It’s a day or a weekend that should be on the calendar for every single business that has more than one person in it. The team-based corporate event is everyone’s opportunity to take off the brand-aware, super-productive hat and take a proper look at the team. The accomplishments, the plans, the people they work with. Here’s how you should be using your corporate event and what you can get from it.
Pic by rawpixelStart organizing early
The bigger the team, the more locations you need to involve and the more remote workers, the more organization the event is going to need to take. You’re going to have to create a budget based on a good location you can get everyone to, how much it will take to cost their travel and accommodation (yes, you have to take the monetary hit) and so on. Leaving yourself little time to get it all organized is an easy way to have plans falling through mid-event.
Shine a light on the accomplishments of the business
It’s always a good idea to start the event off with a little look over the whole. Go into what the business has achieved and how it’s grown. Use those overall achievements as a blueprint for the future, too. The corporate event is the time to tell people the overall goals and how they fulfill them, inspiring them to work just as hard in future.
Shine a light on the excellence of the team
You should also look at the members of the individual team. Pay your homage to individual teams by naming the initiatives that have been started and the evolutions that have been taking place all over the business. It might even be the time to start handing out the glass awards, giving those excellent members of the team their moment to shine. Promoting personal excellence as well as collaboration shows a business that truly appreciates the people within the business.
Give them plenty of time to have fun
More important that appreciating the business and the business appreciating the team is that your teammates have the time to appreciate one another. This means booking a big party table at a restaurant and letting people relax with each other. You might even consider having a morning of activities like go-karting, mini-golf, and bowling. Schedule some time that’s dedicated to nothing but having fun and building bonds. Many of them might only have had prior contact to one another via email after all. This is the perfect time for those associations to grow into a wider corporate culture.
Take the time to talk to them
As a manager or employer, you should be there having fun with them. Now is the time to let the barriers created by the office drop just a little. This means talking to them without agenda, saying thanks for their work, and hearing them out in a more casual environment. Take the time to simply socialize with your team.
An important last note is to not make the corporate event a mandatory attendance. Ask people if they can come, but don’t try and force it. Team cohesion isn’t going to be built by people who simply don’t want to be there.
