Do you feel like your team needs a boost in engagement? You are not alone.
According to Gallup, 62% of employees don’t feel engaged at work, with another 15% feeling actively disengaged. If such is the case at your workplace, too, here’s something that can help you: office whiteboards.
Office whiteboards or bulletin boards are more than just a fixture in the workplace. Before the pandemic, they were canvases for brainstorming sessions, hubs for project planning marathons, spaces to announce upcoming events, and so much more. They fostered relationships, helped boost morale, and fueled productivity in the workplace.
While company bulletin boards still play a part in the workspace, a new digital-first alternative has emerged to cater to the needs of today’s remote working generation—digital whiteboards.
Curious to know how to make the best use of bulletin boards? Read on to discover the top office whiteboard ideas for work that can revolutionize the dynamics at your workplace.
14 Office Whiteboard Ideas for Work
Summarize this article for me pleaseUnique and Creative Whiteboard Ideas for Offices
Using creative whiteboard ideas at work boosts team participation and strengthens working relationships, making work more satisfying and productive. From interactive prompts and suggestion boards to intriguing puzzles and mystery boards, let’s explore each creative whiteboard idea in detail.
1. Prompt of the week
This idea is one of the easiest to implement on office bulletin boards. All you need to do is post a thought-provoking prompt each week. Alternatively, assign a different team member to post the prompt each week.
Some examples of prompts include:
- If you could work in a fictional workplace, what would it look like?
- If you were a part of a famous band, which instrument would you play?
Use brainstorming techniques to come up with creative prompts. After posting the prompt, ask your team members to write their replies on the bulletin board. Remember, the more interesting the prompt, the more replies you will get.
Doing this activity every week will help spark conversations in the workplace and even after work hours.
2. Team timelines
Want to build a culture where team members treat each other like friends and appreciate each other’s roles? Creating a team timeline board helps.
A team timeline board captures the significant achievements of your team members, both as a group and as individuals. To create this board, decide on a timeline you want to capture. It could be a month, six months, a year, or even your company’s history since inception.
After deciding on the timeline, draw a line on the board, listing the start and end dates. Now, encourage your team members to add their career milestones, such as dates or pictures of getting hired, completing a big project, closing a deal, etc.
This exercise will allow your team members to celebrate individual and shared wins and develop an appreciation for their journey in the organization.
3. Mystery board
A mystery board adds an element of intrigue to your workplace. At the same time, it helps your team members get to know one another better.
A mystery board works in the same way as a guessing game. You randomly assign a team member to be the creator of the board, either weekly or monthly. The team member compiles and puts up a few fun personal facts on the board. These fun facts could be about likes, dislikes, hobbies, pet preferences, etc. Once the board is ready, the other team members have to guess who the board is about.
Before taking down the board, reveal the answer so other team members can connect the information with the subject.
4. Suggestion board
Setting up a suggestion board is key to improving your workplace.
A suggestion board provides a simple and effective way to collect employee feedback, ideas, and recommendations. It empowers employees to freely share their opinions and suggestions about work and non-work-related stuff.
Some examples of suggestions include adding more healthy snacks in the break room, starting casual dress Fridays, making the work hours more flexible, and so on.
Suggestion boards cultivate openness and transparency at work and allow employees to become a part of their company’s improvement and growth.
5. Pet directory
Did you know that 66% of all US households have at least one pet? On the days that your employees have to come in to work now, having a pet directory board can ease their sense of longing. This board adds a personal touch to your workplace and helps build companionship between your employees.
While sharing pictures of their pets for the pet directory board, encourage your employees to mention the name and age of their pets along with their own names and department positions. Once this board is up, it will get fun and quirky conversations rolling among your company’s pet lovers.
6. Puzzle board
Increase collaboration among your team members by putting up a puzzle board.
Before putting up this board, decide on the puzzle you want to display. Some great examples include crossword puzzles, thought-provoking riddles, and spot-the-difference brain teasers. Switch between puzzles every week to keep things interesting.
