Currently, business leaders are investing millions in team building, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are choosing exercises that are best suited and most effective for their staff. Today’s employees prefer unconventional events, as opposed to traditional seminars and activities like trust falls. People especially love fun activities that allow them to bond with coworkers and engage in some friendly competition—this is where team-building scavenger hunts come in.
There are so many benefits to a team-building scavenger hunt, and they offer an impressive ROI. Let’s uncover what’s involved in hosting one and why you should!
Let Us Customize Your Team Building Scavenger Hunt
If you’re on the lookout for a team-building scavenger hunt for your workplace, look no further. ScavengerHunt.com has just the thing for you! Our in-person and virtual scavenger hunts combine adventure, team spirit, and cooperation into one exciting event.
Customize aspects of your hunt, including group size, types of challenges, trivia questions, inside jokes, and more. Contact us to share your team-building ideas and let our experts start planning your event today!
What is a team-building scavenger hunt?
Scavenger hunts can be used for just about any event, be it a birthday party, a bachelorette party, or sightseeing. Team-building scavenger hunts combine the thrill of a game with organizational principles and company-related trivia.
Using clever clues or riddles, employees are tasked to find things specified on a list of items. As participants are often up against a time limit or looking to be the first to complete the scavenger hunt list, the fast-paced activities help condition them to work under pressure.
Additionally, the element of friendly competition inspires team bonding, communication, collaboration, and teamwork in a non-critical environment. As employees complete challenges, they build skills and establish a foundation to grow together at the workplace.
13 Reasons Why Scavenger Hunts Are Great For Team Building
1. They offer a relaxed approach to team building.
The best thing about a scavenger hunt is how fun it is. These hunts break the monotony of a strict corporate routine. When employees are given a stress-free, exciting environment to try new things at the workplace, they feel empowered. This will help them open up to each other and their superiors.
Once employees learn to access these skills in a non-corporate setup, it gets easier for them to apply them to a corporate setting. This is how scavenger hunts boost employee performance.
2. They encourage cooperation.
Team scavenger hunts promote creative thinking and communication. Since all the challenges are group-based, your employees will learn to brainstorm, share ideas, make decisions, and work together.
When you set up your team-building scavenger hunt, you can break staff into small groups, ensuring that each includes people from different positions, buildings, or groups. This way, they can get to know their coworkers and break the ice during the game. It also helps the shy ones feel seen and heard.
Scavenger hunts also help you have fun as a group. The more employees enjoy their time at the workplace, the more cooperative they will be. This helps them come up with creative solutions together.
3. They promote healthy competition.
Scavenger hunts are more interesting than generic team-building activities because of the element of competition. When teams are pitted against each other in a friendly contest, it brings out the best in them.
When done right, competitions bring out the best potential in people. Scavenger hunts combine the best of both worlds—since the games are fun, the teams are certain to have fun.
Let’s Roam’s team-building scavenger hunts come with a live leaderboard. As each team completes a challenge, points are updated on the mobile app. This way, teams can keep track of their scores in real-time and plan their game out. Bragging rights galore!
4. They’re great for onboarding new employees.
A first impression is the best impression. When newbies join a company, onboarding activities can make or break their day. As a manager, planning a lively, useful onboarding event can be quite the responsibility.
A good onboarding event is not only supposed to be informative, but interactive. This is a great opportunity for the recruits to get to know the company culture, their superiors, the dynamics of the team, and the workplace hierarchy. Being at the bottom of the pecking order can seem intimidating to the newcomers. This is where a well-planned team-building scavenger hunt comes in.
These interesting hunts can break barriers and put the recruits at ease. It also allows the freshers to bond with each other and their superiors. Since it levels the playing field, the entire team will get to know each other and welcome the new group.
5. They’re perfect to celebrate milestones.
Corporate milestones like birthdays, holiday parties, work anniversaries, and a successful quarter deserve to be celebrated. We don’t need to be organizational psychologists to know that rewards and incentives encourage employees.
There’s no better way to celebrate a milestone than with an awesome scavenger hunt. With Let’s Roam, you can personalize your scavenger hunt questions to include custom trivia, inside jokes, company trivia, milestones, and so on.
These activities help your team come together at the end of a quarter to celebrate their work well done. They also keep team spirits high.
A scavenger hunt helps your team have fun as a group. This way, they’ll build better memories together and feel part of a family.
6. They’re dynamic.
There’s nothing predictable about a team-building scavenger hunt. The rules and challenges keep participants on their feet. These vibrant games will keep your team guessing!
