Klaas Geller — January 27, 2020 Team activities can be a costly venture but a worthwhile one? A lot of business owners say yes. For more than one reason.
Let us start with the obvious: They build teamwork and help maintain a healthy work atmosphere.
Each team goes through four major phases. (Five, if you count the reconfiguration.)
- Forming: During this stage, it is naturally important to help your team find their structure and rhythm, classic team building exercises like the visit to an escape room can quickly establish a leading figure as well as a first structure within a group. This may shorten the Storming phase as well.
- Storming: Here the first conflicts may arise, may it be pushing back against formerly set boundaries or a simple clash of personalities. Helping your team with communication training exercises can make a quick difference.
- Norming: Many team members might start hitting their stride and engaging with each other outside of work during the norming phase or grow complacent within the group. A well thought event might help them ease into contact and prevent the teams regression back into the storming phase.
- Performing: Finally the team starts performing at its best. But it still can pay off to have the team experience new sides of each member to give them a larger feeling of camaraderie among them. Building a raft or doing charity for example can give them a common purpose. It will also show that you care about their well being and increase your employee retention.
Which brings me to my second point, Employer Branding. The way you plan and choose your companies team events, or events in general can affect your image in a not insignificant way. Your employees will talk about your company after all and today over 50% of people seeking jobs will try to find reviews written by them online before applying. And while this naturally won’t be the only thing they will write about, it can still be part of your internal and external Employer Branding.
Think about it, how does your company want to be seen?
- Are you the sporty young company that organizes a woodland rally or a casual paintball tournament.
- Are you the large company that sends your lead personal to survival training or leads a recycling event in the local community?
- You decide what your company stands for and company team events can have the great dual purpose of expressing that.
You can even help your employees organize events for charities that align with your company values, as their team event. It might carry your name out even further than simply donating to charity and might attract new employees that already share your values.
Now that we talked some about the positive effects team events can have on your employees and your Employer Branding.
Why not take a look at some of the more popular team events, their cost, and what they can bring to your team.
6 popular team events
Paintball and Co:
Team sports, that are loaded with action, like Paintball are the classics of Team building activities. And with good reason. The adrenalin rush combined with the urgent sense of responsibility can lead to a strong bond between workmates and lets new team leaders emerge. And even players on opposite teams will have a delightful story to share afterwards. This makes those sports especially good at forging new teams or including new teammates in already existing ones.
Paintball in Germany costs around 45 € per head. Less expensive and less violent options could be laser tag or team olympic games (naturally with some fun options.)
Escape as a Team:
A paint bullet flying next to your head is not the only thing that can cause a feeling of urgency and togetherness. Escape Rooms, or their alternatives in Treasure Hunts, Relay Races, or City Quests, that give the players a limited time to solve a set of thematic puzzles, can do that as well. Smart leaders can set up the teams to either increase their team structure or to train new Team leaders in their positions.
Escape rooms cost between: 20-35 € per head. Larger groups will often get a discount.
Just want to have fun:
Sometimes team building can be just a simple matter of having fun or excitement. The classic options for this are Go Kart racing or Segway driving. Karaoke or kayaking tours are often a well received (and cheaper) alternatives that can keep the same spirit. Go Kart racing starts at 20 € but team events quite often cost more than 50 € per head. Segway tours usually price at around 30 €. Three hours of Karaoke (drinks not included) usually go for around 10 € per person, but can go for as cheap as 6 €.
Clear your head:
Why not have your team leave the office completely behind for a few hours. By going out into nature or an event location to acquire a completely new set of skills. Be it basic survival skills in a forest a night, or learning how to prospect gold like people during the rush. What at first glance might sound like the idea for a great children’s birthday party, can in fact be a good way to cleanse ones head and heart of the daily stress while experiencing a small adventure with your co-workers.
The price here can vary a lot, starting from just 20 € to up to 100 €. Also you quite often will have to organise transportation.
Lets build this:
Even children sitting in a sandbox already know about the joy of building and creating, and once they get a bit older they also start learning about teamwork while building Lego with their siblings and friends. This idea of childlike joy combined with teamwork has been picked up to train teams of adults and it has been very successful at that. Be it a raft, a cart made out of soap boxes and recycled wood or something as simple as a domino chain. The gratification of having even a small completed project can be a large motivator towards your goals at work. And some of the options can lead to a follow up event, like racing with the carts, for all those that enjoy a little bit more action.
Again Prices can vary a lot here. Some of the options you can be very cheap or self organised. But more complex builds like a raft costs usually around 60 € per person.
Having a goal for good.
Last but not least a team event in the name of charity can not only strengthen the teamwork, it can also create a sense of belonging. It is usually quite easy to find a place or organisation in your city that could use the help or the fundraising. Organizing an event yourself, like planting trees or the gathering of care packages for homeless children can show a more personalized interest and also be great for your employer branding.
Cost of projects may vary, but they may also grant tax benefits.
So what we learned is that team events aren’t just a worthwhile and fun endeavour, to help your teams find structure and identity, but also an important decision when it comes to Employer Branding.
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