HR & Engagement Writer
1
The Best Team Contests to Boost Productivity in 2024
6 min read
Published: Feb 7, 2023
Revised on: Mar 1, 2024
So you may be wondering, how can team contests help break the monotony of everyday work and motivate employees to think creatively, solve problems, and collaborate? Let us explain.
While it’s natural for even high-performing teams to experience periods of low energy, successful managers understand how to inspire fresh enthusiasm and drive business success through contests.
In this article, we’re going to answer a few questions and share the best team contests to keep your employees engaged and winning.
Team contests are friendly activities where coworkers in an organization compete for a prize or recognition. These coworkers could be in the same or different departments, and the contests might be among individuals or teams. No matter how you structure your team contest, it's always a good idea to define your goal(s) and create a theme that your employees can rally around. For example, if you're looking to ramp up team bonding and collaboration, consider contests that are separate from work activities and involve team efforts. However, if business success is your primary goal, you might engage your employees with activities that gamify work processes like sales, customer support, and quality assurance.What Are Team Contests?
What Makes Up a Healthy Team Contest?
Taking time to set a goal for your team contest is only one part of the story. The other part involves introducing elements that do the heavy lifting for you. The heavy lifting, in this case, is aligning your contests towards your set goals, whether it's improving team morale and bonding or increasing business success.
Here are three main ways to keep your team contests healthy:
- Start With a Communications Plan: Before your employees raise their hands to participate, they want to understand the contest's goal and what to expect. A communications plan is where your teams first meet the contest, so it's important to highlight all they might need to know. If it’s an out-of-office team bonding activity, use that to increase participation. Don't forget to be clear on the timelines and the rules of play, if any. If a contest runs for an extended period, communicating the results at regular intervals is also a good way to keep your teams engaged. Another great way to build early excitement for your team contest is to incorporate Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions into your communications plan. This way, even shy employees can anonymously ask questions, provide feedback, and start participating before the contest starts!
- Organize Activities Around Teams Rather Than Individuals: Create an environment where collaboration can thrive by designing contests for groups rather than individuals. A healthy game comprised of a mixed team of individuals. For example, create a team of employees from your sales, marketing, and product departments. It becomes easier for the members of this competing team to meaningfully connect and learn about each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
- Gather Input From Employees: The best team contest ideas might be lurking around in the minds of some of your employees. No matter their level in your organization, allowing employees to own and make important decisions builds trust and a healthier team. Plus, having employees talk about the contest and their contributions to it encourages participation from their peers.
What Are the Benefits of a Healthy Team Contest?
The most obvious benefit of healthy team contests is your employees are more motivated to drive your organization towards your goals. Other benefits are:
- It promotes innovation. Team contests are popular for leaving organizations better off. They challenge employees to solve a pressing problem, streamline a process, enhance an experience, or create new ideas. Framing it as a “fun team activity,” employees are more motivated to improve the organization.
- It allows for better communication. A healthy team contest brings together employees from different departments. These employees form meaningful connections, which translates to better cross-communication in your organization.
- Your company grows faster. Nothing illustrates this point better than combining the first two benefits above. Increased innovation + excellent communication = Fast growth.
- Your employees learn new skills. During a team contest, your employees might find themselves out of their comfort zones when solving a problem or making something fun. This situation presents a perfect chance for them to learn a new skill that could boost their productivity.
- It encourages a “we” mindset at work. Sitting together to compete and win as a team keeps everyone focused on the shared goal of winning as individuals and as an organization.
- Your employees are better recognized. There’s a familiar story of new hires joining an organization with high spirits and energy only to have that motivation inevitably depleted over time. However, recognizing and rewarding your employees can prevent this. That’s why contests and rewards are a great way to keep your employees valued and connected to their work.
Best Team Contests in 2024
So, you’ve decided a team contest would be a fun way to fire up your employees and get those problem-solving juices flowing. But what sort of contests are appropriate? What if you’re the leader of a remote team? How do you get your employees to participate?
Here are the ten best team contests for a more engaged workforce:
Every season is the perfect season for some baked goods. Host a good bake-off that brings your employees across various teams together to work on a shared goal. It can also be fun to have employees voting for their winners. Even remote employees can decorate their baked goods and submit pictures for voting.
How to Play
- Group your employees into teams of two or more
- Have your employees pick the theme of the bake-off through a raffle system. This theme could be cookies, cakes, bread, or anything else
- Employees all try out and vote for the best-baked goods
- The winning team gets a reward
Ideas for Rewards
- Free lunch
- A month-free Netflix subscription
- Extra vacation days
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
2
Taboo
Taboo is a popular choice when you want better employee synergy. As they progress through the contest, your teams will learn to describe problems efficiently, and they will also learn to work better together and communicate more effectively.
