Springworks blends comedy and Trivia for employee engagement and remote fun

The beginning of remote work and quarantine were not, for lack of a better word, easy. With dropped Zoom calls, baby cries in the background, and the occasional Golden Retriever cameo during presentations, we’ve seen it all.

To make working from home a bit more bearable (and interesting) at the beginning of shelter-in-place, Science portfolio company Springworks, a full-service development and design agency, took things into their own hands. In April, Springworks internally introduced a Slack app (you can find it on the Slack store here) that allows employees to play trivia via Slack, with topics like mathematics, business, and entertainment, and take much-needed breaks during the still-unusual remote workday.

Eventually, friendly office competition ensued, thereby creating a leaderboard and even more employee downloads. Seeing the popularity and success of the widget, which has since launched on Microsoft Teams, Springworks took it one step further.

In August, Springworks partnered with live streaming comedy app Laugh Lounge to host a live Trivia event for our office at Science Inc with comedian Ian Bagg.

The event was a huge success — not only because it was out of the ordinary and provided great comic relief — but because the game was tailored to our company culture and its employees. It was also Science co-founder and CEO Mike Jones’s birthday, and the questions really took that into account, which led to crowd work, roaring laughs, and a fun, engaging experience overall. Mike even said, “After working away from my incredible team for so long, this was a great way to celebrate, connect, and just enjoy each other’s company doing something out of the ordinary.”

The event’s success gave Springworks an even better idea: why not offer this to other companies?

Today, Springworks is working with IBM and Bloomberg to set up engaging Trivia games and is in talks with clients like Shopify, Quora, and EA Sports (all of which have signed up for the Trivia widget, joining 55K players and 2.5K organizations from 40+ countries using it.) With a roster of hundreds of different comics around the world, Springworks is able to make each live Trivia game as unique and nuanced as the company participating.

Employee engagement is incredibly important during these times. Nearly six months after the pandemic has upended daily lives and work, offices are aiming to turn temporary fixes like spontaneous happy hours into more permanent and sustained benefits for remote workers. Even though we’re all isolating, it’s important to remind employees that they’re not alone.

For more information, and to sign up for Trivia, visit SpringWorks x Trivia.