Febraury

American Heart Month

  1. Conduct free blood pressure checks for your employees.  Alternatively, charge employees a dollar for the blood pressure check.  In addition to the blood pressure check, give them a heart-shaped slip of paper to be entered into a prize drawing for a free heart rate monitor.  Donate all money to the American Heart Association.
  2. Give employees paper hearts.  Every time somebody does something nice for them, ask them to put the do-gooder’s name on the heart along with what they did.  Donate money to the American Heart Association for each good act that was recorded in the month of February.  Or, give a prize to the employee who had their name mentioned on the most hearts.

The Grammy Awards

Organize a Karaoke Grammy Awards team-building competition.  Place employees on different teams and allow them to choose a song to perform.  The only trick is, they can’t perform the traditional words to their chosen song.  Instead, they must rewrite the words to reflect a company theme.  Give employees approximately one hour to write and practice their song.   You can also give teams a themed set of costumes.  Or, give teams a little more time and get them to create their own costumes out of a variety of materials such as fabric, sequins, hats, wigs, etc.  When teams’ preparation time is up, have them take to the stage one at a time to perform their song.  Give awards out to teams afterwards in categories such as “Best Hip Hop Moves,” “Best Songwriters” and “Best Vocal Group.”

Valentines Day

  1. Send a Valentine’s Day card to all of your employees to tell them how much you love and appreciate them. Include a coupon in the card for a token of your appreciation such as a free coffee at a local café, free chocolate at a candy store, etc.
  2. Fill a heart-shaped box with candy message hearts. Invite employees to help themselves.  Ask them to show you the heart they chose.  If they chose the candy message heart that has the secret phrase of the day written on it, they win a small prize.

NBA All-Star Weekend

  1. Write up a small profile about each of your employees, highlighting what makes them one of your All-Stars. Place the profile and a picture of each employee up on an All-Star display board.  Ask customers to vote for their favorite All-Star on your team on basketball-shaped ballots.  If you live in a town where there’s an NBA team, award free tickets to the employee who gets the most votes.  Or, enter each employee’s name in a prize drawing for the tickets each time they receive a vote from a customer.
  2. In honor of NBA All-Star Weekend invite all of your employees to wear their favorite NBA T-shirt to your establishment.  Put all of the names of the NBA teams in a bowl.  Throughout the day, draw a team out of the bowl.  Give a small prize to everyone who is wearing the drawn team’s jersey.  Or, invite everyone who is wearing that team’s jersey to compete in an NBA-themed game to win a better prize.  Games you could play include:
  • Set up a basketball hoop and have participants take turns sinking baskets.  The person who makes the most shots, wins.
  • Play H-O-R-S-E.
  • See who can balance a basketball on their head for the longest amount of time.
  • The person who throws a basket from the furthest point, wins.
  • Who can dribble the ball with their non-dominant hand for the longest, wins.

Mardi Gras

  1. Pancakes are the traditional meal served on Mardi Gras. So, host a pancake luncheon where employees can make their own crepes and stuff them with a variety of fillings.
  2. Hire a marching band to parade through your office today. Have those marching in the parade throw beads to employees as they pass by.  After the parade, have the employees check a Mardi Gras Board to see what, if anything, they won.  Prizes are based on the color of the beads they caught.  For instance, blue beads may be good for a free cup of coffee at a local café, while pink beads may be good for a T-shirt with the company’s logo.  If it is not possible to have a parade disturb your workplace, simply have employees draw out a string of beads as they enter work.
  3. For a great Mardi Gras team-building event, place employees on teams and have each team build a Mardi Gras parade float. Give each team a wagon, or rolling platform, to use as the base of the parade float.  Then, have each team visit a supply depot to choose the items they want to use to make their parade float.  Items in the supply depot could include cardboard, poster board, tissue paper, ribbons, colored paper plates, foil, colored saran wrap, markers, tape, etc.  When teams have completed their parade floats, have teams parade them around your office, or community.  Award prizes for the best floats.

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