Team Scavenger Hunts Can Transform Your Business

Any number of situations can throw off the successful dynamic you’ve worked hard to create between your employees. Moving to a new part of town, welcoming new hires, forming a new team for a particular project — all of these can add stress to your team and lead to a lapse in productivity or morale. And the typical happy hour or office lunch won’t always cut it when you want to get the group back on track. What you need is a New York scavenger hunt.

Scavenger hunts are a great team bonding activity for businesses. Getting out of the office and participating in an activity together can lead to strong ties between your employees that can completely transform your office environment. When your team participates in a scavenger hunt in NYC, they build valuable skills that are just as useful for making an impact during business hours as they are for finding every item on the scavenger hunt. These skills can translate into the working world in a few different ways.

These events are a great way to get out and explore the neighborhood your office is in (particularly if you’ve recently moved). Most employees tend to stick to the building’s cafeteria or a handful of nearby restaurants for lunch, and then they go home once 5 o’clock rolls around, which leads to missing out on a lot of great things about the place they come to work five days a week. During a scavenger hunt, your team will see a lot of the area, and they’ll likely find a few restaurants and shops they didn’t know existed. This team building activity will open up your options when you do want to have a happy hour or team lunch, and employees will be more encouraged to grab a coworker and try out that Thai place they discovered.

A New York scavenger hunt also promotes communication and creative thinking among employees. Everyone is working together to reach a common goal like they often are at work, but with less pressure and fear of failure. A scavenger hunt in NYC creates a unique opportunity for a free exchange of ideas and more open communication. When there’s nothing to lose, people are more likely to speak up and share an opinion. The level of interaction that develops during team building activities carries over into the office, and you’d be amazed by how many more ideas are shared, and opinions are voiced after participating in these events. And someone who hasn’t previously spoken up might be the one to come out with the next great idea your company needs.

Team building brings out skills in employees you may not have known they have. Someone who is typically timid might take on more of a leadership role and shine in it, and others may have a great sense of direction or a witty sense of humor that isn’t often displayed at the office. By observing how the team interacts during a scavenger hunt, you may learn a thing or two about your employees, what they’re good at and what motivates them. And that information is invaluable in the workplace. It can help you find better ways to manage your team, and that’s something any good leader is always striving for.

But perhaps the most important thing that will come out of your scavenger hunt in NYC are the new bonds between your employees because it’s these bonds that will serve as the foundation for a more productive and enjoyable work environment. When people get outside for a scavenger hunt, hilarity always ensues. Before you know it, your team will be laughing their way through the event, and they will become more like friends than coworkers. Building these relationships eases tension, lessens anxiety and increases productivity.

People are always looking for purpose in their work — for a reason to get out of bed and for a team they enjoy working with, especially when they’re with those people for 40+ hours a week. Taking time to build employee morale paves the way for success for your company. Job titles and responsibilities can sometimes get in the way of that free-flow of ideas we mentioned, but working together during a scavenger hunt allows people from different departments and job titles to work together, and soon enough your employees are goal- and people-focused instead of role-focused. And this leads to greater employee retention and productivity because people are happy with their jobs, which means greater success for you and your business.

Give Rock Paper Team a call if you’re ready to start seeing all the benefits a New York scavenger hunt has to offer. We’ve done all the hard work for you with endless scavenger hunt ideas for any business size. Let us give your employees a fun and interactive experience they won’t soon forget!