In the past several years, we have seen companies move away from competitive workplaces to collaborative and cooperative ones. As part of this shift, more and more organisations are undertaking team building activities. These can range from a short, problem-solving task, day trips organised with the help of companies such as Candy Tours, to a company retreat that lasts for a number of days. While most individuals see team building tasks as a ‘good break’ from regular work, they have a greater purpose.
In the workplace, the employees need to work with an array of personalities and in most cases, success in a company usually depends on how well the staff is able to cooperate. Team building activities play a vital role in creating better workplace relationships and in this article, we are going to take a look at the actual benefits.
Improved Productivity
One of the chief goals of team building activities is to increase productivity. It’s important as a leader to identify ways to improve processes, procedures and policies that can have an impact on productivity. By encouraging the staff to learn how to work together in a more effective manner and minimise effort duplication, then productivity can be improved.
Increased Collaboration
Another important benefit of ideal team building activities is better collaboration between the staff. Collaboration is all about knowing who holds what knowledge or can answer a certain question, trusting them and being able to get access to that individual when you need them. By creating tasks that individuals can experience and enjoy as a group, they eventually build relationships and networks outside their regular roles, which help them in the present and even in the future.
Increased Motivation
Team building tasks can also help improve staff motivation and nurture a great workplace culture in an array of ways. When a group of workers successfully do a team building task, it builds momentum and makes them feel good. It increases their confidence in themselves and the ability of their team to achieve the best in their roles. It ideally shows that the company is willing to invest in them.
Encourage Creativity
If you want a successful company that is based on innovation and creativity, then you need a team of individuals with different expertise and perspectives so that you can cross-pollinate the company with fresh ideas. Team building activities give your employees permission to utilise their imagination and come up with creative solutions which spread in the workplace. This is exactly what you want in a really competitive business landscape.
Improved Communication
We all know how important proper communication is in the workplace. Well, another key benefit of team building activities is improved communication between the staff. Fun and interesting activities help the employees to know each other better, break the mistrust walls and create a better understanding of each other by encouraging them to focus on what they have in common instead of their differences.
Positive Reinforcement
Team building tasks can ideally be utilised to give employee recognition by highlighting the work key workers are doing and the behaviours that have resulted in the individual getting recognition. By integrating recognition with team building, you can send a robust message to every employee regarding your organisation values and what they mean to the success of the company.
As you can see, team building tasks can be an excellent way to develop trust and collaboration, nurture healthy relationships, nurture strengths, address weaknesses and improve motivation as well as productivity. Even so, they need to have a real purpose and need to be properly planned in order to make a solid impact, instead of just being a ‘nice day out of regular work’.