By Karina Mojica
Contributing Editor, 365 Business HR section
When a sports team wins a championship, the players and coaches often cite playing together as a cohesive team as the key to their win. The same is true in the business world. Businesses with high-performing teams are more successful and see a big boost in their bottom line.
Strong teams don’t just happen by hiring qualified employees – they need to be built through activities designed to bring employees together. Team building is any action or method, which brings a group together and motivates them to work collaboratively. The purpose of any team-building exercise is to build a stronger unit of employees.
Team building has many benefits for businesses. It improves productivity, increases employee motivation, encourages collaboration and builds trust and respect among employees. Team building exercises should be held outside the office and give employees a reason to interact with each other in a non-work-related environment and encourage them to work together to solve a problem.
Unfortunately, many businesses fail to understand the value of team building and don’t take the time to include team building activities outside of the office. This article discusses why you should incorporate team building activities to help your business grow and prosper.
Why You Should Incorporate Team Building Activities and How They Benefit Your Business
- Enable employees to see each other In a different light
Employees spend a great deal of time with each other, but they are often too busy working to interact with each other regularly. A day out of the office allows employees to see each other in a different light and to interact with employees they may not work with on a regular basis. Despite the size of your business, every employer should take in consideration to incorporate such team building activities.
It’s hard to get to know someone when all you discuss is work. By leaving the office behind, they can discuss their families and outside interests. Some employees may discover they both enjoy hiking, or they went to the same college.
The better they get to know each other, the more connected they will feel. People who like each other work better together. Employees often cite their coworkers when asked what they like most about their jobs. Work can be very stressful and draining but being surrounded by people you enjoy being around can make a big difference.
2. Make employees feel valued
Employees prefer to be a part of something that is more than just a job, something fun to look forward to every day rather than a boring monotonous environment. When businesses encourage their employees to have fun, employees become more engaged. Many businesses include an employee page or add it to their About Us section on their website, often creating things which give more details about each individual employee. Showing appreciation for employees will not only make them feel valuable but it also improves your company image. A great example is shown below from Jeff Arnett at Arnett Credentials. Including your team gives your potential clients a look at who is behind your team and that you care to show others who your team consists of. Keep in mind that happy and engaged employees tend to perform better.
Today’s employees put a high priority on company culture. They want to work for a company they can feel proud to work for. Team building activities help establish a corporate culture where employees enjoy coming to work every day, collaborate easily and have trust and respect for each other.
Pro tip from Sacha Ferrandi CEO at a hard money lending company: “Businesses with good company culture are more likely to succeed and attract potential employees. When your team is excited to work for you and with each other, they are more likely to stay with the company, reducing costs associated with hiring and onboarding new employees”.
Too many businesses lose sight of the importance of keeping employees happy and the positivity it brings to the workplace.
A positive company culture helps employees become aware of their value to the team and build confidence in their skills. It shows everyone can contribute to the team in some way. Allowing employees to share ideas and bring on creativity is what makes a successful team. The more your employees feel valued, the more comfortable they are in sharing their ideas and opinions. By helping employees feel a part of a business, the more motivated they will be to take on new challenges in their jobs.
3. Improves business relationships all around
Teams cannot function well if the members don’t get along. Encouraging employees to value communication and teamwork helps improve work relationships and the quality of work. Team building activities are designed to develop stronger communication and collaboration, which help teams become more effective and efficient.
Often, there is a disconnect between employees at different levels of the organization. Leadership and employees seem to have a disconnect when it comes to work.
Team building activities can help close the gap by having them work together towards a common goal, which helps them view each other as co-workers rather than boss and employees. A great way to keep employees motivated and working well with each other is by encouraging clients to write a review on their experience in working with you and your team. This way they can look at what clients have to say about their work as a team. By including testimonials and reviews as shown below by SmartMove’s website, you improve your credibility as a business, attracting both potential leads and future employees. It is no question that individuals look at company reviews, therefore, make sure you provide them with great feedback you have received. When employees feel valued and considered as an asset to their company, their morale improves significantly.
Summary
Strong teams are important in businesses of all sizes. However, many businesses focus on making customers happy and often neglect the needs of their employees. They forget their people are their greatest asset, which can be a costly mistake.
Instead, businesses should incorporate team-building exercises as an ongoing element of their company culture. Team building activities not only boost employee morale, productivity and open communication but it can dramatically increase the success and profitability of your business.
This is an absolute fact , as such I am very grateful to my boss and lead investor as well as partners and other stakeholders for their invaluable and immense support rendered to my personal and professional upbringing and success thus far words can’t express my joy and fulfillment since encountering them in my life. I therefore plan to reciprocate this gesture by fulfilling all my obligations and responsibilities towards my workforce and employees since they form the structural component of my business and company. However , I still need the support of my investors and partners in order to extract the optimum cooperation and loyalty necessary from my employees and workforce to enable and enhance the smooth and effective delivery and performance of my duties and responsibilities towards them. I will also continue to expect more support in delivering my global and international duties and responsibilities with absolute perfection considering the enormous influence wielded by my investors and partners and stakeholders as well as their amazing capabilities , expertise and competence. Above all I will continues to seek a much closer link and contact with them as well as a more personal and closer contact with my workforce and employees to enhance productivity and efficiency as the huge importance of team building towards the success, profitability, progress and growth of a company or business can never be underestimated .
Indeed, team building or group activities improves the productivity and collaboration of team members. The main purpose of team building is to build a strong unit of employees wherein they can gain trust and respect. It also allows employees to know each other outside of work.
I became a supervisor for my team at work last month, and I have noticed that my employees don’t really know each other very well. I am thinking that it might be beneficial to try some team-building exercises, and I appreciate the tips in this article. Thanks for explaining that team-building will not only create positive relationships between employees but also help them to feel valued individually.
Thank you for explaining that team-building exercises will allow your employees to see each other in a different light. Assuming I own a business, I would definitely consider team-building exercises to encourage the bond between the employees, like an escape room. I will heed your advice and keep it in mind.
Thanks for sharing your ideas on the why team building is important for your business. Group activities help us to work together with our team members. We need to see their strength and weaknesses and ensure that the activities will improve themselves.
I like the idea of companies incorporating team-building exercises into their plans. If they had them like every month it could help with productivity. Workers would be more excited to actually go to work if they had friends there.
It stood out to me when you explained that team building helps improve the quality of work for employees. My boss mentioned that she wanted ideas about how to improve employee satisfaction levels at our workplace. I’m glad I read your article so I can look for some safe, outdoor team-building activities to suggest to her soon!
I have been given a reaserch work on this topic and am gald that I go through your articles which will give me a solution in a short period towards my research
The group activities Melbourne you’ve shared here are fun and enjoyable! It will build their teamwork and understand each other. They can learn from one another and develop new skills.
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