Best Office Party Ideas to Motivate Employees in 2022

Organizing office parties is a daunting task. You become a multi-manager of sorts from the party budget, the logistics, sourcing the talents, designing activities, and being the overall director of a committee. Even with these challenges, you can still push through for an epic office party with these online office party ideas that we’ve listed for you!

In this article, we’ve put together the following:

• Holiday office party ideas
• Virtual Office party games
• Work social office event
• Low budget office party

Sounds interesting? Let's get into it!

List of Office Party Ideas to Motivate Remote Employees

1. Virtual Holiday Potluck

Food always takes the most significant chuck when it comes to events and social gatherings. If you’re thinking that you can’t bond over food virtually, you’ve limited your imagination. You can do a virtual holiday potluck where everybody gets to prepare food and show them to the rest of the group.

Take this virtual potluck as a chance for everyone to have a free-flowing conversation about anything, or you can share recipes about your dish. The goal is to have a relaxed and casual atmosphere, with a full belly, of course.

2. Virtual Company Talent Show Competition

It’s always a good idea to inject a little bit of healthy competition in office parties. With a little bit of time and preparation, you can do a talent show with some of your homegrown talents. You can bet on a prize scheme to make it more exciting and fun for everyone participating.

Mix some energy into it by showing video clips of the participants in your Slack channels or email blasts. You can opt for a general talent show, or you can also be specific, as a singing or dancing contest.

Discover more amazing facilitated talent shows.

3. Virtual Private Concerts

What better way to start a party than by taking your employees into an intimate, virtual private concert.

If you want to treat your teams to something unique and require less preparation, then a virtual concert will do the work. Make sure to bring in an artist or a band that’s popular among your group. If you can, you can ask the performers to play songs dedicated to some of your staff.

Share some good music with your colleagues.

4. Virtual Office Olympics

Bring in the competition at your office party by doing virtual office Olympics. Not only will it bring the team player in each of you, but it also allows for a little bit of fun work for everybody. After all, who doesn’t like party games? Mix and match people from cross-groups, so they get to blend with people outside their teams.

Check out more ideas around Virtual Office Olympics.

5. Virtual Pajama Party

Even working remotely, we still love to be in our jammies and be comfortably snug all day. So why not this be your theme for your next office party. Invite everyone to dress up in their cutest pyjamas and be in their coziest nook while you cook in some games and activities for the rest of the night. Afterwards, we are all ready to sleep towards the weekend.

6. Virtual Escape Room

Here’s one activity you can do onsite or virtually, and either way will turn out just as engaging and fun. Virtual escape rooms are a hit for remote teams because they offer excitement and a sense of space beyond the screen. Your teams will enjoy solving riddles and puzzles while they race for time.

Discover challenging Virtual Escape Rooms.

7. Virtual Office Awards

Parties are great avenues to hold awards for your exceptionally performing team members. Everyone is around to celebrate, and your rockstars get to share their recognition with their peers. Your awarding categories can also be varied, including a mix of performance-based awards or milestone awards like 5, 10, 15-year work anniversaries.

This can be a significant segment for your mid-year or year-end party, where everyone gets to reflect on the time they spent doing work in the organization.

8. DIY Workshops

For a literal hands-on party, why not venture on something crafty for you and your team. DIY workshops are good choices for something relaxing yet creative at the same time. It also lessens the dead air that may usually happen in virtual parties when you have no plan going on at a particular moment.

You can do a soap-making session, a cupcake decorating class (then move on to a cupcake party), or a virtual painting class. Whatever you choose to do, it will surely bring the artist to each of your teams.

For more DIY inspiration, discover our [Activities with Kits(https://onsite.fun/activities/categories/diy-team-building/locations/online).

9. Virtual Cocktail and Mixology Sessions

What’s a party without fun drinks? And while they may just be often served on the side of the table, you can make them the center of your office party by holding a virtual cocktail-making or mixology class. You can get a package that will basically run the whole session for you, complete with a professional barista as the host and a kit sent to your team’s houses ready for the actual run.

Afterwards, you can spend the rest of the time doing the virtual party with the drinks already in your hands.

Check out Virtual Cocktail Activities.

10. Themed Decade Party

For your next office party, make an excuse for your team to dress up at a different time - literally. Themed Decade parties are always a safe but definitely not a boring choice. What’s more, you can never go wrong with any decade because every era has its own fashion trend worth reviving.

You can go with the roaring gold-and-silver 1920s, the loud colors and big hairs of the 80s, or the emo punk, low-waist jeans style of the early 2000s.

