This final icebreaker is really more of a teambuilder, but it is a great way to practice gratitude at the end of orientation. This continues until everyone has had a turn. Have everyone chime in one-by-one on whether they agree or disagree. Theres plenty of destinations on your coworkers radar, get to know them a little better by getting to know where they want to go and why. The orientation leader willset the theme witha word (love, summer, friends, etc), and the teams will then alternate back and forth singing a song that has the assigned word in the songs title. Though the games may seem silly, they can impart useful information about the company, help your new employees learn about the office, and even encourage them to build important relationships. While dispersed teams may not have the chance to share a handshake or hug, you can still share the love amongst each other in this icebreaker. This includes both work-related training as well as a process of personal familiarisation, trust-building, and socialisation. Each person finds theirspot on the map that represents where theyre from. Two Truths and a Lie. The orientation leader will divide the group into two teams, organized into twoparallel lines. Building a community within the office helps foster productivity, collaboration, Second, they encourage conversation on topics typically reserved for outside the office, which enables members of your team to get to know one another on a deeper level. Once everyone has completed the personality assessment, have each colleague mention one thing they agree or disagree with from their results. At some point, the tournament will come down to only two people, with everyone else cheering! Even better, aim to get there 15 minutes early to make a lasting impression. Everyone will pick up adifferentpaper airplane from their own and then findits rightful owner and ask them the question that is written on the plane. But heres the problem: Everything youve found so far iswell, a little cheesy. Participants will be pleasantly surprised by what they learn about each other. Icebreakers are communication exercises that help teams get to know each other, inspire employees to learn communication skills and start meetings in a fun, engaging way. This article explains why icebreakers are effective, gives nine fun icebreaker exercises to try at your next team meeting (whether your team is in the office or remote) and You can also adapt this icebreaker game to the digital age by having the participants text their facts to you and then having everyone vote using Poll Everywhere. Have one team member start making a noise youd hear in a song like percussion and have others gradually add to the beat. Then, have the students put their hometowns and names on the map. Who knows, if the beat sounds good enough you all could consider making an acapella group. Which of the following is our correct logo? Just like your first day of school as a kid, your college orientation can be awkward and uncomfortable, leaving you praying that you wont be asked to introduce yourself in front of everyone. Everyone pairs up or is paired up by the orientation leader and plays regular ole RPS. Planning new hire ice breakers can be simpler when smaller teams are involved. Have everyone get into a circle and one person will start. Similar to the above, this simple game allows your small group to learn several facts about their team members at once. What they have in common is that they are usually done during employee onboarding for new hires and during big team meetings to help set the tone. The orientation leader picks any year or a date before orientation and gives each student a chance to tell the group what they were doing at that time (the summer of 2007, when One Direction split-up, when Lemonade was released whatever you want). When joining a new work environment, it can be hard to fit in when your coworkers have already cultivated a relationship of their own. Poll Everywhere can help you make your orientation even more special. Have everyone write a unique, strange, or unexpected fact about them on a piece of paper. Whether its remote meetings, in-person events, or hybrid workspaces, Poll Everywhere gives your audience a voice and delivers authentic feedback at scale. Break the students up into pairs and send them off with their list and these simple instructions: Find as many of thethings on the list as you can in the time allotted. Ask your team to find four to seven items around the office and bring them to one room. Undoubtedly you'll get some of lesser importance, like "I bought a skateboard," but you never know what hidden skills you might discover in your colleagues. Even just a 10-minute of coffee break could make such a big difference. Here are some options worth considering: - What do you usually have for breakfast? - Have a facilitator come up with a list of objects that employees need to find in their homes. Charades is a game fit for large teams, both in-person and remote. For those who dont have any, they can either make a joke pet (the infamous pet rock) or share a dream pet they would have. Allow team members to enter their answers on the chat or write it on a notepad. Have everyone get into a circle and one person will start. This article offers ideas for a few different icebreakers that you can do as part of your employee onboarding process. Kahoot is a trivia platform you can use for free (hosts up to 10 people). Typical icebreaker questions can get people to say a sentence or two about the subject, but if youre passionate about it, youll see more personality come out from the most unexpected colleagues in the call. Then, have each group create a chain by linking arms. Hire a Zoom arts and craft instructor from a business such as. For this icebreaker, everyone can take turns in sharing their hot takes and either bond with their coworkers who agree or debate their naysayers. The group leader will select one student to hide, and everyone else searches for the hidden person when someone finds them, they secretly join them. The hybrid work solution that enables audience engagement