Five hunts, ready to print

Team building scavenger hunt ideas for the office and remote teams

A team building scavenger hunt is a timed race in which small teams complete a list of finds, photos, and challenges for points, which pushes coworkers who don't usually work together to plan, split up, and improvise. In an office it works when four things are decided in advance: teams of four to six, a hard time limit of 45 to 60 minutes, a point value on every item, and one judge whose ruling is final. Get those right and the list almost writes itself. Below are five hunts you can print and run (the office classic, the photo hunt, the people hunt, the company history hunt, and a remote version), plus the scoring rules and the fixes for what usually goes wrong.

How a work scavenger hunt runs

The list is the easy part. These six decisions are what separate a great hour from a building full of lost teams and one very unhappy facilities manager.

• Teams of four to six, assigned. Fewer than four and nobody can split up; more than six and two people hold the phone while the rest watch. Assign teams across departments. Self-picked teams are just lunch groups with a checklist.
• A hard time limit. 45 to 60 minutes for an office hunt. Set a return time and take a point off for every minute a team is late. Without a penalty, the last team wanders back long after everyone else has finished.
• Points on everything. Easy finds are worth 1, harder ones 3, ridiculous ones 5. Make the list too long to finish. Choosing which items to skip is where the strategy, and the arguing, happens.
• Proof by photo or video. Each team posts to its own thread in a shared chat channel or photo album. The judge can score as submissions arrive, and you end up with an album worth sharing.
• Clear boundaries. Which floors are in play, which rooms are off-limits (anything with a meeting in progress, anywhere clients sit), and whether anyone may leave the building. Tell the people who aren't playing that a hunt is happening.
• One judge. Ideally someone who isn't playing and has a sense of humor. Disputes go to the judge, and the ruling is final. This rule alone prevents most of the post-game grievances.

Hunt 1: the office classic

Time: 45 min · Prep: 15 min · Works for: 8–60 people in one building

The default hunt: things to find, things to prove, and a few things to make. It needs nothing but this list and one phone per team.

• A stapler, a sticky note in a color nobody seems to use, and a takeout menu (1 point each)
• A team photo with the fire extinguisher nearest the kitchen (1)
• The exact number of steps from the main entrance to the coffee machine, counted on video (3)
• The oldest piece of technology in the office that is still plugged in (3)
• A team photo with someone from a department none of you work in (3)
• A whiteboard drawing of an official team mascot, invented on the spot and given a name (3)
• The item in the office that has been "temporary" the longest, with evidence of how long (5)
• A 15-second video of the team performing the company name as a jingle (5)
• A tower of at least 20 office supplies that stands on its own for ten seconds (5)
• Something every team member has in common that has nothing to do with work, explained on camera (5)

Honest drawback: it's noisy. Warn the floor in advance, and keep the loudest items well away from anyone on a call.

Hunt 2: the photo hunt

Time: 30–45 min · Prep: 10 min · Works for: 8–100 people, anywhere with phones

Every item is a photo or a short video, judged on creativity as well as completion. This is the hunt that produces the album people keep sharing for months.

• Recreate a famous painting or album cover using only office supplies (5)
• A team photo in which nobody's face is visible but everyone is identifiable (3)
• The photo most likely to be sold as a stock image titled "Synergy" (3)
• A forced-perspective shot of one teammate holding up the building (3)
• The company logo rebuilt from objects found on desks (5)
• The most dramatic photo of a coffee mug ever taken (1)
• A slow-motion video of a team high five (1)
• A movie poster for a film about your team, with title and tagline, drawn on a whiteboard (5)
• Something that exactly matches the color of one teammate's shirt (1)
• The team walking away from an explosion, with no actual explosion (3)

Honest drawback: scoring creativity is subjective. Announce up front that the judge is the sole authority on taste, and let the complaints become part of the fun.

Hunt 3: the people hunt

Time: 30 min · Prep: 20 min · Works for: 15–150 people, new teams and mixed groups

Instead of objects, teams hunt for people. It's the best version for groups that don't know each other yet, because the only way to score is to start conversations. Each person can be claimed by only one team per item, which forces teams to spread out across the floor.

