6 online office events you have to try
For many of us, working from home has been an imposed experiment that yielded various types of results. Whether we liked it better than our previous office life or not, we had to adapt and stick to it for a while. This is valid not only for employees, but also for employers. They too had to make significant changes to all their processes in order to accommodate the new working style.
Here at KeepCalling, one of the parts that we missed the most about not being able to meet face to face was all the events we used to enjoy together. Every year, we democratically elect a group of people that will take care of all our entertainment needs, called Le Fun Committee. Well, the pandemic meant a huge challenge for them, but one that they passed with flying colors.
So, our fun committee and our company as a whole had to come up with new strategies for some good ol’ work fun even from our own homes. This is what led to a few very much awaited online events that got us together on the screen. If you too are looking for inspiration for your own online office events, here are some of the best things we did in the past year:
1. Fun company awards
We gathered for our own online version of the Oscars. The KC Awards, to be more exact. After a few days dedicated to voting for our peers, the much-awaited day of the award ceremony came and we found out who won the grand awards for some very original categories: the Eagle Eye award (for always spotting the typo, the inconsistency, the possible danger, the weak point), the Always Friday award (for being overly relaxed even when things look bad), the Rain Man award (for doing things in a new way, not the mainstream way), and many, many more.
2. Auction
Auctions are our top favorite way to raise money for charity amongst ourselves. We usually meet once a year and some of us bring objects they want to sell for charity, while the others bid for them and the money collected is donated. Of course, we couldn’t do this during the pandemic. Or could we? LFC thought of a new, entirely online format. So, we met online and bid for online goods or services, such as ebooks, ecourses, and tutorials delivered by our very own colleagues.
3. Coffee/lunch chats
When we used to see each other every day at the office, morning coffee chats or talks over lunch were our way of catching up and unwinding. Working from home couldn’t stop us from engaging in this nice habit at least once in a while, so we set up occasional online meetings where we would just chat while we were on our coffee/lunch breaks.
4. Scavenger hunt
This was a fun one! We had a scavenger hunt just before Christmas, but you can choose many other themes as well. We had to complete all the challenges on a list from the comfort of our homes and send the results online, via photos and videos. Whoever did this first won. It was an individual game, as opposed to a team one, like we usually had for our team buildings, but it was very entertaining nonetheless.
5. Christmas event for children
Another highly appreciated Christmas event was one dedicated to the youngest of KeepCallers, to our employees’ children. Every year we used to celebrate Christmas with our kids by having a special get together where Santa would come and give the children gifts, tell them a story, and listen to poems and songs performed by them.
Since this was not possible during the pandemic, LFC improvised again and held this event online. Santa Claus was on the screen, in his beautiful costume and in a very Christmassy setting. He read 2 books to the children and they told their poems and recited their songs online this time. The gifts had already been brought to our houses by KC elves. ;)
6. Q&A victim
This one wasn’t exactly an event per se, but a very nice campaign meant for us to get to know one another better and to stay connected even from afar. Le Fun Committee selected a few “victims” that everyone else could interrogate online. KeepCallers could submit their questions and the interviewee had to answer them in a video, having the right to reject 3 questions. This was a lot of fun for everyone and also a great opportunity to learn new, deeper things about some of our colleagues.
In addition to these events, we also created a private Facebook group where we interacted, exchanged videos, suggestions, and birthday wishes. We also continued the tradition of organizing contests dedicated to employees only. We had limited physical interaction during most of the pandemic, but we managed to stay together and have fun in the process with a little imagination.
