How to Improve Company Events without Spending a Fortune

Whether it's a small local business or large corporation, company events are a key part to keeping employee morale high and workers productive and happy. While many people believe it takes a big budget to make a company event entertaining, the opposite is often true. By using large doses of creativity along with some planning well in advance of the event, everyone attending can find themselves having plenty of fun, while also learning a thing or two along the way.

Have a Mystery Dinner

Patterned after the traditional scavenger hunt, a mystery dinner is a great way to combine a good meal with some fun and intrigue. The goal of the activity is to get everyone working together to help solve a mystery. Clues can be hidden in many ways, such as the fold in the napkins, or even the food. Some dinners have had clues baked into such foods as rolls or desserts, letting people eat their way to various clues. Companies like Klosterman Baking Company can provide bulk products like rolls and bread for a discount to big buyers like businesses. As people walk from one table to another to search for clues and work together, they not only solve a mystery, but also get reacquainted with their coworkers. The dinners can be done very inexpensively on a potluck basis, with many items such as drinks, plates, and other items brought by those attending.

Contests

Coming in many different forms, a little healthy competition between coworkers can be great for getting more employees involved in the business, and help other get to know on another. Start a healthy fitness competition to see who can lose the most weight or take the most steps in a day or over the course of a month. For small ideas go for eating competitions or contests between who makes the best pies or desserts.

Team Building Exercises
One of the best, and least expensive ways to make a company event fun is to have team-building activities. One of the most popular in recent years has been dividing up into teams and building structures such as the Eiffel Tower or other things out of duct tape or even toilet paper. Needless to say, these items are very inexpensive, yet can lead to lots of fun and cohesiveness between employees. The team that builds the best structure can be given an inexpensive prize, such as a small trophy.

Speed Networking
Much like speed dating, participants spend 3-5 minutes talking to a coworker about anything and everything before moving on to the next person. Costing nothing, it's a great way to break the ice at an event, and get coworkers who may not work together very often the chance to find out about one another. 

Whether a company event is large or small, these activities are excellent ways to make the time spent together fun without breaking the company's entertainment budget for the year. As more and more companies look to retain employees long-term, company events with activities such as these will continue to grow in popularity and importance.

About the author

Brooke Chaplan is a freelance writer and blogger. She lives and works out of her home in Los Lunas, New Mexico. She loves the outdoors and spends most of her time hiking, biking, and gardening. For more information, contact Brooke via Facebook at facebook.com/brooke.chaplan or Twitter @BrookeChaplan

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