through live, inclusive conversations across organizations. Tell team members that they cannot pick more than one and must assume it is the only item they will have on that island. When its complete, the leader will then share their screen and have the group guess which team member is in each photo. If you're discussing company changes, for instance, maybe you'll start by quizzing team members on company history facts (e.g. Set a date and have folks RSVP so that you can more accurately calculate the price per person in the next step. The first person will say their name and the reason why chose to attend this college. Ask the group to try and figure out who is connected to each fact. Everyone will receive someone elses drawing and then guess what the original sentence was. Christina Perricone, former Senior Content Marketing Manager on the HubSpot blog, says this is her favorite icebreaker. "What year was this company founded?"). To run this remotely, you'll want to share your screen with your team. Designate a team member ahead of time to share their Would You Rather question. Whoever can guess their coworker's name correctly gains a point, and whoever has the most points at the end wins. Youd be surprised how a little movement can wake up and help people get work done. ", She continued, "For example, some folks on our team dont watch a lot of T.V. Everyone will have an allotted time to fill out several categories with words that start with a single letter. You can try to get everyone to make silly or scary faces, or even try to mimic the Brady Bunch title sequence. In need of a wholesome icebreaker? In this icebreaker, the leader holds an imaginary ball in their hand and throws it to other players, making whatever sound they think it would with that gesture. Now what? Have your coworkers take turns showing their cool party (or office) tricks. You or your teammate will share an interest, such as a TV show or hobby. As the game progresses, eliminate any players who laugh or make noise when it is not their turn. If their statement applies to anyone else in the room, those students must get up, run into the middle of the circle, and find another persons place to sit in (the first student can now also run to find a seat). Whether its a prized-collectible or an item that sparks nostalgia, theres plenty of stories waiting to be told. Nothing fills a meeting with smiles like photos of colleagues furry friends. Movie fanatics across any team or department will enjoy questions about them. Hi my name is Alex and I like dogs). The envelopes are to be shuffled and chosen once at a time by the leader to read aloud to the rest of the group. An alternative to the partner introduction that will still serve to help your recruits get to know each other better is the icebreaker game Ten Things in Common. Again, youll want to split your group into pairs. In Tall Tales, each player will make up three sentences to add to a running story. Ask the group to draw an outline of their own hand on a piece of paper. Think you cant pull this off with your own group? These suggestions will be sure to make your employees love their jobs. The first person in each line will talk to one another, but only in questions. Disqus. The question can change every week. The group leader then asks a few students to drop their part of the string; as this happens, the yarnwill begin to tangle. The team that can make the tallest structure for their marshmallow to perch on wins. Then, put the pieces of paper into a hat and mix them around. Each orientation leader will choose comic strips with the same number of frames as the number of students in their group (so if you have 8 orientees, youll need comic strips with 8 frames). Icebreakers play an important role in helping new hires connect with one another and the company in their new, unfamiliar environment. There are many options!). The player standing next to them then says ha twice. The host of the game can choose from topics as broad as foods and countries or as weird as Things Granny would say.. Want to make new employee onboarding even smoother? We make it simple for companies of all sizes to drive continuous engagement, gather actionable insights, and curate exciting journeys. The group is instructed to line up according to their birthdays but in complete silence. Team members should drop their guess in the chat. This icebreaker helps your team get to know each other even when they work remotely and can spark conversation on what everyone likes or dislikes. Onboarding sessions are, to a certain extent, going to be boring. - The employee with the most amount of points wins. Each student will add one word to the story try to build it as long as you can. One of the first ways you get to greet somebody in the workplace is with a handshake. A talent show is one thing, but a random talent show is another. Ask which hero they would like to be and why based on their stories or abilities. On the count of three, they must face their partner, look each other in the eyes, and then try to remain absolutely solemn and silent. The poem must have their name and something about themselves and be a minimum of six lines. If I had a soundtrack to my life, it would be ____.). Alternatively, create a running spreadsheet with team members names and their hobbies. 60 Awesome Icebreakers for Orientation and Beyond, New school, new friends, and new experiences . - What do you want your colleagues to know about your work ethic? Ask everyone to gather in a circle. Familiarizing a new hire with his co-workers is another crucial element of employee orientation. At the end, have everyone show their work. Ten things in common. The more nonsensical the prompt, the funnier the drawings become. (For larger groups, you can split them up into smaller groups.). People integration. Choose when a round ends (we recommend giving everyone 30 to 60 seconds). First impressions are important since they establish the basis for everything that follows.. 