4 Ways to Encourage Free Play for Your Employees, Plus Why You Should

Most people don’t think of the workplace as a place to play, unless the employees are professional athletes. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good reasons why employers should encourage their workers to have a little fun.

Play is vital for the healthy cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development of children. It makes them use their imagination, learn to take risks, and become mindful. Turns out that a little goofing off can do the same for grownups.

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Having fun isn’t just for kids. It has an important role in the workforce too. Here are four ways to encourage employee free play and why you should.

1. Free Play Helps Them Let Off Steam

The workplace can be stressful. Deadlines, sales targets, logistics, and profit margins turn up the heat on employees. From time to time, that pressure needs to be released.

Physical activity is a great way to let off steam. If you have space for a gym in the workplace, give employees time to use it. If you don’t have room, offer them gym memberships.

But if you really want them to frolic and laugh, install indoor or outdoor playground equipment. Swings, slides, pull-up bars, ladders, rings, and bikes aren’t just for children. Commercial playground equipment can handle adults as well. And a playground is a more enjoyable distraction than a workout, so more employees may use it.

The relationship between physical exercise and stress relief is well established. It can release all those good endorphins while providing a welcome break from a desk job. So, when employees go back to work, they’ll be in better shape to dive back into the business of the day.

2. Free Play Exercises the Brain

When employees exercise their bodies, they’re also giving their gray matter a workout. But for the less active, there are also exercises that challenge the brain. And they’re easy to bring to the workplace.

Meditation, crosswords, jigsaw puzzles, chess, and Sudoku can all improve focus and memory. Those are two valuable assets for productive and innovative employees. And a spin around the Rubik’s cube can ignite logical thinking as well as creativity, improve motor skills, and relieve stress.

Then, there are video games, which tend to get a bad rap. But research shows that kids who play them more than three hours a day exhibit better cognitive skills. Due to the influx of Gen Z and millennial gamers in the workforce, employers should consider providing time to indulge their passion for gaming.

These types of games rely on logic, and math, visual, word, and memory skills, which all promote cognitive ability. Taking time out for games breaks up a busy and repetitive workday.  And when employees return to the job at hand, they might see problems and solutions in a whole new light.

3. Free Play Builds Better Teams

A little competition can improve job performance. After all, even highly collaborative employees are always striving to do better work than their coworkers. That’s the fuel for raises, promotions, bonuses, and accolades.

Using friendly challenges just might help improve teamwork. Challenges between teams spur collaboration, innovative problem-solving, and involvement. The boost to their morale confidence they get while playing games carries over when they get back to the job at hand.

Team members bring certain strengths and skills to the table. But those they bring to reach a job goal could be much different than those they exhibit during a game. That means other team members will recognize and appreciate them in a different light.

Friendly competition among teams helps build rapport, respect, collegiality, trust, and other attributes that create a stronger, more resilient team. It allows members to get to know one another on a different, more personal level. The team that plays together works better together.

4. Free Play Is the Antidote to Boreout

There’s a lot of talk about employee burnout, which leads to poor performance and high turnover. It is why more and more employers are placing emphasis on supporting employee mental health and well-being. To that end, they offer workers exercise opportunities like yoga and paid mental health days.

But what if the real impetus behind burnout is sheer boredom? “Boreout” is chronic boredom that causes stress, anxiety, insomnia, absences, and churn. Employees need a break from the seemingly endless daily grind, and free play is the way employers can provide it.

Top-performing employees need stimulation. The mental breaks, entertainment factor, and flexing of play skills can provide that. Taking a break to have a little fun instills confidence and gives employees fresh perspectives on old problems when they turn their attention back to work.

If a fast-tracked game of team Monopoly can end monotony, it’s a worthy distraction. It can keep your employees from heading for the door when they just can’t stand the boredom anymore.

Play Is More than OK

Even in the adult working world, all work and no play may make for dull employees. No company can survive for very long if all they’re getting from workers are lackluster performances. Companies may want to try games, competitions, and fun team-building activities to reduce stress, encourage creativity and collaboration, and retain their best and brightest. A little fun might work better all around.