Office Party Games

Office parties are sometimes dry and dull. At some companies, people really don't want to show up for them but everyone feels obligated to put in their time and make an appearance.

You can turn that around this year and make your parties fun and exciting events everyone wants to attend. These office party games will help you pump everyone up so they get to know one another and actually enjoy their time together.

Not only are these two ideas great for office parties, but they also work well at other functions like meetings and conferences.

The Group Mixer

Bring everyone together in one large group and count how many people are present at the party. You should start this game with an even number of people. Once the count of people is taken, call out the number which is half of the group (example 50 people so half would be 25).

When this number is called out everyone must rush to link arms, forming a group of exactly that number of people. In our example, there would be two groups of 25 people linking arms. No one is left out in the first round.

The next number to be called out will be less than half of the group and should be an odd number. People must then separate and form new groups of the lesser number.

Using 17 as the example, there will be two groups of 17 and 16 people will be left out so they are out of the game.

The goal is to be in the final group of two and win a small prize. Think of fun prizes that everyone wants, such as an extra half hour for lunch break or perhaps a Friday afternoon out of the office early. This type of reward will bring your office party games to life, but make sure to clear it with the boss first.

The Matching Game

In the Matching Game, co-workers will be given different stamps on their hand when the arrive. The goal is for everyone to find other people at the party with the same stamp and gather for a group photo. This provides a great ice breaker and gets people moving around right from the start.

Before the guests arrive, figure out how big each group is going to be by dividing the number of guests equally to form smaller groups (ex. For larger parties, maybe you want groups of 10. For smaller parties, perhaps groups of 3 will do).

Next have a different stamp available for each group (ex. if you divided the group into 10 smaller groups, you will need 10 stamps). Think about the little stamps you get when you leave a public event after paying and want to come back later, but these should be shaped like animals or other things so they are obviously different.

As soon as a guest arrives, stamp their hand and tell them their goal is to find people with the same stamp. This gets a bit tricky because you will need to remember how many times you used each stamp so that groups end up being close to the same size. It doesn't have to be exact so it's not that big of a deal if you get it wrong.

These kinds of office party games are perfect for the start of a meeting, a conference or a holiday party because they get people moving around and chatting with co-workers they might not normally associate with.

Once the group has found one another they should proceed to an area where they can have a photo taken as a group. Using stamps is also a great way to break people into random groups for other activities that you have planned for the meeting or office party.