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Have you ever wondered why so many companies have table tennis table(s) in their offices?

It’s all about talent

Bringing talented people on board and keeping them is essential to every company’s success. In today’s ever-changing work environment, it is those who manage to recruit, motivate and retain great people who get the leg up on the competition. And that's not an easy thing to do. In fact, it can be pretty challenging. Almost 40% of companies reported talent shortages in 2015 with only 20% employees planning to stick around at their current company in the long term.

Create an intangible cultural advantage

You want motivation? You want people to be engaged? Obviously, you have to pay them enough – but only enough to take the issue of money off the table. Beyond that point, money doesn’t play much of a role. Culture does.

Why are you doing what you’re doing? What’s your leadership style? How about your reporting structure? Talented hires are looking for a company they’ll be proud to work for. They want to be treated as humans, they want to make an impact and most of all – they want to grow. That’s why an open, transparent and engaging company culture is imperative for recruiting and retaining talent. That’s where table tennis kicks in.

The Perfect Ice-Breaker

Ping pong helps break the ice between colleagues, from intern to CEO. Because of its inclusiveness and the informal atmosphere it creates, playing ping pong is a great way to build relationships and get ideas flowing. According to a study, those are two of the most important drivers of employee engagement. People want human to human communication with their manager and a chance to make meaningful impact on the business—they want to have a voice.

That’s why ping pong tables are a part of almost every collaborative and transparent working environment out there. Having fun together makes people more connected to each other and to their jobs. And that is exactly the key to employee engagement. 

It Spurs Creativity

All work and no play? People who are burnt out become both bored and boring. And if a job requires even a slight amount of creative thinking—there’s no way they’re going to get anything done. Sometimes they just need to take a break and start fresh.

Table tennis to the rescue. Playing a game or two at work can help you restore your mental energy and spur creative thinking. According to Wendy Suzuki, Ph.D. Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at New York University:

“Playing ping pong engages the part of the brain responsible for strategic planning and thinking. The combination of that and aerobic activity causes another part of the brain (which allows humans to form and remember long term facts and events) to be stimulated resulting in ideas and strategies to begin forming and helping solve problems you may be struggling with.”

And another thing about table tennis is that anyone can play. This makes ping pong table the perfect productivity tool and one of the reasons almost every tech company out there has at least one.

Happy and healthy people make for great employees

Sitting behind the computer for hours on end is much more dangerous than you may think. Short ping pong breaks during work day can do wonders for your health. All it takes is 10 minutes. Get your body moving, break some sweat and burn some calories. And that’s just a small part of health benefits from playing table tennis.

Getting a ping pong table for your office and encouraging people to use it will not just help them feel better and be healthier. It will also show you genuinly care about their happiness and well-being. They will reward you with higher productivity, longer retention and better results.

Killerspin #UnPlugNPlay from Killerspin

It’s Time to Join the Revolution

Don’t get us wrong. A ping-pong table is not a wonder machine that will right all wrongs in the company. But if you’re making effort to create a great work environment for your people, sooner or later, you are going to get a TT table.

That’s why we came up with the revolutionary #UnPlugNPlay program. Learn more about the program and join the likes of advertising giant Havas, e-commerce company Groupon, and many others who already joined the Revolution. Welcome to the family.