We love Fridays! Of course it’s a relief to know that you have the next two days to take a break from work. It’s a day when you can let down your guard just a little and perhaps dress a little more casually. It’s a day when you have more spring in your step and accomplish just a bit more. But what makes us put Fridays on the pedestal while we turn up our nose at Mondays or even Tuesdays? What would life feel like if we experienced an entire week of Fridays? Here are some tips for creating Fun Fridays in the office that you can also carry out any day of the week.
Lucky Draw: At a given time each week (e.g., Friday morning) have a lucky draw. People who want to be in the lucky draw contribute a dollar or two per week and this goes toward the prizes. A portion of the donations can even go toward a charity.
Spelling Bee: This well-known competition among kids can be a funny and interesting workplace activity, too. Let the employees have fun as they guess and spell those tough words. Better yet, set up teams among departments. Can the IT guys beat out marketing in the spelling challenge? Have employees contribute words to the competition and try having fun with buzzwords that some people tend to use more than others.
Salad Fest. Have a timed (say five minutes) salad competition with two or three people in a team. Have them come up with the ingredients and condiments and when everything is set up on a table, that is when the time starts to run. Let them cut the vegetables, add flavors, spices and condiments, plate it and be ready for presentation in front of judges and audience. Make the audience taste the preparations and vote for the best one. Let the audience’s palate decide which one is the award-winning salad. You could also have chili cook-offs (either prepared in home and brought to the office or cooked in the office kitchen).
Employee Recognition. These are random and surprise awards that can make an employee feel special. Give away candy and take a picture and blast it through email for things such as best smile, best-dressed, best curly hair/lengthy hair, muscle man, etc.
Guess Who? Pin childhood photos of employees on a board or project on a screen one at a time. Have employees guess who’s who. Reading out loud the different names guessed by people can be fun for all. Let the winner who guessed it correctly get candy as an award. You can start with photos of people from your leadership team or more familiar employees first to make it easier to guess and get more participation.
Source: Nisha Raghavan is the author of HR Buddy and co-hosts the radio show “DriveThruHR” and is the founder and coach of DriveThruHR.