Workplace speed dating – It’s Time to Talk

5 minutes on the 5th to talk about –

How do you look after your own wellbeing?

What do you do to look out for others?

How to set up your workplace speed dating event

Try to set up the room so that it facilitates easy conversation.
Multiple tables for 2 people each table,or a long table arrangement where people are sitting opposite one another, works best.

Allocate speed daters an odd or even number. Keep it simple and have only the odd numbered daters move in a clockwise direction from one date to the next so that no one misses their turn.

Dates can be any length of time depending on how many people are taking part, however we suggest 5 minutes so each person can be part of the conversation.

If your event is very well attended, make sure you factor in a break.

Who to invite?

This is a great opportunity to generate conversation between colleagues who might not normally get much of an opportunity to catch up or get to know one another, so you might like to invite departments who do not have much of a chance to communicate face to face, or colleagues who normally work remotely.

Speed dating prompts / questions

The below are just are suggestion for conversation starters.

You may want to vary questions so that the conversations do not become toorepetitive, or advise people to think of a variety of examples to talk about. Just remember to try and stick to the same length of time (5 minutes) per conversation.

Suggested prompts:

  • How are you doing today?
  • What do you do to look after your own wellbeing?
  • What do you do to look out for the wellbeing of others?

Speed dating cards

To gain the most from running your speed dating event we suggest recording all the good ideas for how people look after themselves and look out for others.

With the permission of your daters you might like to collate and circulate this information afterwards so that everyone can benefit from the tips.

Here’s a table you can customise to your own questions:

Name / number / What do you do to look after your own wellbeing? / What do you do to look out for the wellbeing of others? / [additional questions] / [additional questions]
1
2
3
4
5

Recording your activity

We’d love to hear more about what you’ve done. Let us know how many people took part and any top tips shared at

Feel free to send photos from the day and we might share them online.

Organisation / Lead contact / Number of people who took part in your speed dating activity / Your email address

Resources

You can log your activity directly, download and order resources, andmore at time-to-change.org.uk/timetotalkday