Broadwing, we are empowered by people. That means our team is of utmost importance, and while we focus on fostering connections and a sense of belonging in the office every single day, we took that first Friday of March to slow down and spend some time bonding with one another. When you want to function together as a team, get your employees to know each other on a deeper level. Dynamics are shifting in the modern workplace, and that means your methods must evolve, too.

Therefore, our team decided to shake things up a little bit from our regular activities. Although our employees regularly enjoy spending time together outside of working hours, the whole office stopped working a few hours earlier on Employee Appreciation Day. Here’s the catch: your activities do not always have to take place outdoors, nor do you have to book a private space or a restaurant table, but your office’s common area can be an excellent and cosy hub to host an activity in. Things don’t need to be overcomplicated to have some fun!

Besides putting our work aside for the evening, the employees bonded over a hot-cooked meal, and the evening kicked off with a fun team bonding game. Keep in mind not to overcomplicate the games, and the trick is to keep the focus on your people.

Our team spent a few days coming up with an idea that could be used by all companies as a base in your fun activities – collect and gather as many fun, interesting and secret facts about your co-workers as possible. That way, you can create fun questions where people have to guess who the fact or story is about. Based on these questions, you can structure the game any way you want, and you’re guaranteed to have some fun. Broadwing’s team decided to let loose and enjoy the start of the weekend with a simple beer pong and questions such as ‘Guess the baby photo, ‘Who is the green thumb of the office?’, and ‘Nominate an employee who never fails to brighten your day’, which soon filled the room with laughter and discussion. Don’t worry so much about the structure but focus on getting the employees laid-back to enjoy the time spent together.

A tip is to get secret intel from your employees – send out private emails asking for information others may not be aware of, and that will create some mystery with ease. While questions which require nominating someone can cultivate appreciation for others, personal questions and even photos will bring the excitement! A few days, some back-and-forth emails, and a bit of planning and organising will get you a perfect evening to properly celebrate Employee Appreciation Day. What’s more, getting a few of your employees involved in the planning will most definitely create an atmosphere of excitement, as Broadwing’s office was bustling with secrecy and enthusiasm for a few days. Just remember that like anything with the planning, make your questions HR-friendly, and consider the humour and personalities of your employees. Know your people enough to alter the game to the common humour shared in the office!

In conclusion – get creative! You can gather many interesting themes and categories of questions, and as a touch of excitement in our office, our workers enjoyed tossing ping pong balls into red cups before getting to answer the questions. After such a fun night, your employees will feel closer, and the office will feel more bonded.

To our women at Broadwing, near and far, who work tirelessly to bring the best talent to our clients, and who have cultivated such an incredible team. We appreciate all of you and we are glad to have you on board. Your hard work, resilience, and contributions are the driving force behind our success. Here’s to you!

This day should hold a lot of significance in the working field, as collaborative teams are successful teams. It’s more important than ever to nurture the connections between employees, and recognising the talent in your company is crucial. While there are many unique ways to celebrate this day and show appreciation to one another, don’t forget that it should be done every day, not just once a year.

Here’s to building winning teams and being empowered by people – especially your people!