The Importance of Office Fun: Affect on Employee Engagement and Productivity
Explore the impact of office fun on employee engagement and productivity. Unleash the power of office fun for a happier, more productive workforce.
Mandatory office fun. It sounds like an oxymoron. Often a manager's drawing-at-straws attempt to get reluctant staff engaged in forced team-building events. To focus on bettering group spirit and fixing rifts. Something children might consider worthwhile entertainment but not a group of professionals.
Despite being mostly non work-related, we're programmed into believing that participating in these activities is to be considered team players.
Being forced to dress up, dress down or partake in games or sports we have no interest in might have been the standard in the pre-COVID era. But are forced social gatherings we really care about phasing out?
Does Fun At The Office Have A Place In The Future Of Work?
In short, yes. While people might prefer to spend time with family and friends over colleagues, a workday shouldn't just feature work and no play.
The benefits of some fun mixed with work are some of these.
Happy Workers Are Healthy Workers
Being stressed and miserable at work may lead to serious physical and mental health issues and high levels of absenteeism.
Employees are more likely to strike the ideal work-life balance in a workplace where fun occurs and enjoy coming to work than in workplaces without fun.
Better Communication and Collaboration
People can break the ice in a fun coworking office and get to know each other personally.
Having close bonds with colleagues and making friends with your coworkers can make working together easier.
Prompts Creativity
Mounting evidence shows that children learn better through play. The same logic applies to working adults.
Working from a creative and buzzing atmosphere with exciting activities prompts imaginative thinking, improves problem-solving, and heightens the ability to learn and be taught.
A Reprieve From Boredom And Stress
Working all day without entertainment can make us miserable and unproductive. Breaking from the norm can increase productivity and provide us with hard-earned distractions.
Good For Business
Creating an enjoyable atmosphere with happy employees attracts clients and recruits because it shows the company's human side.
Posting snippets of daily work life on Instagram of people laughing and relaxing helps followers get to know your company better.
Introducing Post-Pandemic Office Fun
Having time for office fun is crucial, but companies should look at different variations and definitions of fun.
COVID changed how we think about all working avenues, including making us feel annoyed by silly fun and games with significant life-changing events happening around us.
Now that we're back at the office, the notion of office fun has shifted.
Rather than having activities thrust upon them against their will, fun should center around what employees want.
What Does Office Fun Look Like Now?
Initiatives suggested by employees where participation is entirely optional.
Office fun might range from employee-led yoga to cooking classes, sports activities, classic post-work drinks, or any event that sparks the interest of employees.
Since they might have varied interests and other responsibilities, expecting staff to participate in all the offered events all the time is unrealistic.
Will This New Age Fun Encourage People to Go Back To The Office?
We've entered a new age of remote and hybrid working, so don't expect people to want to work from the office full-time.
Sometimes, getting people together is necessary for connecting, collaborating, preventing miscommunication, and having others to talk to during the day. Can the promise of office fun entice people to spend more time at the office?
This depends on the type of office fun offered and if it's long-lasting.
Companies are trying to encourage employees through exciting, never-before-offered perks such as glitzy parties, food trucks, cool merchandise, and more. Google took things a step further by bringing in the famous singer, Lizzo for a private performance.
Though these offerings are bound to capture the interest of employees, they probably won't result in the desired long-term effects.
Food, drink, music, and catching up with colleagues might tempt people to return to work, but the excitement of a party and the novelty of street food fade after a while.
What About Bean Bags, Free Beer, Table Tennis, And Complimentary Coffee?
Tech companies popularized the idea of vibrant, colorful offices. These workspaces might emanate an adult playground with overstuffed bean bags, zany furniture, coffee stalls, overflowing beer, and a dedicated games room.
Though working from these spaces might promote a work-life balance and help workers connect organically over a coffee or a riveting game of table tennis or foosball, it thinly veils the fact that people are at work longer. And encouraging people to stay longer isn't promoting office fun; it's keeping people away from their families.
So with the wool over our eyes removed, will we also see death to the adult playground for more purposeful and meaningful fun?
Looking For A Workspace To Have Post-Covid Office Fun?
Take a look at the various workspace solutions listed on Office Hub.
