Your Team Building Guide for the Workplace

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December 10th 2022

Now that many people have returned to the office after the pandemic, it’s necessary for employers to give workers ample opportunities to rebuild their relationships with one another. Communicating through a camera for so long can leave some people’s social skills dwindling, as they navigate in-person meetings and chats again.

As an employer this is fantastic time time rethink your team building strategies and give your employees new ways to connect with each other. This not only keeps things fresh and new in the workplace, but also helps them to build lasting interpersonal relationships. With better rapport comes more creative and out-of-the-box thinking, which can only serve to benefit your business in the long run.

Today, we’re going to discuss a few team building exercises you can implement in your company, to really allow those relationships to thrive.

 

Benefits of Team Building Post-Covid

Team building at its’ core allows your employees to connect with one another. There’s a myriad of benefits it can bring to your company beyond financial. Having happier employees allows new ideas to rise to the top and contributes to creating a positive office culture. Strengthening the bonds between your team also helps to improve group work where no voice goes unheard.

By getting your employees to engage in fun, interactive activities together, you’re also thanking them for the hard work they put in each day. Team building can often feel like ‘time off’ for them, as they enjoy themselves in a safe and uplifting environment.

 

Create a Team Building Calendar

It’s critical that before booking or paying for any activities, you make a plan. We would suggest planning well in advance, to ensure each employee is available on the times and dates you are looking at. Check and double check each schedule/rota to make sure you’re free to go ahead and book.

You’ll then want to get some feedback from your employees on what they might want to do, with each suggestion having equal weight. You can then put these to a vote. A frequency of at least 1 team building activity per month will likely give your employees something to look forward to!

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Team Building Activities for Your Workforce

So, if you’re struggling to think of any ideas for good team building activities, we’re going to outline some of our favourites here. Remember, variety is the spice of life, so make sure to switch it up each time!

 

Volunteer Day/CSR Day

Volunteering gives people a sense of involvement. Where they can get stuck in and make a difference, even if only for a day. Allowing your employees time off to volunteer helping the homeless, looking after animals in an animal shelter or other charity work can really bring about a sense of community.

This type of ‘giving back’ to the community also reflects very positively on your business and is part of your corporate social responsibility (CSR) values. The best part is that you can plan for different employees to have different experiences with volunteering, so there’s likely going to be something that each person will enjoy doing.

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Yoga/Meditation/Wellness Days

There’s a lot to be said about the power of practicing wellness each day. Many companies across the world have implemented times in the day or week in which employees can take a moment to breathe. Be it through interactive yoga sessions, group meditation, or paid work-free relaxation days, it’s important to understand that your employees are human, and may need some inner reflection time now and again.

You can hire an expert to come into the workplace and perform sessions for your employees which allow them to relax before they get back to the grind.

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Company Field Day

Company field days are days in which many fun activities can be on offer. They can range from trips out of work together to a different city to see the sights, fun races, party games or even paintballing! Regardless of which activities are picked for the day, it’s very important to incorporate teamwork into it. Get your employees talking and working together.

It can be challenging to plan a great team event, but it will have a lasting effect on the overall wellbeing of your workforce. It gives them much needed time away from the desk to let loose and have some fun.

 

Happy Hour

While the typical definition of ‘happy hour’ usually revolves around alcohol consumption, we like to think of this as an hour in the day which everyone comes together to enjoy food and chat.

Plan a happy hour within the working hours of the day, where employees can come and have something to eat (pizza is always a fan favourite) and mingle with co-workers. This encourages them to chat outside of their usual circles and expand their in-work relationships. You can even hand out conversation starters to everyone to get the ball rolling. All-in-all this is a stress-free hour in the day to allow people to connect.

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Treasure Hunts or Escape Rooms

Escape rooms and treasure hunts and fantastic ways to build relationships within your team(s). They are the ultimate game of collaboration towards an end goal. Treasure hunts require input from each person to be able to find the prize, and escape rooms need constant communication to be able to conquer.

The best part about these, is that you don’t need to plan a whole day around them – they can be short stand-alone activities for smaller groups to experience together. They will learn new things about each other that they may have not known before, which strengthens their relationships even further.

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Lunch and Learn

Speaking of learning new things about each other, consider holding ‘lunch and learn’ sessions for your employees. There’s no better way to get to know someone than having a one-on-one conversation, finding out what they like, what they dislike, and getting a general sense of them as a person.

Allow your employees to sit down and have non-work-related conversations with another person, over some lunch provided by the company. Rotate the pairings each time to really help cultivate those interpersonal relationships – or better yet, make each employee pick a name out of a bowl for a truly fun, random experience!

 

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Allowing your employees to let their hair down once in a while can really benefit your business so much. Removing the stresses of work, even for just a short time, can massively improve the mental wellbeing of your workers. So, we hope you’ve now got some great ideas for your upcoming team building days!

If you need to expand your space to incorporate a designated yoga area (or just an extra room or two for fun activities), head over and take a look at our serviced offices and managed offices today, to see what we have on offer in your area.

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