Let’s be honest, keeping up the team spirit at work can be a struggle. Being trapped in a stressful, fast-paced environment with the same people day after day is bound to cause some tension and turn even the greatest work buddies into arch-rivals in a split second. 

This is why it's essential for companies to host regular team-building activities to help defrost those cold shoulders, repair any broken bonds and maybe even create new ones. Now, while work drinks always make for great memories, there are a variety of team-building events that strengthen key workplace values like collaboration, creativity and communication while still being super fun!

Here are some ideas recommended by team-building event planners to help you plan your next team-building activity.

Paintball / Laser tag

You’ve probably already heard of these all-time favourites and with good reason. What’s better to let off all that pent-up anger and frustration than getting the chance to gun down your work nemesis without committing an actual felony?

Joking aside, paintball and laser tag are truly exciting team-building activities that incentivise strategy and communication between the members within the different squads in play as they fight for those juicy bragging rights. And of course, you’re guaranteed to have a good laugh that will go down in office history. There are plenty of laser tag and paintball spots in Malta which means that it's quite easy to plan these team-building activities.

Escape rooms

Escape rooms are another favourite among a lot of companies as they bring together team members and make them work together towards one goal. As a game based on solving riddles and puzzles, escape rooms stimulate efficient communication, bring out different strengths within the team and encourages confidence in one’s problem-solving skills.

Planning this team-building event is not a hassle at all thanks to the abundance of escape rooms in Malta. However, if you wish to create something authentic to your company and you have a bit more time on your hands, you can turn your own office building into an escape room — or just have a team-building organiser do it for you!

Cooking 

If food is a common topic of discussion at the office, then organising a cookout or cooking lessons is probably the best team-building activity for your company. “Then why not just organise a dinner at a restaurant or get catering?”, you might ask. Well, food it’s not really the main point of this team-building activity unlike catered events like dinners and parties. 

The true purpose is to work with people’s strengths and show how everyone’s role is vital in achieving results that everyone can benefit from and enjoy. Some people are great at dicing, some are better with flavouring while others are pro-bakers — three completely different skill sets that are equally essential in crafting a perfect meal. And hey, you might even learn a new skill along the way too.

This team-building activity may take a bit more time to organise but the values it plants within the team (and the delicious meal at the end) make it worth the while!

While it is encouraged to meet up in person from time to time there are instances where this isn’t possible – but there are alternative team-building events for this.

Virtual trivia

Over the past couple of years, there has been a noticeable rise in remote working structures which make the previously mentioned team-building activities a bit problematic to organise. While it is encouraged to meet up in person from time to time there are instances where this isn’t possible but thankfully there are alternative team-building events for this, one of which is virtual trivia.

Virtual trivia is easy, all you need to do is hop into a meeting room like you always do and ask each other a bunch of questions which is where you can be really creative. You can either choose a theme for people to ask about, have everyone discuss random funny topics or create an entire trivia session about office gossip — the possibilities are endless! It’s the perfect team-building activity to break the ice and get team members to know more about each other outside of their roles at work.

These are but some of the many team-building event ideas out there that you can organise for the rest of your team, but if you are really tight on time, there are plenty of team-building activity planners which you can find on Yellow.