In today’s fast-paced corporate landscape, ensuring team cohesion is not just a luxury but a necessity. Corporate team-building is crucial for enhancing communication, fostering collaboration, improving productivity, and boosting team morale. It doesn’t matter whether you’re managing a large-scale enterprise or steering a small-scale startup; effective corporate team-building can have a positive impact in multiples ways.
However, successful corporate team-building requires more thought than simply booking an activity for everyone to participate in. Particularly when hybrid working and employees in different locations is increasingly the norm. It requires clear objectives, thoughtful preparation, and attention to the finer details. In this short guide, we look at the key considerations for creating an unforgettable team-building experience that leaves a lasting impact on your entire team and your business.
Team building in a corporate context
Team building matters because a strong team is the backbone of your organisation. Therefore, it is essential to get it right. Good team building can help to improve:
- Communication – It opens up honest dialogue, eliminating any misunderstandings that can occur between colleagues, and this helps to foster better collaboration.
- Trust – Employees who trust each other work together in a more efficient and positive manner.
- Problem-solving skills – When you encourage teamwork, you enhance the collective decision-making abilities of your team so that new ideas are generated and problems solved.
- Employee engagement and retention – A happy team quite simply works together better and has higher job satisfaction, which means that you will have better staff retention rates.
What activities to choose
There are many team-building activities that you should consider for your corporate team-building event. They fall into several categories:
- Collaborative problem-solving activities – This includes things like hackathons, escape rooms, and puzzle challenges.
- Outdoor and adventure-based exercises – These include activities such as obstacle courses, corporate retreats, and scavenger hunts.
- Workplace social events – These are shorter and more informal, and include things like themed office days, team lunches and celebration gatherings.
- Skill development workshops – Including creative thinking seminars, leadership training and mentorship programs.
To choose the right type of team building for your employees, you need to define your goals. Identify what you are hoping to achieve with your team-building event. It might be that you are looking to enhance collaboration and teamwork, strengthen some problem-solving skills, improve communication, or simply reward your team for all of their hard work. When you have identified the reason, it will make it easier to select the right activity.
It is also important to understand your team’s needs, abilities, interests, and preferences. For this, you should consider factors such as the size of the group, the differing skill levels within the group, and the team dynamic. If the team is new, you may also want to consider some ice-breakers or, for a more established team, introduce a competitive challenge.
Planning the perfect corporate team-building event
The perfect corporate team-building experience starts with the right planning. The first thing that you need to consider is the location for your team building. If your employees are all based in one location, then this can make it easier to select a venue as the most convenient one will be somewhere not too far from your business premises. This will make it easy for everyone to get to and reduce travel time.
Choosing a location
If your team are based in many locations within the same country, look for somewhere centralised that everyone can get to without having to travel too far. Select a location with good transport links, allowing people to choose their preferred mode of travel; not everyone will want to drive.
If your team is based in different countries, then you will need to look for a central location that is easy to travel to for the majority of employees. This type of international corporate travel clearly becomes more complex to organise as you will have to factor in proximity to airports, average travel times, and other factors like accommodation.
Overcoming some common team building challenges
It’s fair to say that not all employees are always on board with the idea of team-building exercises and there are a number of reasons for this. They may have family commitments, for instance, which make it difficult. They may simply not enjoy socialising or competitive activities so it is important to be aware of different circumstances and viewpoints. Some people may also struggle in new company – something which the team building may help with once they get over their initial discomfort. Whatever the reason, it is important to look for ways in which you can overcome any resistance.
You may find that it helps to customise the activities that are available or offer a range of team-building activities with something for everyone. You should make sure that the benefits of the team-building events are explained to everyone. And, if necessary, that there are some incentives such as recognition or even personal development opportunities.
Mastering corporate team-building events can offer your organisation a powerful competitive advantage. With the right strategic planning, customised experience, and the right engagement you will be able to build a workforce that is cohesive and motivated. And, just as importantly, a workforce that thrives beyond the boundaries of the office.
