Team building has always been important within the working community, although a lot of businesses neglect this very valuable area. However, in recent times it has no doubt been a little more difficult to provide that all-important team building experience for your employees. This could very well be due to hybrid or remote working, which may have made it seem near-on impossible.
There are, however, ways in which you can overcome the awkwardness of your team being widespread and this is to provide them with a way in which they can contact each other and socialize over the distance that is between them. This can be achieved by setting up a virtual meeting place and holding team building or social events within this area.
However, where possible, it is preferable to get all your workers together face to face and in person so that they can get to know each other and enjoy the best team building activities team building activities that you can provide them with.
Why is Team Building Important?
Helps your teams settle together
Having your various teams within your business working well together will mean that they will not only be able to support each other when the going gets tough but will also be able to bounce off of each other with ideas and knowledge when the work is going well.
You will find that if your teams are not settling in together, they will fight and argue, there will be an increased level of backbiting going on and at the end of it all, your business will suffer due to their inability to cooperate and work in harmony.
Increases friendships within the working environment
Friendships within a working environment are very important, indeed it is a well-known fact that those employees that find friendship at work are more likely to stay within that business while their friend stays there too. So, as you can see, by encouraging your workers to engage with one another you could very well be helping your employee retention numbers to increase.
Having employees stay within a business will not only help with production rates due to them knowing their job roles particularly well but will also help with the quality of service that you provide to your customers, which could, therefore, improve your order book and get more customers, due to recommendation, through your business’s door.
Enhances employee morale
In fact, if you have a workforce that works well with each other, is well connected, and even has some strong friendships being built you will find that the overall atmosphere of your business improves making it a far better place to spend time.
You must not be scared of your workers enjoying the time that they spend within your business, indeed laughter and light chatter can improve employee mood – even if they themselves are not involved in the banter being exchanged – and performance as well as the spread of knowledge around your business site. Just because you are hearing your employees talking or laughing does not actually mean that they are not working, similarly, if your business is in silence, it does not follow that all your workers are working hard.
Providing good quality team-building experiences count
When you are looking into providing team-building experiences for your employees it is important that you keep in mind the quality of the experience that you will be investing in. For instance, providing a team-building experience that is something and nothing, such as sitting in a room building towers or bridges out of straws within their groups to see who can build the tallest or the longest, is not going to fulfil the criteria that your team would be expecting and is a waste of valuable time and money, whereas investing in an experience that not only makes your team work together but is also highly enjoyable will make it more memorable and any strengths within the teams that have been found will more than likely be worked on.
The best team-building experiences are those that will take your teams out of their usual situations and push them together in a way that they have to work together to get the desired outcome for everyone. For instance, having your team play in VR Escape Room London will not only remove them from their normal and everyday lives but will provide them with a lasting memory. Working as a team to get through different gaming scenarios such as ghostbusting or apocalyptic survival gaming, to name a couple, within a fully immersive virtual reality environment that not only includes puzzle solving but also physical interaction with the game itself could be what your employees need to give their team relationships a boost in the right direction.
In saying this it is also a good idea to get your employees to meet up after work at social events put on by your business, whether it is a barbeque in the spring, summer, and fall months, with an additional get-together around Thanksgiving. There should also be other events planned that employees can join in with that will get them talking to each other and get them more acquainted outside the working environment.
Improves your business from the inside outward
All this will improve your business from the inside. It is not only you and your employees that will notice the difference that comes over your business, but your customers and your visitors are bound to notice the difference too.
Indeed, your business will be seen as the most desirable business to work for due to the additional care that is seen to be taken over each and every one of your employees, their wellbeing, and happiness within the working environment. This means that in times when there do not seem to be enough workers to go around, your business will not falter but will still be able to grow at a sustainable rate both in numbers and quality of products and services.
It is a good point to be seen as a business leader of a business that is not only growing but striving in the right direction, providing an excellent reputation for both employees and customers alike, and leading the way so that other businesses may follow suit.
To sum it all up
Team building is very important from your employee’s point of view as well as that of your business and its success within the industry that it is in. This is because team building can affect every area within your business.
Team building can bring forward strengths within your employees that you may have overlooked, or not even known about; it can help working relationships form and trust issues be resolved. All of these, plus enhancing already forming friendships, can help with the smooth running of your business, increase output, heighten morale, improve the working atmosphere, and do wonders for the quality of the products or services that you provide to your customers, even in the most stressful situations.
It is in stressful situations that you will find which teams work well together and which are at the point of breaking. Those that are having difficulty are less likely to produce good work, hit targets, or help each other with their workloads. This can result in backbiting, arguments, and one-upmanship, which can damage the morale and atmosphere of your whole working environment.
