The best 12 indoor team building activities to do with your peers

Hybrid work is the best work model to meet your employees’ needs. It enables remote work opportunities while maintaining in-person social interactions with colleagues. Yet, how do you foster team spirit when your coworkers’ schedules are that flexible? What is your strategy to create a connection between them and help them to get to know each other better? Indoor team-building activities are ideal for strengthening the community feeling. Team-building ideas for the office, or elsewhere, have many other advantages. Of course, not worrying about the weather is one of them, but there are several additional perks to playing games and sharing group activities with your peers! Dedicating some time to work on this crucial aspect improves workers’ relationships, increases productivity and engagement, boosts employee well-being and happiness, and creates a sense of belonging. Here are 12 cool ideas for inside activities to do with your workforce!

Indoor team building activities outside the office

1. Promote collective sports activities to boost team bonding 

Employees are paying closer attention to their health than before and wellness programs are thriving. There are numerous benefits of well-being in the workplace  including both improving mental and physical health. So why not incorporate this aspect into your indoor team-building activities? For example, collective sports such as volleyball, basketball, or soccer can all be practiced inside. The effects of sports boost your workforce’s health and team spirit! You can form teams based on those that already exist in the office (the sales against the marketing squads) or mix them up so people also get to know employees from other departments. 

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2. Plan competitive but fun indoor events 

What about getting out of the office to go to a karaoke bar or rent a place and organize a big quiz? These team activities are excellent to break the ice! If you recently hired new employees, it can be a great option to help them get to know their peers and vice versa. But generally, gathering your employees outside the workplace and having fun together are always efficient solutions to create a workplace connection. Here again, you can divide them into teams and let their competitive spirits thrive! Even the “losers” win as they enjoy some quality and fun time with their colleagues without talking about work-related topics!

3. Meet for an escape game experience

Are your team members resourceful? Escape games release the competitive, problem-solving, and adventurous sides of your workers’ personalities. During this fun immersive experience, they will have to “stick together” and support each other to achieve a common goal! The advantage of this indoor team-building activity is that there are many options when it comes to escape games. Therefore, you can redo this activity another time without it being boring for employees that have already done an escape game before. Escape rooms are also an excellent option for teams that often have to coordinate and collaborate under pressure.

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4. Have lunch with your teammates and get to know each other better

What’s better to build a solid relationship with your colleagues than sharing a nice meal? To make it even more fun, you can prepare some questions ahead that each team member will have to answer so they can get to know each other better. Why not make it a ritual? You can do this once a month, for example. It helps break the ice with new teammates while the older team members keep strengthening their ties. Pick a person every month to choose the place. This way, you can discover your peers’ favorite dishes or cuisine and explore great food that you might have never tried before!

5. Book a bouldering session to encourage team building 

Some individual sports also enable team building and are a fun indoor activity to do together. For example, bouldering is rewarding and boosts positive, collaborative behaviors, such as encouraging each other. The people climbing the wall feel supported by their peers. By feeling stimulated and not alone, they are more motivated to perform better and challenge themselves to reach the top of the wall without falling. Many bouldering clubs host private events. You can book a slot and invite your employees to go back to their childhood for half a day. Most of these places also offer a coffee corner where you can have a drink after your session to keep enjoying this moment together!

6. Offer to do indoor volunteering with your colleagues 

As a company, you can have a much bigger impact than if you let your employees volunteer on their own. Moreover, people want to help others and live meaningfully. Whether it is aiding elderly people, supporting local communities, or acting for the planet… The possibilities are endless. So why not gather a group of volunteers and choose one cause to support? Volunteering brings people together, creates stronger bonds by acting toward a common goal, and brings more purpose to your employees’ careers. Knowing Gen. Z is more active in defending social and environmental matters, this is a great indoor team-building activity idea to answer their needs.

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Team-building ideas for the office

7. Create your own indoor escape game

Escape games can also be organized within your office. You can find various DIY escape room puzzle ideas online to help you set it up. If you prefer to stay in the office instead of going to an escape game somewhere, this is an easy solution to bring some fun to the workplace. As we just mentioned, this office bonding activity is excellent to foster problem-solving and team spirit.

8. Organize board games tournaments in the workplace

 Not only are board and card games  a way for your employees to take a break and relax before going back to work, but organizing contests is also a great indoor team activity. Your coworkers can either participate or simply watch and encourage their teammates. These contests can take place once a year or once a month and you can change the game at each new tournament to make it even more interesting. The most famous board games include Chess, Cluedo, Monopoly, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, and Scrabble. 

9. Set up a video game corner in the chilling area of your office

Some organizations that promote an employee-centric approach provide their teams with a video game corner in the office. The positive impacts of gaming in the workplace, including greater focus and productivity, have been revealed by several studies. Organizing a video game contest brings people together and builds strong relationships. Moreover, it helps break the ice with new staff or even between managers and workers! The cherry on top, you don’t need to wait to be on-site to schedule these events. Of course, playing in person is better. But if you can’t wait for the next meet-up in the office, you can also plan an online tournament with your team.

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10. Build trust among your team with the most renowned group games

The number of activities you can play at work to facilitate team bonding is endless. Other than board games, you have plenty of other options like the following classics:

• Two truths and a Lie
• Trivia
• Diversity Bingo
• Paper Tower
• Keep the balloons up
• Minefield 

As you have probably realized, these activities don’t have to be work-related. Some of them might seem a bit childish, but so what? Letting the kid inside us out from time to time is a great way to break down the walls, relax and make genuine connections at work. 

11. Schedule an indoor scavenger hunt with your team 

Do your team members struggle to stay still? Then board games may not be the best choice for an office bonding activity. But what about organizing a scavenger hunt in the office? Divide your workforce into teams and hand them a list of clues and actions to complete with a time limit. This game creates a positive atmosphere, makes people laugh, and brings some fun to the workplace. From a skill point of view, it requires coordination, determination, and working under pressure! 

12. Hang a team bulletin board that everyone can see 

This final indoor team-building activity is one of our top picks. To help your employees get to know each other and foster connections, we suggest creating a team bulletin board together. For example, you can add team pictures of your last events, compliments to other colleagues, restaurant recommendations, favorite series, etc. This is a fun way to learn about each other, increase the sense of community in the workplace, and improve team bonding. Hang your board in a spot where every team member can see it and update it regularly!

Next time your workers’ motivation is low, and they seem disconnected, organize one of these 12 indoor team-building activities. Team-building ideas for the office are also excellent to boost a positive and people-first corporate culture, especially with a flexible work model. To give your hybrid employees access to the working space they need when on-site and embrace work flexibility, make sure you are equipped with the best workspace management tool! Request a free demo of the deskbird app to discover all its amazing features from desk booking to week planning or workplace analytics!