How to Play
- Group your employees into teams of four or more
- Each team will take turns attempting to guess hidden words by describing them without using the forbidden phrases or words
- Team members take turns describing the hidden word
- The team with the highest points wins
Ideas for Rewards
- Branded company merch
- A spa day gift card
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
3
Scavenger Hunt
Host a scavenger hunt to boost your team’s morale through winning. When your employees come together to solve problems and win, they’re more engaged and interested in the business's success. The feeling of winning is powerful, so let’s create a fun business twist on the everyday scavenger hunt. For this exercise, let’s imagine we’re hunting for a list of new clients. Sounds fun right? That’s precisely one way this game can boost your team’s productivity.
How to Play
- Group your employees into teams of three or more
- Have your employees create a list of ten new prospective new clients who can bring in any specified amount of revenue
- Teams present their list to your employees who vote for their preferred choice
- The team with the highest votes wins
Ideas for Rewards
- A free restaurant experience
- Appliance for the office
- Paid online course
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
4
Costume Contest
Remote teams will especially love a costume contest. Whether it's Halloween or a fun holiday or celebration, having a dressed-up theme is so simple and effective in revealing interesting nuances about employees. In addition, the voting process also presents a chance for employees to bond with each other.
When remote teams feel connected, they’re more comfortable sharing ideas and innovations.How to Play
- Have your employees submit a photo of their best Halloween costume
- Let everyone vote for their favorite costume
- The outfit with the highest votes wins
Ideas for Rewards
- A book of choice
- An upgraded laptop for working from home
- Two tickets to a local cinema
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
5
Happy Hour
Looking for an easy way to increase productivity and reward your employees simultaneously? Setting aside time for happy hour is as close as it gets. This contest idea is all about giving your employees time back to themselves while motivating them to smash their work goals and meet business needs.
How to Play
- Have your employees or teams all select a significant goal for the day
- Employees round-up for the day when they reach the set goal – no matter the time
Ideas for Rewards
- Paid time off
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
6
Team Trivia
Mix up your employees for a company-wide trivia. You could prepare questions about the business policies, history, processes, or even departments. This reinforces your company goals and reminds your teams about their part in the picture. Mixing business questions with light questions about some team members is also one way to spice things up.
How to Play
- Group your employees into teams of three or more
- Each team takes a turn answering questions. Every correct answer is worth one point
- The team with the highest points wins
Ideas for Rewards
- Personalized mugs
- Bags and totes
- Birthday PTO
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
7
Sports Contest
Some physical activity among your teams is a great way to keep employee spirits high. Whether you host a football match between teams or a tennis tournament at the office, your teams will learn to support each other and bond. Shake things up by letting your employees vote for the sports they’d like to compete in. This is a significant first step to driving employee participation in your organization.
How to Play
- Group your employees into two equal teams
- Teams compete in their sports of choice, and a winner is declared
Ideas for Rewards
- Personalized mugs
- Bags and totes
- Birthday PTO
Remote Friendly?
- No
8
The Video Masterpiece
Let your employees flex their creative muscles with a video contest. To make this contest more impactful, put your teams at the center. You can do this by having them represent a business goal or a crucial department with a video in any style of their choosing.
This video masterpiece encourages your teams to learn more about your organization and care about the business, even as they learn about the theme to create the most interesting video.PS: Don’t forget to keep things short and light-hearted.
How to Play
- Group your employees in teams of three or more
- Have your employees create a one-minute video around a chosen theme
- Let your employees vote for the best video
Ideas for Rewards
- Amazon gift cards
- Tech accessories like wireless chargers
- Scented candles for their homes
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
9
Decorate Your Desk
Encourage your employees to transform their work desks into personal spaces to which they’ll be glad to return. Beyond a sense of fulfillment, employees will be happy and motivated to work because of the effort that went into decorating their workspace. Even your remote employees can participate by submitting pictures of their pimped-out desks at home.
How to Play
- Have your employees decorate their desks according to the theme
- Employees submit via pictures and vote for their favorite desk setup
- The setup with the highest votes wins
Ideas for Rewards
- A bottle of wine
- One night stay at a local hotel
- Tickets to a sports game
Remote Friendly?
- Yes
10
Traveling Trophy
This is exactly what it sounds like. A trophy or valuable item moves from one employee’s desk to another or from one department to another. Traveling trophies are popular among managers who are looking to drive long-term productivity. Instantly rewarding employees and teams with a trophy for their achievements is a great motivator for high performance in your workplace.
How to Play
- Set a weekly goal for your teams
- An employee or team who achieves or surpasses the goal owns the trophy until the end of the week
- The trophy passes on to the next employee or team to reach their weekly goals
Ideas for Rewards
- A trophy
- Recognition from the CEO
Remote Friendly?
- No
Conclusion
An engaged workforce is a more productive workforce. Using healthy team contests to encourage meaningful teamwork can significantly impact your business's success. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to promote innovation, better work communication, or team spirit; any of the listed team contests should serve you just fine. Just make sure to choose a contest that fits your specific needs.