5 fun free online games and activities for increasing employee engagement

Increasing employee engagement is no easy task. First, you need to understand what is impacting the low level of employee engagement and then come up with ideas on how to better them. 

Team building is a great start to connecting your team, working together, getting to know each other and having fun while doing so. Yet, googling “online games for employee engagement” does not produce many results, or there are only a few activities which you can do for free to increase employee engagement. 

‍

We wanted to rectify this. This is why we came up with 5 free online games and activities for increasing employee engagement. 

‍

If you want to take employee engagement seriously but don't have much time to invest, check out the resources below:

• Our top virtual employee engagement platforms of 2022/2023
• The best mobile apps to work on employee engagement
• 10 holistic employee engagement solutions

‍

1. Random Fairytales

Best for: Working on creativity and having heaps of fun with your colleagues!

‍

There is no better game for increasing employee engagement than through creativity and laughs. Random Fairytales is a spin-off of a well-known game, broken telephone, but you will need to guess a drawing instead of guessing the sentence. We promise you good fun with the team, closer bonds and an increase in employee engagement.

You can play Random Fairytales on Gomada for free! All you need to do is create a free account, send the invite link to your team members and get ready to have some serious fun! 

‍

Check out a ‘how to play’ video here: 

‍

Number of participants: 

The team size for this activity should be between 3-10 participants. However, you can also run parallel sessions in case your team is larger. 

‍

2. Aliens Have Landed

Best for: Practicing problem-solving and fostering teamwork. 

‍

We played this game as a team and absolutely loved it! It is a great game to get those creative juices flowing and work together as a team. Imagine: Aliens have landed on Earth and do not speak any earthly languages, yet they would like to know more about your company and what you do. It is now on your team members and colleagues to work as a team and figure out a creative way of explaining more about your company using only 5 different symbols or pictures. 

‍

How to play: 

• Step 1: Divide your team into groups and set a time limit
• Step 2: Ask teams to come up with their own 5 different symbols or pictures that represent the company 
• Step 3: Once the time has run out, each team presets what they have come up with. 

‍

Number of participants: 

While you can play this game with a larger group of people, we recommend having up to 6 different groups with 5-6 people in each.

3. Guess What? 

Best for/Objective: Getting to know each other better and fostering connectedness amongst the team. 

‍

You have probably read that colleagues who know each other better create better connections on both personal and professional levels. Knowing each other better can also lower the power distances between the employees and managers, making it easier to open up about the good and the bad things.

‍

Guess What is a free virtual employee engagement activity that allows team members to answer questions about each other. It is a hilarious way to build connections between remote team members.

‍

Check out a ‘how to play’ video:

‍

Number of participants: 

Between 2-10. However, as the game is hosted on Gomada, you can run multiple activity sessions in parallel.

‍

4. Guess Which Baby I am 

Best for: Learning more about each other in a fun, casual way.

‍

This is another game we have tried here at Gomada, and we have all enjoyed it so much! If you are looking for a game that will connect your team and generate some fun stories, then this is the one for you! All you need to do is collect all the baby images and a funny quote such as “When I was a baby, I talked to everyone”, pop it in the PowerPoint and share it with everyone while in the same call. If you think guessing who is who will be easy, think twice! :D 

‍

Number of participants: 

There is no specific number of participants for this game. Remember that the more people you have, the longer the game will go on. So you can decide if you want to play it on a team or company level

5. This Is My Hobby

Best for: Fostering employee engagement by learning something you do not know about the other person and finding common ground. 

‍

We said it before, and we’ll say it again: Teams who know each other better work better together and score higher on an employee engagement survey. This is why ‘This Is My Hobby’ is an important remote team engagement activity. The aim of this activity is pretty simple; each team member will prepare a short presentation about their hobbies and share it with the team. Colleagues can learn something new about each other and might even find out that they share the same hobbies!

‍

Number of participants:

We recommend to have a group sizeof up to 10 people. Otherwise, the presentations might get too long and people could start losing concentration. The best would be if you have a time restriction for each presentation to ensure that everyone gets a fair go. 

‍

Teamwork makes the dream work 

You might have heard of the famous quote, “Teamwork makes the dream work”. Yet, for the team to even work, constant checking in, team building, and knowing and understanding each other is of the essence. We hope that our list of free online games for employee engagement will assist you in making your teamwork to make the dream work.