15 Halloween Team Building Activities for the Workplace

With the spookiest day of the year right around the corner, now’s the time to start looking for Halloween team building activities for the workplace. We’ve compiled a list of virtual and in-person Halloween team building games your colleagues will love. 

Updated on September 29, 2021

With October quickly approaching, Halloween team building activities for the workplace are another great chance to unwind, celebrate the season, and have some the fun with your team. 

Whether your team is working remotely or in the office, here are 15 fun and engaging ideas for how to celebrate the spookiest day of the year together. 

8 Virtual Halloween Team Building Games for Remote Teams 

For many teams, getting together in person simply isn’t a possibility. But that doesn’t have to stop you from having some Halloween fun together.  

Here are eight virtual Halloween team building activities that your team will love. 

1. Virtual Jeoparty Social: Scary Edition

If your remote team is eager to socialize, have some fun as a group, and channel their competitive spirit while celebrating the spookiest season of the year, we’ve got just the thing for you!

With Virtual Jeoparty Social: Scary Edition, your team will get to step into their very own virtual Jeopardy-style game show—equipped with a buzzer button, a professional actor as your host, and an immersive Halloween-themed game show platform! Best of all, this game has been infused with an ultra-social (and spooky) twist.

In this activity, your group will break out into teams and compete through multiple rounds of virtual Halloween-themed trivia questions inspired by Jeopardy, winning (or losing!) points for each. And, for some added all-inclusive interaction, players will take part in a unique social mixer challenge between each round.

So, get ready to test your trivia knowledge, hit that buzzer button as fast as you can, help your team win as many points as possible before time runs out, and share some laughs (and scares) between rounds —and then wager a little or a lot in a round of Final Jeoparty to top it all off.

2. Virtual Halloween Howler

Get ready to visit some of the scariest places imaginable, including a creepy castle, a graveyard at midnight, a haunted house, and… a gameshow set. With Virtual Halloween Howler, you and your colleagues will need to put on your bravest faces as you compete through four rounds of terrifying trivia challenges.

3. Video Pumpkin Carving 

Don’t let physical distance keep you and your team from getting into the Halloween spirit with a classic activity: carving pumpkins. Consider supplying your employees with a few dollars each to go out and buy a pumpkin. Then, you can all hop on a video conferencing platform to chat, socialize, play virtual Zoom games, and carve pumpkins together.  

If you want to make things even more interesting, you can transform this into a contest where employees vote on their favorite pumpkins. You can even give out a spooky prize for the winner.  

4. Virtual Clue Murder Mystery 

Nothing screams “Halloween” like a murder mystery. And in the virtual version of our Clue Murder Mystery activity, your team will need to solve the murder of a man named Neil Davidson by figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime. If you really want to get in the Halloween spirit, you and your team can even get Halloween costumes and dress up as detectives! 

5. Virtual Halloween Happy Hour 

You can’t go wrong with a virtual happy hour. And for Halloween, we recommend tasking your team with creating the best costume they can possibly think of and turning this happy hour into a costume contest. 

And if you or your team are looking for some delicious inspiration, check out this comprehensive list of Halloween-inspired cocktails from Delish. Some of the highlights include: 

• Boozy Screamsicle Shakes – Ice cream? Good. Vanilla vodka? Good. Boozy, spooky, creamsicle-inspired cocktails? Very, very good.  
  
  
• Jekyll & Gin – This twist on a Gin Daisy looks coral-colored in the daylight and glows white under a black light.  
  
  
• Black Magic Margaritas – Give that classic margarita an eerie upgrade with some black sanding sugar and some dark-colored food coloring.  

Just remember, if you’re having drinks, do so responsibly and always ensure everyone has a safe way to get home. 

6. Virtual Scream Pursuit

We hope your team isn’t afraid of a challenge! With this eerie Halloween-themed team building activity, they’ll test their nerves and their wits as they work through a series of mental, physical, skill, and mystery challenges, earning points for each completed correctly—all while having some fun, sharing some laughs, and celebrating the spookiest season of the year.

7. Halloween Virtual Trivia Games

Hop on Zoom for some Halloween virtual trivia games with your team. If you’re looking for the best way to do this, this article from Medium offers in-depth, step-by-step instructions, which include: 

• Pick a moderator because it’s easier to have one person coordinating all the details  
• Choose your tools, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams 
• Select your questions, including: 
• Which country did Jack-o-Lanterns originally belong to? 
• How many pounds of candy corn are produced annually? 
• Who was the first actor to play Wolfman?  
• For more, you might want to check out this list of 100+ Halloween trivia questions  
• Break the group into teams 
• Have each team create their own private video conference 
• Set the ground rules, such as not using Google, only one answer per team, and the amount of time that teams will have to discuss before submitting their response 
• Tally the scores and announce the winner 

The amount of time you’ll want to dedicate to this will depend on how many questions you have. We’d recommend allocating a minimum of one hour for 25 to 30 questions.  

8. Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse

Your remote team has been transported into a pyramid cursed by a restless mummy. Now you must uncover the secrets of Ancient Egypt in order to lift the mummy’s curse and return before the portal closes forever.

Your team’s problem-solving, collaboration, and communication skills will be put to the test, as they race against the clock (and their peers) to solve the mummy’s complex clues and puzzles.

Does your team have what it takes to lift this ancient curse, once and for all?

8 In-Person Halloween Team Building Activities for the Workplace 

If your team works in the office together, or if you’re able to get together in-person, then you’ve got a ton of great Halloween team building activity ideas available to you. 

Here are eight Halloween team building activities.  

1. Hollywood Murder Mystery

The case is fresh, but here’s what we know so far: we’ve got an up-and-coming actress who’s been found dead in her hotel room following last night’s awards show.

We have several suspects, but we haven’t been able to put the crime on any of them for sure yet. Now, it’s up to you and your team of detectives to crack the case. Together, you’ll review case files and evidence including police reports, coroners’ reports, photo evidence, tabloids, interrogations, and phone calls as you determine the motive, method, and murderer and bring justice for the victim.

You’ll need to put your problem-solving skills to the test as you share theories, collaborate, and think outside the box with your fellow investigators.

2. Haunted House Visits 

If you and your team are feeling brave, there aren’t many activities more fun than visiting a spooky haunted house! Your group can share a few screams, a lot of laughs, and a great time by testing your nerves together. If you’re looking for the spookiest haunted houses out there, check out this list from Thrillist of the best ones in all 50 states. 

3. CI: The Crime Investigators 

With this team building activity, you and your group will need to put your detective hats on to solve a deadly crime by gathering evidence, analyzing clues, and cracking the case before time runs out. But it won’t be easy! You’ll need to think creatively and work collaboratively in order to identify the perpetrator. 

4. Decorate Your Office and Desks

As individual departments or as a full team, get together to decorate your office in classic Halloween fashion. We’d recommend setting a budget per department and sending your team out in small groups to go buy decorations.  

If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out these awesome ideas from Homedit. 

You can also encourage individual employees to decorate their desks and do a tour of the office to check out how everyone did it.  

5. Clue Murder Mystery

You’ve probably never heard of Neil Davidson, but in this mysterious team building activity, you and your team will need to work together to analyze clues, review case files, and determine who had the means and the motive to commit a deadly crime.  

6. The Mummy Wrap 

Want to have a laugh with your team? Play this game you probably haven’t thought about since elementary school!  

Break out into teams and elect one person from each team to be transformed into a mummy – by being wrapped from head to toe in toilet paper. The first team that can successfully wrap the mummy wins.  

You can also add an extra element of challenge by having your team customize their mummy costumes in a way that fits your brand or company theme.  

7. Halloween Potluck 

You can’t go wrong with a good potluck. We recommend that you set a modest budget for each member of your team to purchase groceries and let them get creative with their recipes.  

If you’re looking for inspiration, check out this massive list of 72 Halloween potluck recipe ideas from Taste of Home. It includes things like:  

• So-Easy-It’s-Spooky Bat Cake – Made with a boxed cake mix, this can easily be transformed into a Halloween-themed cake by creating a bat silhouette using cocoa.  
  
  
• Witches’ Fingers – These sweet-and-salty treats are delicious and easy to make. 
  
   
• Roasted Pumpkin Nachos – Using delicious fresh fall ingredients, you can make nachos and replace corn with roasted pumpkin or butternut squash for a tasty Halloween treat.  
  
  
• Mad Scientist Punch – Using kitchen staples like juice concentrate, soft drink mix, soda, and sherbet, you can make this delicious beverage in a boozy or non-boozy version.  
  
  
• Halloween Party Cutout Cookies – What’s better than sugar cookies? Using an easy recipe and a few colors of icing, you can bake fun and tasty Halloween cookies your colleagues will love.  

As October 31^st approaches, it’s a great opportunity to start thinking about fun and engaging Halloween team building activities for the workplace. Your colleagues will thank you for it!

Do you have any other Halloween team building ideas that we might’ve missed? If so, let us know what they are in the comments section below!  

Learn More About Virtual and In-Person Halloween Team Building Activities for the Workplace     

For more information about how your team can celebrate Halloween with a fun team building activity, reach out to our Employee Engagement Consultants.