11. Brunch Party

If you want to do something unique for your next office party but can’t decide whether to keep it casual or formal, why not have a little bit of both? At a brunch party, you can be fancy but not too much that it makes your teams feel restricted, and you can be fun but not over the top that it becomes reckless.

There’s a mellow, modern, and charming appeal to brunch. Plus, it’s ideally situated in the middle of the day when no one has to wake up too early, and no one has to worry about dropping off the call late.

12. Virtual Wellness Weekend Party

Let’s face it, we lose our diets at parties with all the sumptuous food and the various colored drinks laid on the table. For a different experience, why not have a wellness-themed party where you can start with a fitness activity hosted virtually like yoga, dancing, or a HIIT workout.

Afterwards, you can ask people to prepare a healthy potluck lunch to bring and eat their own healthy bowls.

13. Virtual Battle of the Bands Party

This can be a segment in your talent showcase or can be the central theme of your party. If you have a large team, they can gather in groups and join as a band to arrange their own setlist for a winning prize. You can also set a theme like “Songs from the 90s”, “Anime Songs”, or “Famous Rock Music”.

The audience can join in and support their bands, and you can also invite judges from outside your company to make the competition credible. To amplify the excitement, post teasers in your group chats or social media channels and encourage everyone to cheer for their winning team.

14. Cultural Potluck

The food we eat and love varies depending on where we live, grew up, or how our family traditions are over the years. Bring in something unique to your potluck party by asking your teams to prepare dishes popular in their culture or simply a flavor that reminds them of home.

For teams distributed all around the globe, this is a heartwarming way to get to know your team members, the number of remote companies hiring, according to Jooble, is growing exponentially, and thus, so it's the growing need to share more beyond political frontiers. Here is a good idea to share your diversity: Each one can share why they chose to bring in the dish, and the conversation can go from there.

Discover more Company Culture Ideas.

15. Karaoke Night Party

It doesn’t matter if you have the voice of the angels or if you’re one of the fortunate few who can crack glass with their singing. Karaoke is not about talent; it’s all about belching fun and top-level confidence.

For your next party idea, a karaoke night is always a win. While in an in-person karaoke party, anyone can key in the jukebox anytime; for this one, you might need to ask for everyone’s song choices ahead of time so you can prepare them.

16. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Here’s one that's a favourite and is doable both indoors and virtual. With a bit of time, preparation, and creativity, you can transform Zoom or Teams to prepare for your scavenger hunt theme. Make sure to create compelling clues that will have people searching around their homes.

Never get bored with our intriguing Scavenger Hunts.

17. Festivals Around the World Themed Party

What is a festival without a party? People celebrate in different joyous ways all over the globe, and if you can’t choose one as your theme, why not bring them all. You can assign each team or department to select one festival type and present themselves in their full festive regalia.

You can even ask them to present a small festival dance and award the best presentation. Your video gallery will be filled with colors with this one, and your teams will get to learn about other cultures as well.

18. Magic and Mentalism Shows

A magic show may just be one of the best ideas for your office party and something your inner child will be giddy for. This virtual entertainment may just be the treat your employees need, and you can also invite family members to watch and be part of their experience.

The best thing is you don’t need to require anything else from your team, just for them to sit back and relax while they grab their snack in their seats.

Discover more magic and mentalism show ideas.

19. Pasta Night Cooking Class and Party

Pasta is almost like a staple all around the globe. It’s convenient and versatile to cook with so many recipes to try. To make your pasta party more exciting, you can start off with a pasta cooking class. This way, there’s an extended connection with your teams from the preparation down to the actual party.

You can also make this a one-night event or two separate activities. Alternatively, you can also try other food types like macarons, chocolate truffles, or pizza!

For more ideas, check out our list of baking and cooking activities here.

20. Holiday Movie Night Party

If you’ve ever missed going out with your peers for a movie with your big popcorn in your hand, you can still have that experience virtually. For your next office party, why not host a movie night with your team. You can send out a survey ahead of time to get suggestions from your groups on what movie to watch. For virtual hosting, you can try Netflix Party, Scener, or Teleparty.

21. Virtual Tours

This one can be a sole activity of your office party or can only be a segment in your virtual event. Since last year, most high-traffic locations such as museums, national parks, and tourist spots now offer virtual tours for those who can’t travel just yet. You can also survey what your teams want to visit and send teasers to get everyone excited.

To Sum Up

Office parties are now seeing new heights following the wide adaptation of remote-based work. It’s a true testament that whatever our work setup maybe, we can find a way to motivate our employees. With these remote party ideas we’ve mentioned, you’re sure on your way to making that great party soon.

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