I’ve been hearing a lot of organizations talk about the scavenger hunt lately. Personally, I like scavenger hunts because they can educate while having fun. And with a vast majority of employees having cellphones, you can easily create digital scavenger hunts.
Scavenger hunts are a great option for orientation and onboarding. Instead of showing new hires a bunch of internet pages in a classroom, let them do the searching.
Topics for Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts can be themed around information that employees need to know for their job – company history, products and services, safety (i.e. MSDS, eye wash stations, defibrillators, etc.), and emergency procedures. Employees can do a “selfie” hunt taking pictures with people they will collaborate with in their work.
Another way to plan scavenger hunts is for the teambuilding and camaraderie. I worked for a company where, once a year, the management team went on a scavenger hunt. We themed it around leadership topics or business books.
The 3 Activities in a Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts have three parts – pre-event, event, and post-event.
PRE-EVENT: During this phase, the rules for the scavenger hunt are established and communicated. If the hunt will be done in teams, consider if you’re going to let teams form on their own or you want to assign them. There are pros and cons to each. Decide if you’re going to offer a prize to the winning person/team and what that might be.
Another thing to consider, do you want the teams to do any type of activity prior to the event. We liked to start our scavenger hunts with a quick lunch, so we would ask teams to make the centerpiece for their table. It was an opportunity for the group to work together prior to the hunt and their creativity was fabulous.
EVENT: On the day of the event, you’ll want to remind people of the rules. Again. And if necessary, remind people that safety comes first. Depending on how you structure your hunt, it could involve physical activity. What’s designed to be a fun event can quickly turn sad if someone gets hurt.
If the scavenger hunt is going to be something that individuals do on their own, like during orientation, new hires still need to understand the rules. This is important – how the organization conducts employee play says a lot about them as a company.
POST-EVENT: After the event, participants expect to know how they did and who won. “Winning” can be determined either by who finishes first, who has the most correct responses, or both. You’ll also want to recognize the winners. Don’t cut this part of the event short. It’s equally as important as the learning piece.
For team building events, we would end the scavenger hunt at a local bar or game room. Encourage senior management to show up and mingle with the teams. The group was able to celebrate and the winning team had some bragging rights.
Scavenger hunts are a fun way for employees to learn what might be considered stale material. In my experience, our annual management scavenger hunt was looked forward to – by managers and the senior leadership team. They enjoyed spending time with managers in a casual setting. So, give it a try.
Image captured (get it?) by Sharlyn Lauby at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, FL
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parker davis says
Like “engagement” another well meaning attempt to convince employees that work is just fun and games like kindergarten. Scavenger hunts are very popular among those consultants who change money for “facilitating” scavenger hunts. The real key is what is the change in behavior or the retained learning or the increase in performance. If these are the outcomes, then great, but scavenger hunts, trust falls, hot coal walking, while producing laughs, doesn’t produce results. Doing orientation doesn’t have to be boring, but turning it into a game doesn’t do it either. The Yahoos and Googles and other techie ventures have come to the realization that the ping pong tables, free booze, working in yoga pants, meditation rooms are “neat”, but don’t improve or even assist productivity, no matter how you measure it. Additionally this sets the wrong expectations of what the organization is all about. Recognizing the winners of a scavenger hunt sets the wrong expectation of what performance is all about.
Well planned activities such as a scavenger hunt have their purpose as a break or reward for a work team, just like a picnic, a golf outing, a trip to a concert, etc.
SEAN GLAZE says
Sharlyn –
Terrific article on planning for and leading a fun scavenger hunt activity! When I facilitated “hunts,” the composition of teams was an important part of the event, as it gave leaders a chance to pair or group together people who needed to build more of a relationship and connection.
The key, as Parker mentions above, is what is the “outcome” you desire. If it is simply a fun bonding activity, or to collect and emphasize information they are collecting, this may fit… If there are other more relevant and actionable insights that your people need to be more effective or aware as teammates, though, a more interactive facilitated event may be better…
Chris Minar says
I read your original post around digitizing a scavenger hunt and while Instagram is a free approach, there are other tools in the market that are low cost and easy to use. There is a startup named Scavify that is really leading the way with scavenger hunts. While their product is broader than onboarding, it really is an excellent tool and I would recommend getting a free demo from them.
Kim Barker says
I’ve used digital scavenger hunts with my teams over the past few years with great success. I love to use Scavr – it’s an app, easy to use and easy to monitor the teams as they earn points.
Sharlyn Lauby says
Thanks for the suggestions about Scavr and Scavify. I’m going to check them out!