Lucy - BQ Magazine EditorMost employees will awake with a massive groan on a team-building day. Really? Another day spent doing nothing, just so HR and managers can feel like they’re looking after their team. It’s a sentiment shared by many as team-building days are known to be…well…worthless.
The majority of these days all pan out the same and involve pointless activities nobody enjoys. Rather than encouraging team-building and cooperation, they bore employees and made them wish they called in sick.
However, it doesn’t always have to be like this! Team-building days can be a roaring success when you know how to do them the right way. Ditch the archaic ideas of the past and begin implementing some of these strategies in your team-building sessions:
Take Everyone Out Of The Office
A team-building day is guaranteed to be a chore when it takes place in the office. It’s never a good idea to run your days here as your employees will (naturally) associate the office with work. It makes the whole day feel like more of a test than anything else – it’s like they’re being watched by the higher-ups at all times.
People will immediately be in better spirits if the day takes place away from the office. You can organise a wealth of activities in so many different places. This makes team-building feel less like work and more like a fun day off!
Provide Team-Building Exercises That Are Genuinely Fun
The worst part about team-building is the dull exercises. It’s the awful “trust exercises” or horrifically outdated puzzles you have to solve as a team. Nobody likes them – so give your employees something fun to do instead!
Set up activities that take place outdoors and get people moving around. Something like an Enigmap treasure hunt fits perfectly here. You create a treasure hunt and split your employees into teams. They work together and run around the city looking for clues to solve the puzzle. It’s the type of thing they’d do outside of work for a laugh, so they’ll love doing it on a workday as well! You want to provide exercises or activities that subtly encourage teamwork while being genuinely enjoyable to do.
Let People Opt In or Out Of Team-Building Days
This sounds like a bad idea – surely everyone will opt out, right?
On the contrary, giving your employees a say in the matter means they don’t feel forced to attend team-building days. If they’d rather stay in the office and work, then that’s fine. You’ll probably get a lot of people opting out to start with, but once they see how much everyone else enjoyed the new team-building days, more will opt in. Eventually, everyone will attend, but they’ll do so without being forced. Giving employees a choice helps them feel more in control and improves their general relationship with team-building days as it no longer seems like something they have to do.
You’ve got plenty on your plate when starting a business, but you can’t neglect the importance of team-building. You need a good team around you that communicates with one another and works together towards a common goal. Having some good team-building days now and then encourages this and strengthens everyone’s working relationships.