Once you’ve decided which puzzle to go with, display a large picture of it on the board. If the puzzle is a crossword, spot-the-difference, or similar game, invite employees to write their answers on the board. However, if the puzzle is a riddle or similar game, encourage them to submit their answers in a box beside it.
Solving puzzles gives your employees a much-needed respite from work and time to bond, improving your workplace’s mood and overall atmosphere.
7. Q&A board
A Q&A board promotes a learning culture where employees can openly discuss, exchange ideas, and share knowledge.
The board allows your employees to publicly post questions they are curious to know the answers to. For example, employees can ask non-time-sensitive questions about work and non-work-related topics and conduct polls to gain insight into a particular subject or an issue.
The Q&A board becomes a go-to resource for your employees at work. That’s why, as a manager or team leader, you should check and ensure that the answers to work-related questions are accurate.
8. Employee maps
Employee maps capture the places employees have been to or want to travel to and are a great way to initiate conversations between team members.
To start this board, post photos of different countries or put up a large map of the world on the whiteboard. Afterward, make a color key for different categories, such as the place:
- Currently living in
- Have lived in
- Traveled to
- Want to visit
Once the color key is ready, ask your employees to fill in these categories. This exercise will help your employees learn about one another’s homes, histories, and travel bucket lists and build connections among them.
9. Office mad libs
Every workplace can use some humor to drive away stress. So, inject some fun and laughter into your workplace with an office mad libs board.
To set up this board, create fill-in-the-blank stories and scenarios. Hide the story and only provide options for the blank spaces. These options could consist of a list of adjectives, nouns, and verbs.
Ask your team members to select and encircle options from each list. Allow them to choose more than one option or mix and match options.
After some days, display the variations of the whole story on the employee bulletin boards. This fun activity will spark laughter, create a positive work atmosphere, and boost team morale.
10. Trivia board
Cultivate a culture of healthy competition and collaboration in your workplace with a trivia board. Display questions or quizzes on this board from various topics, such as art, science, music, sports, etc. Some examples of trivia questions include:
- Which country invented basketball?
- Which singer has won the most Grammys?
- What’s the hardest natural substance on earth?
Divide your employees into teams and encourage them to write their answers on the board or submit them in a box beside it.
After every team submits their answers, reveal the correct answers and give a shoutout or a small prize to the highest-scoring team. Keep changing the trivia questions weekly or monthly so that different teams have a chance to win the game.
11. Values board
This office bulletin board idea is a great way to remind staff of your company’s core values. A values board can be built in many ways. Encourage employees to reflect on, brainstorm, and come up with ways to live by these ideals in your workplace.
Alternatively, list your company’s guiding principles on the board in a visually appealing way. For example, draw a tree on the company bulletin board and show each value as a branch or root. These values could be respect, compassion, gratitude, customer-centricity, etc.
A values board acts as a daily reminder of your company’s beliefs. This board helps employees prioritize your company’s values and reinforces your company culture..
12. Social butterfly board
Do you want to keep everyone informed about the fun stuff at your company without much effort? Build a social butterfly board.
A social butterfly board is an amped-up version of an events board. It provides a visual reminder of all the exciting upcoming company events.
Use it to list company-sponsored events, such as team-building outings, wellness activities, and work anniversaries. Leave some space for employees to add event suggestions or their own events.
A social butterfly board fuels employees’ excitement and enthusiasm and drives participation in company events. At its core, this board ensures no one misses out on the good times and builds a sense of unity among your employees.
13. Mission statement board
Put up a mission statement board to instill a sense of purpose among employees. This board displays the company’s mission statement, vision, and goals.
While setting up this board, place the company mission statement in bold letters at the center. Around it, list your company’s goals and add pictures of company milestones and accomplishments. Use this bulletin board to display success stories that illustrate progress towards organizational goals.
Like the values board, a mission statement board is a constant visual reminder of your company’s overarching purpose and direction. Reinforcing a sense of shared purpose guides decision-making and inspires collective action toward achieving your company’s long-term objectives.
