Rock ‘Bring Your Kids To Work’ Day With These Tips

You likely have at least a few parents on your staff. When your office participates in Bring Your Kids To Work day on April 26th, 2018, you can honor a big part of their lives – parenthood.

It’s an opportunity for moms and dads to show their kids what they do every day and what life as a grown up is like. By coming into work, kids gain a lot of perspective on their parents and life and many employees find the experience to be valuable and rewarding. This day will mean a lot to the parents who work for your company, so we’ve put together some ways that your workplace can rock ‘bring your kids to work’ day.

Understand Who’s Kids Are Coming In

It’s easy to assume that your employees have elementary school children, but some of them may have older children (or younger children) that you need to account for. You want to make sure that all kids feel welcome and have fun. Send out a survey to your employees before Bring Your Kids To Work day to get a clear idea of how many kids will be coming in, and to make sure that you are able to provide some age-related activities/programming.

Have Activities And A Designated Area

You can still have a productive work day on Bring Your Kids To Work day and not interfere with your company’s day-to-day productivity. By having a few quiet or low-volume activities that the children and teenagers in your office can engage with and a designated area (a conference room, perhaps) for them to hang out and enjoy the activities when their mom or dad needs to go to a meeting or take a call, you’ll minimize the distractions that the day might otherwise entail.

Cater A Kid-Friendly Lunch

Treat your office to a kid-friendly lunch on Bring Your Kids To Work day.

⚠ Pro tip: make sure that you are aware of any allergies that the kids might have, and consider having parents sign a waiver when they arrive for the day to state any allergies just to be on the safe side.

Consider serving an easy-to-please lunch menu with items like:

• Chicken nuggets (Chick Fil A catering could be a slam dunk!)
• Sandwiches from a local deli with snacks on the side
• Pizza… because what kid doesn’t love pizza?!
• Grill out if the weather is nice and invite all employees to come to lunch and get to know their teammate’s kids.

Play Movies In The Conference Room

Movies are a great way to calm kids down and get them excited about Bring Your Kids To Work day. Serve up some popcorn or nachos (watch allergies!) and show a fun animated (age appropriate!) movie such as the new release Boss Baby for a thematically-related title. The only downside is that the kids might go home thinking that their parents watch movies in the conference room all day.

Have Competitions & Awards

Introduce a little friendly competition to your Bring Your Kids To Work day. Go to your local trophy store to get plaques or trophies created for various competitions. Host these competitions throughout the day, and have an awards ceremony at the end of the day based on votes cast.

Here are a few competition ideas:

• Costume Contest: Create a theme for Bring Your Kids To Work day. Have other employees and children vote on the costume duo they liked the most. The theme could be related to your company’s business or another theme that opens the door for creativity like famous people in history, movie characters, etc.
• Marketing Contest: Print coloring sheets with something related to your business – your logo, products, office, etc. and let the kids color them in. Offer prizes for best technique, most creative, best use of color, etc.
• Engineering Contest: Use office supplies like those omnipresent printer paper boxes, rubber bands, paper clips, and construction paper to design a new office for your company. Encourage imagination and creativity! Adjust the materials to your age groups.
• Shark Tank: If you have older kids in attendance, think about hosting an inventors’ contest where you provide a prompt like, “Come up with a new invention that will help you do your chores better,” or “Start a new business and tell us what that will look like and who your customers will be.”

Host A Company Tour

Another activity that you can plan is a tour of your office for the kids. For each department, pick a representative that can explain what the department does as the kids pass each department.

If you have older kids on the tour, you can get even more in-depth on company tours. You should be able to get them involved in the work that you do while on a company tour. They may pick a department they want to shadow for a few hours to understand precisely what they do and to help out with tasks like sorting, stuffing envelopes, organizing, etc.

Go On A Field Trip

End the day a few hours early and surprise the kids with a pre-planned field trip. Make sure parents know ahead of time so they can manage their calendars accordingly an so they aren’t caught off-guard. If you have a kid-friendly museum, mini golf, amusement park or baseball stadium nearby, pre-purchase tickets and hand them out as the day wraps up.

Create Goodie Bags For Kids (And Parents)

Lastly, help your guests remember their fun day with their parents at work with a goodie bag or a gift that they’ll hold onto.

Consider something like a company-branded tee shirt that you can give (in both parents and kids sizes) or a custom-printed water bottle that kids can take to school or camp. But don’t just add your company’s logo… create some artwork and include this year to commemorate the day. You may also consider sending the kids home with a gift like a STEM-related activity kit or something else that ties into the nature of your company as a thoughtful thank you.

Bring Your Kids To Work day is a fun way to celebrate the parents who work for your company by showing their kids what it is that your company (and their parents) do. It can be an entertaining and educational day that’ll be something both parents and kids remember.