• Someone who has worked here longer than anyone on your team (3)
• Someone who speaks three or more languages (3)
• Someone born in the same month as one of your teammates (1)
• Someone who can name the first product or service the company ever sold (3)
• Someone with a pet that has a human name (1)
• Someone who has worked a job in food service (1)
• Someone who has never been to the top floor of the building (3)
• Someone who will teach your team a skill in 60 seconds, on video (5)
• Someone from a department you couldn't explain until today, explaining it in one sentence (5)

Keep every item to things people would happily share over a work lunch: nothing about health, family plans, money, or anything else someone might not want to say out loud. Honest drawback: it can feel like an ambush to very quiet colleagues. Tell everyone the hunt is happening, and make "not today, thanks" an easy answer.

Hunt 4: the company history hunt

Time: 45–60 min · Prep: 2–3 hours · Works for: 10–80 people, anniversaries and onboarding

The organizer hides or marks clues around the office, each tied to a piece of company history, and teams answer questions by finding them. It suits anniversaries, kickoffs, and orienting a new batch of hires who haven't learned where anything is yet.

• The year the company was founded, found written somewhere in the building (1)
• The name of the company's first customer or first location (3)
• The oldest framed photo in the office, and who is in it (3)
• An object representing each of the company's last five years, hidden by the organizer (3 each)
• A current employee who was there for a big milestone, telling the story on video (5)
• A final riddle whose answer combines facts gathered from three different departments (5)

That last item is the clever one: it only works if teams actually go and talk to other departments, which is usually the point of the whole exercise. Honest drawback: this is the only hunt on the page that needs real prep. Plan a few hours for clue-writing, and walk the route yourself before the day.

Hunt 5: the remote version

Time: 20–30 min · Prep: 10 min · Works for: 5–40 people on a video call

Remote hunts run as a series of sprints. The host calls out an item, everyone has 60 seconds to find it at home and hold it up to the camera, and the host awards points on the spot. Play as individuals, or as teams in breakout rooms with pooled points.

• Something older than you are
• A mug with a story behind it
• Something from a country you've visited
• The strangest kitchen utensil you own
• A book you'd recommend to anyone on the call
• Something in your favorite color
• The most useless thing in your junk drawer
• An object that best represents your job, explained in one sentence

Give a point for every item shown in time and a bonus point for the best story, the host's call. Honest drawback: it runs out of steam after about eight items, and people in small apartments or shared spaces are at a disadvantage. Keep it short, and for more formats designed for video calls, see games to play on Zoom with coworkers.

Scoring and judging without arguments

Use the 1/3/5 tiers above and publish the point values with the list so teams can plan their route. Add a creativity bonus the judge can award, capped at 3 points per item, so a brilliant photo can beat a merely complete one without wrecking the scale. Take a point off per minute late. Score submissions as they arrive rather than all at the end: a judge facing 200 photos at once is how a 45-minute hunt turns into a two-hour event.

Decide the tiebreaker before you start. The cleanest one is a single question for the tied teams, first correct answer wins. It takes thirty seconds and nobody can argue with it.

What goes wrong, and the fix

• One person does everything. Require every team member to appear in at least three of the team's photos.
• Coworkers who aren't playing get annoyed. Warn them in advance, mark off-limits areas, and cut any item that involves interrupting someone at their desk.
• Someone can't do the physical items. Every list should include plenty of items that can be done from a chair, and roles that don't involve running: navigator, photographer, chief negotiator with the judge.
• Bad weather or a half-empty office. Keep the remote list ready as the backup plan. It works in a conference room too.
• The hunt runs long. This is nearly always a judging problem. Score live, announce a five-minute warning, and enforce the late penalty without exceptions.
• It works for 30 but not for 200. Past roughly 60 people the building gets crowded and judging slows to a crawl. Split into waves, run the photo hunt (which scales best), or pick a format built for a big room from our list of team building activities for large groups.

The wrap-up

The fifteen minutes after the hunt are when it turns into a shared story. Put the best photos on the big screen, let each team present its favorite, and hand out awards beyond first place: best photo, most creative excuse, most points lost to lateness. Then announce the winner.

The judge usually needs ten minutes to finish scoring, which is a good slot for a quick game that keeps everyone in the room. A few rounds of trivia fill it and double as the tiebreaker if two teams finish level. Think Fast runs live typed-answer trivia on everyone's phone, joined by QR code with nothing to install, and it's free for up to 8 players. And if you're still deciding whether a hunt is the right format for your group at all, our comparison of trivia vs escape room vs scavenger hunt lays out the tradeoffs.

FAQ

By the Think Fast team · Published October 6, 2026 · Updated October 6, 2026