How does a Game Room Boost Employee Engagement 

Long gone are the days when we couldn’t imagine having a game room in an office space. It’s now a very common feature and there are several good reasons for using part of office space for fun. All major and forward-thinking companies now have game rooms in their office space and the results of this introduction completely justify their introduction. While it may sound illogical to invest in something that doesn’t contribute directly to productivity, many studies and years of experience have proven that game rooms indeed have a positive effect on productivity, as well as some other aspects of employment. If you’re having doubts about the benefits of converting an office into a game room, we recommend you read the following text, which provides reasons why you definitely need to do that reward employees for hard work.

Teambuilding

Every company wants to bring its employees together and build the spirit of unity and togetherness. This task can be quite challenging, especially when there are a lot of employees who don’t normally socialize or interact in any way. By bringing people into the same room to interact, get to know each other and relieve stress at the same time has proven to be extremely beneficial. Also, the boost their morale will get is priceless, since a team’s energy and engagement outside of formal meetings are the most accurate predictors of productivity. Finally, the better people know each other, the better they communicate, which can only reflect positively on their productivity.

Health reasons

With so many projects, deadlines and targets, employees are bound to feel constantly stressed. This, in turn, has adverse effects on their health, which is why taking regular breaks is of utmost importance. If those breaks create an opportunity for people to be physically active and take their mind off work for a while, they’ll be able to replenish their energy levels much faster. A game room is all about helping people stay healthy, especially when it comes to their mental health. To make the effects even better, forward-thinking companies opt for vending machines that provide healthy snacks and drinks to employees in game rooms, which is another incentive for employees to use the rooms. The offer includes fruit, nuts and refreshing gamer drink. Apart from helping people stay healthy, such a set-up can inspire some employees to change their unhealthy dietary habits at home.

Boosting competitiveness

It’s safe to assume that not all employees are interested in arcade gamer snacks, for example. However, that doesn’t mean they should be excluded from your game room. Instead, make sure you get various boardgames or introduce a ping-pong table. The idea is to have a selection of various games and activities that cater to everyone’s taste. Ideally, you would want your employees to engage more in games that require your employees to get up and move, such as ping-pong, foosball, billiards, and golf simulators. If you organize a tournament occasionally, you’ll notice that the competitive spirit will raise as a consequence, while the atmosphere will be extremely positive. All this will have a backwash effect on productivity and engagement.

Other reasons

There are other important reasons why having a game room is a great idea and why the benefit it provides have positive impact on your company. Let’s start by mentioning that the quality of workplace is improved, which reduces absenteeism significantly. Next, it’s been confirmed that staff turnover is lower in a company that provides better working conditions than its competitors, because office perks increase loyalty by boosting satisfaction.

Some benefits have been proven and quantified, but some are hard to measure, although their presence is undeniable. For example, people who have a chance to unwind at work are less stressed and we know how stress can have adverse effects on both health and productivity, because it leads to diminished mental vigor and emotional imbalance. In connection with these unmeasurable benefits is something that is very easily quantified – the health care cost. If your employees are physically and mentally healthy, your absenteeism is lower and so are their health care costs. This is a win-win situation and one of the factors leading to it is definitely the existence of a game room.

Conclusion

If you still feel that having a game room would be more of a distraction than something that creates benefit and improves employee engagement, we urge you to think twice. After all, you can always turn a game room back into an office if you are not satisfied with the impact it has had. However, if the past is anything to go by, you’ll probably be amazed how beneficial a game room is. After all, we wouldn’t have all those successful companies which have introduced similar places for their workers. Their employees have an opportunity to relax and have fun at their workplace and that’s making them more productive, satisfied and healthy. Do you really need more reasons?

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