If I was asked to produce a list of top passionately hated things that provoke aggressive and hostile reaction from employees, ‘team building activities’ would have instantly made it to the top of that list. Just a mere mention of planning of any team building event gets the juices of misanthropy flowing in even the friendliest of offices.
Moreover, most of the studies point to employees getting really tired of these kind of events, to the point that many feel that it is the biggest waste of their time and company money. People are getting increasingly frustrated with the three-legged races, the board games and bonfires in the middle of nowhere while back in the office the work keeps on piling up.
We all know that teamwork is an important part of any company. Successful team building leads to increase in productivity, better communication and overall morale boost. Our task for today is to find a few great ways to improve team building activities that won’t annoy the life out of your staff. Scroll down for our list of five.
1) Advertise
Seriously, treat your employees like your clients and advertise your team building activities well in advance. The best way to do that is by using digital signage. DS is the best way of grabbing your staff’s attention and engaging them in your ideas; displays can capture up to 400% more views and show an impressive 47.7% effectiveness on awareness, making them a perfect way to get every single employee on board with your agenda. Professional DS soft will help you to create captivating, interesting, attention-grabbing signage.
Great soft will allow you to get your employees interested in any team building idea, you can produce a video ad explaining why team building events are crucial for the corporate health and promote all of the interesting and fun activities to come. Digital signage is a recognized powerful education and staff training tool, so, you’ll be able to communicate any information and get everyone on your staff up to speed and on board in no time. Just make sure that you invest in a quality screens, media players and software.
The professional quality of Apple TV digital signage will make any promo video unforgettable and is sure to capture the attention of every single staffer.
2) Be as Cheap as it is Humanly Possible
More often than not employees seems to really question your monetary choices, especially when they feel that there are better ways to spend the corporate bonding budget. It is very hard to explain to someone why cash bonus loses out as a motivator to talking to Kevin from accounting for 3 minutes during a two-day getaway with much too many activities and way too expensive lecturers.
So, first and foremost, let’s remember that our main goals are improving overall sense of community, boosting the collective productivity and develop problem-solving skills and the perfect way to achieve all of that without spending money is through volunteer work. First of all, you won’t be spending a dime. Secondly, supporting a good cause is a great way to give back to the community and is a hand-down ideal team building activity.
There isn’t a way for this to go wrong, just take a page out Jimmy Carter’s book and start with volunteer house building with Habitat for Humanity. Honestly, anything connected to volunteering is stripped of all of the negativity from the get-go, and it is the best way to improve your team building activities without the employees converting their hotel room bill into the cash bonus.
3) Gamify your Team Building Activities
One of the best things you can do is to bring your event into 2019 with cutting-edge tech. Gamification of the team-building process has become increasingly popular over the last years. Your employees will love the touchscreen team games and the VR and AR-based experiences are revolutionizing the team building process these days. With a great VR or AR game you can create a great team-building experience for all of your employees working in different cities or even countries around the world.
They can easily interact, collaborate, and learn together in a meaningful way. If we take the great VR Star Trek game as an example: the Bridge Crew allows four players to take on four specific roles – captain, engineering, helm, and weapons. Within this game every member needs to work with the team to go through challenging scenarios, there is no way around getting to know each other, bonding and teamwork.
Overall, gamification is a complex concept but, it is based on the basic work/play balance principle that is an absolute must to keep people motivated and build bonds which ultimately help them better work together as a team. Though gamification you can teach proper teamwork, the importance of motivation and support within the company.
4) Treat your Staff
A good way to improve your team building activities is to incorporate a loved activity. For example, people love good food, entertainment, traveling, etc. So, just incorporate a culinary team-building activity, organize a fun day at the beach, join an escape room challenge, or any at all fun outdoor activities will be much appreciated by your employees. A magicien entreprise paris will just be the right help you need to organize the best party for your team.
Just remember to make sure your cheat day is a workday and not the weekend. No matter how fun it will be, no one wants to be working on the weekend, even if they are learning how to make Italian pizza in the brick oven with a glass of ice cold Prosecco.
5) Join your Employees Online
First, social media is one sure thing all of your employees have in common. Secondly, no matter how great your company’s website is, it’s not really a competition for Facebook and it’s not giving Instagram a run for its money any time soon. So, join your employees online. Social media is a great way for promoting your team building events, rather than sending out countless emails that no one will read, you can stream you SM announcements, posts, info on the upcoming event on the DS screens in your place of work.
Plus, your employees can access event information on SM at any time, from anywhere, whether at home or at work. Another very important thing for team building is employee recognition, you always have to remember that employee motivation and recognition initiatives are a huge part of any team building activities.
Proper employee recognition leads to lower employee turnover, better engagement, increased efficiency and productivity, and staff empowerment. And, we all remember the Gallup report that concluded: employees value recognition even above cash bonuses.
So, a great way to improve your team building activities in 2019 is with proper employee recognition on SM followed by a very necessary in-office display streaming.