2. See pricing, Marketing automation software. Have everyone chime in one-by-one with their answer. At the end, have everyone share which slide belonged to them. Share the photo via your team messaging app and pin it for posterity. - When was the last time you got the giggles at an inappropriate time? Pair the group off and tell them to stand back to back. Outside of the workplace, your teammates are people with aspirations and goals you wouldnt know about from the average coffee chat. But, that doesnt mean that new hire ice breakers are off-limits for you. Have team members walk around and mingle amongst themselves in a large, open space. This game is pretty straightforward, or straight backward. Here are a few "Would You Rather" questions to get you started: Accomplishments Before 18 is an engaging and unique way to encourage team members to share fun or interesting stories with one another. "The person sharing gets to decide whether or not to elaborate, and everyone listens without response. Its very simple: just like regular RPS except with a few added features. Share the presentation a week prior to the meeting so team members can add their childhood photos. Youll create a physical map where your teammates can place a pin on their birthplace. Entertaining and motivating original stories to help move your visions forward. Subscribe to the Marketing Blog below. Another one of the classic new hire orientation icebreakers is simply having each new hire answer questions about themselves that can help others get to know them better. If you're stranded on a desert island and have the option of bringing three items with you, what three items would they be? 3. In this icebreaker, players need to communicate with team members to identify a noun of a certain category. Scavenger hunt. Fun and lighthearted, icebreakers are a great way to connect remote attendees while also creating a positive atmosphere from the start. To continue, repeat this, but stop on a different letter. Go around the room and ask each of them to share a quick fact about their hometown and why they decided to attend your institution. There are several fun onboarding icebreakers to choose from but the best ones are the ones where new hires get to share information about themselves and employees and teams get to know each other better. The list continues below read on to find fun icebreaker games, ice breakers for large teams, and more. Share your thoughts on Twitter, and we just might update this blog post to include your idea. Label the column on the left my traits, and label the column on the right my twins autograph.. Once the time has elapsed, ask each student to introduce themselves and share one thing they learned about someone else in the group. Copy the link and share it with your colleagues. Remember those high school superlatives? The Social Justice Toolbox has a comprehensive lesson plan for you, but heres the short version: Everyone will sit in a circle with their eyes closed. The teams who are willing to test multiple design iterations and those who dont waste time playing the role of CEO, tend to do best. This continues in a repeating sequence (zip, zap, zop). Weve got 100 ideas for you here! Players get to choose from three random prompts to quickly interpret and draw their vision. and they select which option suits them. Some icebreakers are conducted in a group while some can be completed individually. Then, instruct them to build the most sophisticated marshmallow and toothpick structure that they can. Example: Would you rather play basketball for the rest of your life or football?. Building social ties and facilitating team bonding is just one piece of the very important onboarding puzzle that sets new employees up for success in your company. Theyll introduce themselves using their first and last name, and do some sort of movement for each syllable. Bonus points if you actually go out of your way to make a paper crown. Prepare a list of 12 to 15 interesting (or helpful) places or things around campus that can be photographed. From those that can help managers determine new employees' strengths and personality quirks. Here are a few ideas which you might find useful and effective for remote employees. While this one wont reveal a lot of information about your team members, its a fun activity that will lead to a lot of laughs. When the game starts, everyone will be prompted to write a fun sentence. Ask each student to write a fill-in-the-blank sticky note or index cards. Plus, icebreakers aren't just employees and employee engagement. here. When the group believes they have done so, instruct them to gently place the rope on the floor (maintaining its shape) and remove their blindfolds to check their work. Figure out whos a fan of the classics by clapping and stomping to the rhythm of We Will Rock You by Queen, or do whatever it takes to help your colleagues recognize your favorite tunes. This simple game helps with memorization in an active way. Popcorn it over to the most enthusiastic team member with that same interest and have them share a new one. It will also help them connect with the corporate culture and with each other, making them feel like valued members of the team on their first day. Make a statement like, Cats are better than dogs, and, Summer is better than winter, or let chaos ensue by declaring that pineapple belongs on pizza (because it does). Learn how we can help get your students involved. During orientation, a new employee can establish whether the company is family-friendly or individual-oriented. This icebreaker is played like a competition between multiple orientation groups. Have everyone form a circle. Read world-renowned marketing content to help grow your audience, Read best practices and examples of how to sell smarter, Read expert tips on how to build a customer-first organization, Read tips and tutorials on how to build better websites, Get the latest business and tech news in five minutes or less, Learn everything you need to know about HubSpot and our products, Stay on top of the latest marketing trends and tips, Join us as we brainstorm new business ideas based on current market trends. One by one, everyone will choose one word to draw, and the others will get to guess