There are many benefits to having your staff participate in team-building exercises. It allows them to get to know each other better, it can build camaraderie, and it can help improve a team’s ability to work together. If you are interested in improving team communications and productivity, here are six tips for holding team-building events.
Hold Events Off Site
When you are planning a team-building event, find an off-site location at which to hold it. It will allow everyone to get away from the office, which can help provide fresh perspectives, and it will help minimise disruptions. Since these events can be fun as well as constructive, consider holding it at a retreat even if it’s just for the day. Getting away from a stuffy office can allow people to be more relaxed, which can help generate ideas.
Prepare Everyone for Participation
It’s important to get everyone ready and excited for the event. Create a theme and reinforce it with posters, bulletin boards, memos, and meetings. Build some suspense about the event by announcing any keynote speakers that may be there. Also, circulate a list of objectives and topics to be discussed to get everyone thinking about them before they arrive at the event site.
Hire Professional Event Organisers
Trying to get work done and plan an event can be challenging so you should consider hiring professional event organisers to plan it. Many UK event companies specialise in corporate events so they can come up with an itinerary based on what you hope to accomplish with your team. They will discuss your goals for the event, talk about some ideas, and plan everything so that you can concentrate on your work.
Consider Everyone’s Physical Abilities
When planning the event, make it fun and challenging but not too physically taxing. Concentrate on making use of people’s intellectual abilities instead of their physical prowess when selecting the games or challenges for your event. Not everyone in the group will be able to keep up with younger, more physically fit employees and that’s probably not the attribute needed for their jobs.
Follow up After Event
One meeting or corporate event isn’t going to fix your work problems overnight. After holding the event, make sure to reinforce what was learned and build upon the skills or information provided at the team-building event. Afterwards, you may see a spike in productivity but if you don’t follow up on what was taught, then it will fall back down to where it was before the event took place.
Include Everyone
There are employees who are always participating in meetings and other gatherings but don’t forget your quiet employees as well. Encourage everyone to participate and ask those quieter types for their input during the event. They could have great ideas but they may be too shy or not confident about sharing them in front of others.
Corporate events can help identify your team’s strengths and weaknesses. It can also provide the information that your team needs to improve themselves as individuals and a team.