14. Recognition board
A recognition board is one of the best office bulletin board ideas for recognizing and appreciating employees’ hard work and dedicated efforts toward the organization.
To start this board, pick and highlight an employee’s milestones and achievements. Rotate this board weekly so every employee has the opportunity to be recognized for their exceptional performance.
Being featured on the recognition board makes your employees feel valued and respected, which boosts their morale. It improves their job satisfaction and motivates them to work harder. A recognition board eventually improves your company’s bottom line by positively influencing employee performance and productivity.
Summarize this article for me pleaseCreating Digital Whiteboards
With today’s workforce preferring work from home over work from the office, how can you incorporate these wonderful office whiteboard ideas for work in a digital space? The solution is simple.
An all-in-one productivity tool such as ClickUp allows you to bring these traditional whiteboard ideas to life in a digital setup. With ClickUp, you can access a feature-rich whiteboard tool that enables you to innovate and apply creative whiteboard ideas to your workplace.
With the digital Whiteboards in ClickUp, you can avoid the problems that come with physical whiteboards. For instance, digital whiteboards are highly customizable, unlike physical whiteboards, which rely on markers and sticky notes to gain attention. You can tailor everything from background color to the font size of the text to create visually appealing boards that attract employees’ attention in seconds.
What’s more, they are highly accessible. Unlike physical whiteboards limited to an office location, digital whiteboards are accessible from anywhere and enable real-time collaboration from any device.
It’s clear that digital whiteboards outshine physical whiteboards today, so let’s explore how to use the ClickUp digital whiteboards to benefit your workplace.
How to use Whiteboards in ClickUp
ClickUp Whiteboards creates an inclusive workspace for your team and helps them bridge the gap between creativity and execution and manage projects better. Using Whiteboards, your team can:
- Brainstorm and share ideas, make notes, and connect ideas using a simple drag-and-drop interface or through idea boards
- Add stylized and formatted content, such as text, shapes, objects, images, and media files, to the canvas to add context to the ideas
- Turn ideas into actionable tasks or assign existing tasks to your team members from the canvas in seconds with the click of a button
- Collaborate on new projects or works-in-progress and see who’s contributing what to the canvas in real-time
- Communicate and provide feedback quickly by adding comments to ideas on the canvas
In essence, ClickUp Whiteboards help you visualize concepts and project timelines and execute projects in one place.
ClickUp also provides a variety of templates, ranging from brainstorming templates and vision board templates to digital bulletin board templates, to make your work easier.
Some of the top whiteboard templates in ClickUp include:
ClickUp Mood Board Template
The ClickUp Mood Board Template helps capture and convey a creative project’s feeling. As a vital whiteboard tool for creative agencies, this template helps your team curate visuals and ideas under the following categories:
User interface, illustrations, icons, typography, website design, and color palette.
With this template, you can gather inspiration, keep track of the creative process, collaborate with your team on visual brainstorming, and bring project ideas to life.
ClickUp Vision Whiteboard Template
ClickUp Vision Whiteboard Template helps outline a product’s objectives and key results (OKRs). This template allows your team to find the ideal product state by deciding the following categories: vision, target group, needs, product, and value.
With this template, lay out a clear vision and work together towards a common goal easily. Once you have all the ideas listed down, organize them into categories in the Board View and create actionable tasks from them.
Summarize this article for me pleaseUse Digital Whiteboards Creatively at Work with ClickUp
You can use digital bulletin boards creatively at work to improve employee engagement. Posting puzzles, mysteries, recognition, and other interesting boards can help create a sense of fun at work and foster deeper connections. When employees feel connected and engaged, they work harder collectively, taking your company to new heights of success.
We hope you’ll try some of these office whiteboard ideas for work. To maximize the benefits of digital whiteboards, consider using productivity and collaboration tools like ClickUp. ClickUp offers the best whiteboard software and a collection of templates to help your team collaborate easily and move quickly from ideation to action.
To boost productivity and engagement at work, sign up with ClickUp today.
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