8 Fun Employee Appreciation Games to Boost Engagement

National Employee Appreciation Day is coming up in March so it’s time to start planning how you’ll make your employees feel valued and appreciated.

There are countless ways to do so, including gifts, letters, demonstrations, etc. But we’re focusing on the games aspect of your Employee Appreciation Day plans that will help lift your employees’ spirits and boost morale.

If you’re looking for some fun games to play to show your appreciation for your employees and their happiness, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a list of eight of the best employee appreciation games to boost engagement. 

Show your employees you need and want them at your company with a scavenger hunt, an award ceremony, a trivia competition, charades, and many more fun games.

8 Best Games for Employee Appreciation

Employee appreciation in the form of games, activities, experiences, and gifts has a myriad of benefits. Appreciating your employees motivates them to continue working hard, reinforces company values, and improves an employer’s connection with their employees. Further, employee appreciation and recognition enhance work satisfaction and general contentment, as well as increase retention rates.

Statistics show that employee recognition will always matter. Happy, satisfied employees are, on average, 12% more productive than their less happy and satisfied counterparts. Additionally, 90% of employees who receive recognition or thanks report higher levels of trust in their employer. 

So, to encourage, motivate, and boost engagement, here are 8 of our favorite employee appreciation games to try:

1. Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is a wonderful game for employee appreciation that encourages teamwork and boosts office morale. You can also sneak in a couple of appreciation gifts for your employees.

Take some time to develop clues and riddles that will lead your employees to victory. Divide your office workers into teams who will spend a few hours trailing around the office trying to collect specific items, find the next clue, perform activities, and finally land on their prize at their final destination.

You can include accessories, clothing, electronics, and home and living items sporting your company’s logo in the list of items the teams need to find and collect along the way. Another option is to include some of those company swag items in the final prize!

At the end of the scavenger hunt, everyone should be worn out. Reward everyone’s efforts with a pizza party, ice cream party, lunch or dessert buffet, or the addition of a smoothie bar.

2. Award Ceremony

Recognize your employees’ office eccentricities in a lighthearted way with a fun employee appreciation awards ceremony.

Pick your ideal MC who you know will make the event entertaining. Buy enough trophies or funny, applicable gifts for everyone or make certificates for each employee. It’s important to moderate these awards to make sure no one is left out and each award is appropriate.

Think carefully about each employee, their quirks, and what they bring to the office environment. Examples of awards could be: 

• Coffeepot’s Best Friend. Print this award on a mug for the employee who can always be found where the coffee is.

• The Better Late Than Never. Gift an alarm clock to an employee who is always late.

• The Private Concert Award. This award goes to the person who has their headphones on no matter what.

• The Loudest Typist. Give this award to someone who you can hear click-clacking on their keyboard from the opposite side of the office.

• Take A Lap. This award goes to an employee who is always on the move, whether it’s counting their steps, cycling to work, always taking the stairs, or simply not being able to sit still.

• The Dish Destroyer. Show appreciation to an employee who vanquishes the office dishes (their own and everyone else’s) without a second thought.

• The Squirrel Award. This award goes to the employee with the largest stash of items on their desk.

• Human Megaphone Award. Give this award to the employee with the loudest voice.

• Racehorse Award. This award is for the first person out of the office the moment the clock strikes 5 o’clock.

• The Office Clown Award. This employee keeps everyone laughing.

• Fashion Week Award. Give this award to the employee who always dresses to impress.

• Wikipedia Award. This award should go to the employee who has an answer for everything (whether it’s wrong or right).

3. Co-worker Trivia Competition

This is another game to show employees your appreciation that will require a charismatic MC! Allow your employees to divide themselves into teams of five and to nominate a team leader. 

Structure this game like a quiz night. The MC asks a trivia question, and all teams write down their answer on a small whiteboard or chalkboard. Once all teams have written down their answer, the boards are held up and the answers are revealed.

Each team who answered correctly gets a point which the MC will make a note of on a larger whiteboard or chalkboard. The team who scores the highest number of points at the end of the game should win a lovely prize. 

The trivia questions you decide to include can make or break this game. Ensure they’re fun and thought-provoking, as well as a mixture of easy ones and ones that require more thought. 

It might be a good idea to personalize the trivia focused on themes related to your office culture. Plan for this exciting and competitive employee appreciation game far in advance and encourage your employees to vote on topics they would like to see covered in the game. 

4. Red Carpet

Another fabulous way to celebrate your employees and show your appreciation for them is to roll out the red carpet.

Encourage your employees to dress in their favorite outfits, whether that’s a suit and tie, a pretty dress, or their pajamas and slippers. Give them instructions to send you a theme song they would like to strut to. Then welcome each person into the office with a red carpet rolled out from the front door. 

Play their theme music, cheer, take photos and videos, and make them feel as important as they are. Employees should be encouraged to strut, dance, pose, and have as much fun as they want.