Scavenger hunts are better than seminars and workshops because of how dynamic they are. Your team will learn the skills of collaboration, communication, and teamwork on the hunt. Since there’s more ‘doing’ and less ‘passive listening,’ the team is more likely to apply some new skills.
7. They’re flexible.
Traditional, conventional team building activities don’t have a lot of leeway or scope to change plans. With a scavenger hunt, each team has control over its schedule and timing. A lively team building is something the entire team will look forward to.
Let’s Roam’s scavenger hunts are not only nostalgic and fun, but they’re completely app-led. This gives each time the freedom to pause and resume the hunt at will. They’ll be able to time their breaks, get back to action, and race to the finish line as they please!
Scavenger hunts are also easier for managers to plan. You can add personalized trivia questions, inside jokes, or fun facts about the company. This will truly make the hunt your own.
8. They’re innovative.
One of the best things about scavenger hunts is how innovative and exploratory they are. A scavenger hunt allows you to explore things around you with a whole new lens. Be it the city of your home branch, a neighboring store’s city or even a new country you’re attending a conference at, a scavenger hunt is the easiest way to get around.
For instance, with our corporate team building outdoor scavenger hunts, you’ll be able to check out the most iconic spots in each city with your coworkers. Not only will you answer exciting trivia questions, but you’ll take part in hilarious selfie and video challenges too!
9. They help people break out of their comfort zones.
Breaking out of one’s shell at a corporate can be challenging, especially when it comes to newbies. As a manager, one of your main responsibilities is to make sure your team is comfortable and confident. A scavenger hunt can help you do that.
Since scavenger hunts are built in the form of games and challenges, they are less stressful than corporate meetings, formal lunches, and workshops. The low-stakes environment is more conducive for each member to speak out.
Besides, the employees are divided into smaller teams to make the conversation easy. In small teams, the extroverts can help the introverts speak up.
10. They promote bonding.
The most constructive team-building exercises are memorable and turn colleagues into friends. Scavenger hunts are full of challenges that will inform, educate, and have your team talking. Additionally, photo and video challenges offer a fun way for workers to let loose a little and gain some bonus points, all in the hopes of becoming the winning team!
As employees get to know each other in the office, they’ll be more likely to bond and get closer on a personal level. When people feel as though they are working with friends and not just colleagues, it helps to foster a positive company culture.
11. They highlight leadership potential.
Scavenger hunts are not your usual team-building games. Not only do they help with communication, collaboration, and competition, but they create new leaders. They provide an apt space for employees to explore new sides of their personalities at the workplace.
Since each hunt has a list of challenges, teams can brainstorm to come up with solutions and tasks. Here, employees can naturally assume and experiment with leadership roles in a casual setting. Once they get the hang of it, they are more likely to use the same skills at the workplace too. This is a great way to switch up the workplace dynamic!
12. They help people think out of the box.
This helps employees brainstorm creative problems to commonplace solutions. When team members come up with exciting, new solutions together, they will be inclined to do the same with issues at work.
When teams learn to think laterally, brainstorm, and communicate clearly, productivity is bound to go up.
A team-building scavenger hunt event also improves overall communication within the group and between groups. This helps shy employees break out of their shells and speak out. Every team member gets to share their input and chip in for something or the other. Not only is this a great confidence boost, but it improves communication across the group.
13. They’re inexpensive.
Putting together a team-building event can cost a lot of time and money. Luckily, scavenger hunts are easy on the pocket and huge on the fun!
Let’s Roam’s scavenger hunts are completely app-led, which means that you don’t need to hire extra staff for the event. In addition, these walking hunts can be customized to explore more than 500 cities around the world, cutting down on tours.
Since you can plan and customize your hunt beforehand, you won’t need too many supplies during D-day. A smartphone with an internet connection will do – just download the scavenger hunt app!
Meanwhile, you can also cut down on renting and catering charges because the hunts are best played on the move. Once you’re done, you can gather at a park, your office’s parking lot, or a hall to talk about the hunt, grab some snacks, or hit the bar. Check out our pricing options for more info!
Frequently Asked Questions
Team-building scavenger hunts bring staff together and help them to communicate, collaborate, and work under pressure. These, as well as other benefits, make them effective team-building activities!
Team-building scavenger hunts should be exciting, challenging, fast-paced, and (above all) fun. If you’re short on ideas or time, let ScavengerHunt.com design a custom corporate event for you!
If you think office scavenger hunts are a great idea but manage remote staff, try virtual team-building activities! Online, hybrid, and virtual hunts can be just as effective as in-person events.