Teams of staff need to be comfortable with one another and respect each other. Not only is this essential for keeping morale high in the workplace, but it also is essential if these teams are going to work together efficiently. While after-work drinks with colleagues are a good way to get people to bond, sometimes a more intensive approach is needed to keep these relationships strong and positive. This is why having a team-building day once or twice a year can be effective, and it will be down to the HR department to arrange this.
If you are in charge of running the next team building day, here are some tips to help you manage it.
Plan Your Itinerary
Starting the day with coffee and perhaps some breakfast pastries will always be well received and get everyone to register when they arrive. When everyone is present, you can start organizing your teams into the groups they will be with for the duration of the team building day. Then send these different teams to do the activities you have arranged for them, rotating these so that they are doing something different in the afternoon.
When the team-building activities are over, consider having everyone stick around for casual drinks and canapes to round the day off nicely and help everyone relax. You can hire licensed bartenders to serve drinks from websites such as eventbartenders.com.
Choosing the Right Activities
You will need to come up with various activities for your teams to take part in throughout the day, and you might even want to include refresher courses for staff training or going over company policies as well while you have everyone together. Remember, this day is supposed to be fun for the employees, so consider exciting activities like scavenger hunts, puzzles, obstacle courses, and even quizzes that will require staff to work together to win. Offering fun prizes for each challenge is also a good idea as this can make the whole experience feel more relaxed and fun, as well as offer an incentive for people to get involved.
Catering
As mentioned previously, serving some breakfast pastries with coffee and even early evening cocktails when the day is done are all excellent ideas, but you will also need to make sure that everyone has something to eat for lunch.
You can provide sandwich platters, quiches, salads, and other suitable buffet food for your teams to help themselves to. If your budget is smaller or the surroundings for your team building day aren’t suitable for a sit-down meal, you can always put together packed lunches for your teams that include sandwiches, a drink, some fruit, and a savoury snack.
You should also make sure that you check for allergies and dietary preferences from everyone attending this team-building event before you put in any orders with your catering team.
Team building is essential to keep morale high and operations running smoothly, which is why companies should make an effort to arrange days where employees can step away from their usual daily tasks and have some fun together. If you are in charge of organizing the next team building day, use these tips to help you do it.