The key to putting on a great corporate scavenger hunt is coming up with interesting challenges that align with your goals. Are you trying to help your team get to know one another or have they already been working together for years? Are you hoping to build problem solving skills or do you simply want to reward your team for their hard work? Whatever your goals, the right scavenger hunt can meet them. This guide will show you how to create innovative and adaptable challenges fit for every scenario.
1) Take Advantage Of Technology
Most people today have smartphones with inbuilt cameras and microphones. Use them. Video, photo and sound challenges are a great way to mix things up, and anyone who doesn't have a smartphone can team up with those who do. Below are some examples of challenges that involve technology:
Video:
- Recreate a famous film/TV scene. (You can either choose a particular scene or let the teams pick one for themselves).
- Recreate a viral video.
- Improvise a news/weather report. (This could be on the local area, the company, or something completely different).
- Create the most dramatic entrance/exit scene you can think of.
- Create the video that's most amazing when played in reverse.
- Take a video of the most impressive trick shot.
Photo:
- Recreate your baby photos.
- Recreate a famous album cover.
- Recreate the boss' yearbook photo.
- Take the best motivational poster style shot.
- Create the wackiest panorama scene.
- Take a picture in which all team members are hidden in plain sight. A point for each person the other teams can't find.
- Take a picture of the whole team squeezed into the tightest space possible.
- Take the most impressive photo of the whole team hovering above the ground.
Sound:
- Record audio clips where you sound like each other. A point for each person the other teams misidentify.
- Record audio clips of your team making animal noises, BUT try not to sound like yourselves. A point for each team that fails to identify you as the team making noises.
- Add funny commentary to a silent video. (For this one, you'll either need to prep a video in advance or get the teams to make videos for each other).
- Record the strangest noise.
2) Make The Most Of Your Environment
Whether you decide to host your team day in the city, at a park, in the office, or between all three, be sure to make the most of the unique opportunities afforded by each setting. Below are some examples of challenges that have been tailormade for each environment.
Cities
Take a picture of your team:
- Next to famous landmarks. (This can be complimented with a list of landmarks to tick off).
- On the street with the silliest name.
- In front of the strangest building.
- Outside the best-named pub.
The Park
Take a picture of your team:
- With the weirdest tree.
- In front of a natural feature that looks like something else.
- In the most scenic place.
The Office
- Take a picture of the lobby BUT how it normally is. (This one takes some explaining. You'll need to take a picture of the lobby as it should be and then move things into different places. The teams then take it in turns to try to put it back how it was, take a picture of their own and then mess it up again for the next team. Points for whoever's photo most closely resembles the one you took at the beginning. The challenge can also be done in the kitchen, the meeting room or any other familiar space).
- Take a picture of your team dressed as the boss/management/another team.
- Guess how your colleagues posed. (Have each team pose with their choice of props, then ask them to recreate each other's pictures without seeing them. See if they can guess who picked what prop and how they posed.)
3) Use Physical Objects
Photos, videos and recordings are great, but don't forget to use physical objects too. Some of the best scavenger hunt challenges still revolve around people gathering things from the world around them and using them in silly and surprising ways. Here are some great challenge ideas involving physical objects:
- Make the tallest tower out of paperclips.
- Create a national flag out of food.
- Create a team portrait out of whatever you can find!
- Bring back the smallest heavy thing.
- Hide the largest thing on your person.
- Bring back the item that makes the most pleasant noise when knocked against a door.
- Find the most unlikely but convincing fake moustache.
- Bring back an item for a mystery challenge at the end of the hunt. (The challenge could be one of the above or something completely different (like who can throw their item the furthest or make the best song about their item), the important thing is that only you know what the challenge is.)
4) Add In Secret Challenges
Giving each team secret challenges (i.e. challenges that are unique only to them but involve catching out other teams) is a great way of encouraging interaction between groups. And it can be really fun, too! Examples include:
- Trick someone in another team into joining you in an impromptu sing-song.
- Get someone in another team to correct you.
- Get someone in another team to take a picture with you.
- Trick someone in another team into googling a made-up place.
5) Consider Using All 5 Senses
Most scavenger hunts restrict themselves to the visual, but there is plenty of fun to be had with the other four senses, too. There are already some sound-based ideas above, but here are a couple of suggestions of how to get taste, texture and smell involved:
- Find the strangest ingredient that goes well with cheese. (These can be ranked by the teams at the end of the game with points given for both outlandishness and taste.)
- Bring back the item with the most surprisingly pleasant smell.
- Find the item that will feel the least cold after 10 minutes in the freezer.
6) Seek Inspiration From Your Favourite Game shows
A great place to look for further challenge ideas is game shows. These often feature challenges that can easily be adapted and used for corporate scavenger hunts. For example, the Channel 4 show Taskmaster involved a task that asked contestants to make something spin for as long as possible. This is perfect for a physical object challenge. Teams could either video themselves spinning something they've found, or bring an item back for a decisive spin-off at the end of the hunt.
7) When In Doubt, Try Different Superlatives
Need more ideas? One thing you can try when creating challenges is thinking of different superlatives. If you've already done the most dramatic entrance, then why not try the funniest entrance? Or the weirdest? Or the scariest? If you've done the best motivational poster, then why not try the worst? Playing around with words can provide you with a host of great new ideas for your corporate scavenger hunt.
8) Play All Day If You Want To
Don't feel you have to restrict your scavenger hunt to certain time restraints, many of these challenges are at their best when done alongside other activities. Pub stops, walks, games, run your hunt all day if you like, then tot up the points at the end to see how everyone got on.
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