Silly and fun employee appreciation games such as these are an effective way to show your employees you value them on Employee Appreciation Day. 

5. Charades

Put a twist on a classic game with an office-inspired charades game. Most of us know how to play charades but do a brief introduction before diving in to ensure everyone understands the rules. These include no speaking, pointing, or writing in the air.

This employee appreciation game is exciting, and competitive, and encourages everyone to participate. 

As the employer, write down examples of things in the office on small pieces of paper and put them all in a container for employees to grab and act out on their turn. However, don’t limit yourself to the simplistic or boring! Get creative and tailor the prompts to past events, and specific problems all employees are familiar with that apply to your industry.

Each employee gets a turn to pick a piece of paper and act out the word or phrase written on it. If you work in a small office, the rest of the office members can guess together. If you work in a rather large office, you may need to split into groups and have a mini charades competition.

Perhaps someone will need to act out a computer crash, that time the office flooded, or an employee gossiping to another employee. Make it fun, yet appropriate.

6. Ping Pong

Surprise your employees by sneaking in a ping pong table before everyone arrives for their next shift. 

Keep it around all day for employees to enjoy when they need a break between tasks or when they need to blow off some steam.

You may find one or two employees struggle to concentrate with the sound of the ball pinging and ponging. So, in addition to the ping pong table, balls, and bats, place a pair of noise-canceling earplugs or earphones on each employee’s desk. These can subtly help throughout the day to avoid frustration and sensory overload.

Noise-canceling earplugs or earphones are also fantastic gifts employees can use all year round that show your appreciation for their focus, concentration, and hard work.

Another option is to incorporate the ping pong table as a way for employees to connect with their employer in a relaxed atmosphere that doesn’t feel too intense or serious. Place the table in your office and invite each employee to play a game with you throughout the day. 

During each game, give your employees some feedback and words of affirmation. Then encourage your employees to give their feedback of their own and share anything they feel they need to get off their chest. If this still feels like too much pressure, simply invite each employee for a chilled-out chat over a game of ping pong.

7. Blind Drawing

This fun employee appreciation game is a marvelous way in which to improve communication. 

Employees are divided into pairs who sit back to back on chairs. One member of each pair is given an image that you’ll have printed beforehand. The employee behind them is given a blank piece of paper and a pencil.

The employee with the image is the only one out of each pair of employees who is allowed to speak. They will describe the image in their hands in as much detail as possible. The employee behind them is not allowed to utter a single word while trying to follow the speaker’s instructions and copy the image in their partner’s hands.

Neither partner can see each other, touch each other, make eye contact, or any gesture whatsoever. It’s up to the speaker to be as detailed as possible and the listener to use their active listening skills.

This is a difficult, yet constructive game to play with your employees to show them the importance of clear communication, from both the deliverer of a message and the receiver.

Once time is up, everyone turns around and views what has been drawn. It’s a great laugh to see the ridiculous images that arise. Discuss what was difficult, what each person felt they did well, what techniques they used, and what they would change if they did the activity again. 

Then give the team with the most accurate drawing a prize!

8. How Well Do We Know You?

It’s time to test how well everyone in the office knows each other. This is both an appreciation game and an icebreaker. 

Each employee gets a small personal whiteboard and markers. Each round involves asking a question about a specific employee. The employee who’s the subject of that round writes their answer to the posed question on their whiteboard. At the same time, everyone else in the office writes what they think that employee’s answer will be. 

The whiteboards are all turned around and the employee of that round gives their answer. Whoever else guessed their answer correctly gets a point. This continues until all employees have been the subject of a few different rounds.

Here are a few basic examples of some questions you could ask and build upon and personalize to align with your company and your employees:

• How many kids does [employee’s name] have?

• What is [name]’s chosen diet?

• How long has [name] been at the company?

• What pets does [name] have?

• How many tattoos does [name] have?

• What’s [name] favorite color/food/band/artist/animal/music genre/book?

• What musical instrument does [name] play?

• What does [name] like to do on weekends?

• What is [name]’s special talent/skill?

• What was [name]’s first job?

• Is [name] a tea or coffee drinker?

• Where did [name] grow up?

This employee appreciation game presents an entertaining and amusing way to build communication, teamwork, and connection. Add a sprinkle of competition by keeping score of who gets the most questions right. Whoever knows their fellow employees the best wins a prize!

Final Thoughts

Use our list of employee appreciation game ideas and build upon them to align with your company culture and values. 

Give your employees options. Involve them in the process to show them you value their contributions in making decisions for the team. This way, you can ensure you give your employees exactly what they need to feel truly appreciated.

To really show your employees how much you appreciate and value them, organize some prizes and rewards for the games using PerkUp. 

PerkUp makes it easy to set up your own company swag and reward your employees with things they actually want from the extensive gift catalog. Book a demo today to see for yourself how PerkUp makes employee appreciation and rewards a piece of cake.