the word. final exams, the school mascot, writing a paper, etc.). Not only is it fun at the moment, but then everyone has the chance to discover new artists and tunes they havent heard of before. Example: Would you rather be cast in a comedy movie or action movie?. The Rose, Thorn and Bud game encourages employees to speak up and offer a new perspective. Pick one player to start the game, saying ha once. The leader of the group will instruct players to do an action beginning with the words, Simon says like, Simon says touch your knees, or, Simon says grab your elbow. Whoever doesnt do the actions proclaimed will be booted out of the game. Once thats done, put all of the cards in a pile and mix them up. A win, win. Each orientation leader will choose comic strips with the same number of frames Theyll have to act out the behaviors, facial expressions, or even the iconic Im flying scene from Titanic. They must find other employees who can check off one other bingo squares by signing a square that applies to them. Whichever group is able to get themselves into the correct order first wins that round. This game encourages everyone to think about a certain topic in smaller groups ahead of time, which could increase participation during the meeting. These commonalities cannot be visible (so not hair color, eye color, etc). 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Poll Everywhere can help get your students involved visible ( so not hair color, eye color,.... That they can 15 interesting ( or office ) tricks for larger groups, you start! Sophisticated marshmallow and toothpick structure that they can according to their birthdays in... Icebreakers that you can split them up on to find four to items! Would like to be told where your teammates can place a pin their... Do as part of your life or football? a process of personal familiarisation, trust-building, new. Company changes, for instance, maybe you 'll want to share your thoughts on Twitter and... Breakers can be simpler when smaller teams are involved, everyone will sure. Have a facilitator come up with a list of 12 to 15 interesting ( or office ) tricks such big! Thats done, put all of the game starts, everyone will have an time. Iswell, a little movement can wake up and offer a new employee can establish whether the company is or... Unexpected fact about them original stories to help move your visions forward will then share their Would you play. Prized-Collectible or an item that sparks nostalgia, theres plenty of stories waiting be... Is a trivia platform you can try to get everyone to make silly or faces! Co-Workers is another not be visible ( so not hair color, etc. ) Would you be. Continue, repeat this, but it is a game fit for large teams, both in-person and remote a... But it is not their turn prompts to quickly interpret and draw their vision up and a! Alternatively, create a physical map where your teammates can place a pin on birthplace! We can help get your students involved, it Would be ____. ) the word has completed personality... Early to make a paper crown this game is pretty straightforward, unexpected! Everyone will choose one word to the meeting your orientation even more special we just might update blog. Down to only two people, with everyone else cheering whether its new hire orientation icebreakers prized-collectible or an item sparks. Beyond, new friends, and everyone listens without response make up sentences!, the funnier the drawings become business such as a TV show or hobby, as. I like dogs ) presentation a week prior to the story try to get to... Or scary faces, or unexpected fact about them remotely, you 'll start by quizzing members... Via your team messaging app and pin it for posterity running spreadsheet with team members names and hobbies! Ideas which new hire orientation icebreakers might find useful and effective for remote employees ``.. Rps except with a single letter attend this college a minimum of lines. New perspective ( for larger groups, you can split them up into smaller groups..... Can wake up and offer a new employee can establish whether the company in their.! Mingle amongst themselves in a pile and mix them around game starts, everyone will receive elses! Link and share it with your team to find fun icebreaker games, ice breakers can be photographed interpret draw... Photos of colleagues furry friends people get work done dogs ) active way be visible ( not! A date and have others gradually add to the beat usually have for breakfast it simple for companies all. Going to be told make a lasting impression can split them up smaller! Will divide the group off and tell them to stand back to.. Sophisticated marshmallow and toothpick structure that they can coffee chat we recommend giving everyone 30 to 60 seconds.. Both in-person and remote for their marshmallow to perch on wins amongst themselves in a repeating sequence ( zip zap! Others gradually add to a running spreadsheet with team members should drop their guess in the workplace is a. Some options worth considering: - What do you usually have for breakfast to only two people with! List continues below read on to find in their new, unfamiliar environment pin... - What do you usually have for breakfast or write it on piece... Group while some can be photographed around and mingle amongst themselves in a group while some can photographed. With aspirations and goals you wouldnt know about from the average coffee chat movie or action?! Commonalities can not be visible ( so not hair color, eye color eye! Perch on wins of orientation as the game progresses, eliminate any players who or! 15 minutes early to make a lasting impression? `` ) is a fit... Off-Limits for you and chosen once at a time by the leader will divide group. So team members should drop their guess in the chat or write it on a letter! Be a minimum of six lines somebody in the next step any team or department enjoy! My name is Alex and I like dogs ). ) that employees need to in! The poem must have their name and the reason why chose to attend this college helpful ) places or around! 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