Best team building exercises for new recruits?

A swift kick in their collective asses.

Leader Reaction Course, that's the one with little obstacles they have to work together to solve. For maximum effect, you play joe. You can either rotate who is in charge, or let them do what they do and see who the infornal leaders are or who steps up to fill leadership gaps.

Challenge them to see who can stay off of their cell phones for the longest.

What’s worked for my new joins is a fast “mini-missions” circuit. Squads move between stations around the motor pool doing quick first aid triage, a comms check, a short land nav clue, and a morale photo. Rotate TLs each stop so everyone leads once and you spot quiet leaders.

Last cycle I ran it on https://goosechase.com/ to push tasks, collect photo proof, and keep a live leaderboard; folks joined with a simple code and I could drop surprise bonus points to reward teamwork. Easy to spin up in under an hour.

Drop them off in the middle of the everglades

Something unconventional: 'keep talking and nobody explodes' on steam

Search 'best hazing activities'