Have you been trying to think of innovative and fun activities that encourage team building? Scavenger hunts are the perfect solution that you might not have considered yet. Not only can team scavenger hunts improve colleague relations and foster a positive company culture, but they are also a great way to put your own spin on boring corporate events.
What is a team-building scavenger hunt?
A team-building scavenger hunt is much like a treasure hunt where you follow a set of clues that lead you to a final prize at the end of the game. When a scavenger hunt is run as a team-building event, the list of challenges and clues are tacked by small teams instead of everyone competing individually. This ensures team bonding as employees work together to make their way through the scavenger hunt list and crack the clues.
Why is a scavenger hunt a good team-building activity?
Although it might not be the first thing you think of when considering team-building games, corporate scavenger hunts are great team-building events that aim to improving workplace relations through a bit of friendly competition.
It improves employee engagement
The types of challenges involved in a scavenger hunt require the entire team to get actively involved in order to help complete challenges. This means that everyone has to effectively communicate with each other and leverage their problem-solving skills. The relaxed setting of a game outside of a workspace allows employees to feel confident exploring their skills which helps improves employee engagement.
It encourages creativity
It is simply impossible to complete a scavenger hunt without a bit of creativity. You need to think outside of the box in order to crack the clues in the game, just like when you’re working. Not everything can be achieved by following a handbook. If you want to be an efficient and productive employee, you need to be proactive and that means thinking creatively. By putting your employees into a situation such as a scavenger hunt where creativity can flourish, you are encouraging that creativity to transfer into the workplace.
It strengthens employee bonds
For a company to be efficient, a strong company culture is necessary. You can strengthen organizational culture by organizing activities that encourage employees to collaborate with one another. If there are rifts in the office or your employees are struggling to get to know each other, organizing a scavenger hunt as a team-building event is the perfect way to get everyone to loosen up and get to know each other better. Unlike traditional team-building activities that are often awkward and ineffective, scavenger hunts are genuinely fun. This allows employees to relax and enjoy themselves with their colleagues.
It’s a flexible activity
One of the best aspects of scavenger hunt team-building activities is the fact that they are so flexible. With so many different working arrangements across companies, it can be difficult to get all your employees in one place all at once. This where virtual scavenger hunts come in. Virtual team building events might seem difficult as the essence of team building is bringing people together, but they’ve become quite popular, especially during covid. The best part is that everyone can join in on the fun!
It’s easy to organize
A scavenger hunt event is extremely easy to organize so you don’t have to worry about taking weeks to plan the perfect event. Whether you choose to use a scavenger hunt app or leverage the services of a team-building event company, you can easily host an event without having to lift a finger.
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How do you plan a scavenger hunt for a team-building activity?
Planning a scavenger hunt is easy and fun to do. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to plan a team-building scavenger hunt, but remember, you can always hire a professional company to plan an amazing scavenger hunt for you if you don’t have the time or energy to plan one yourself.
Pick a theme
The first thing you need to do is pick the theme of your hunt because everything else is going to revolve around that. Here are some adult scavenger hunt ideas that are guaranteed to lead to a successful event:
- Office scavenger hunt
- Photo scavenger hunt
- Nature scavenger hunt
- Seasonal scavenger hunt
- City scavenger hunt
Pick a location
The next step in planning your scavenger hunt is to pick the location. Whilst many companies like to host office-themed scavenger hunts and hold their games on-site, we recommend choosing a neutral location for your hunt as it will provide employees with more of a chance to relax. Of course, if you have a lot of remote employees, a virtual scavenger hunt makes the most sense and means you don’t have to scout locations.
Plan the route
Once you have picked your location, you can map out your route. Your route is basically all the places where the clues are going to be placed. Once a team has found the answer to one clue, it will lead them to the location of the next clue. You therefore need to create a logical route with easily identifiable landmarks for your team members to follow.
Create the clues
Creating the clues is arguably the most difficult part of organizing a scavenger hunt. Not only do your clues have to be witty and interesting, but they also must make sense and logically lead participants to where they need to be next. They should also fit the theme that you have created for your scavenger hunt.
Gather prizes
Most scavenger hunts are accompanied by large and small prizes. Of course, there is usually a big prize at the end for the final winners, but many hosts also like to include mini prizes along the way for the first group to reach each clue. What you choose for the prizes is completely up to you and dependent on your budget. Some ideas include small food-based prizes, joke prizes, prizes that link to the theme, gift cards, etc.
Send invitations
Once you have the bulk of your scavenger hunt planned out, it’s time to send out your invitations. We recommend doing this in advance to make sure that people block out the time for you. We also suggest that you hold a corporate team-building scavenger hunt on a work day. Scheduling it for a workday will ensure a good turnout and will demonstrate how much you value your employees and their time.
Hire a scavenger hunt company
A scavenger hunt is a great corporate team-building activity that veers away from the boring traditional set of recycled corporate events. However, we understand that not every manager, team leader, or business owner has the time to dedicate to running an amazing hunt, which is where Kronos Experience comes in.
Let us introduce Operation UV, an innovative virtual team-building scavenger hunt specially created by our experts. This remote activity combines excitement, intrigue, and practical and creative thinking to create the ultimate experience.