5 Rewarding Team Building Exercises for an Evolving Company

Team Building

Every business owner strives for a workplace where their team members work together positively. However, building unity within the workplace requires time and effort. Incorporate team building exercises to help employees adjust to an evolving company.
The following are a few fun team building activities for the workplace:

Provide a Comfortable Break Room with Snacks and Beverages

Everyone needs to get away from their desk during the day. A comfortable break room offers your employees a place to rejuvenate or eat lunch. Inevitably, the break room often becomes a gathering place where employees build community.

Creating a comfortable break room takes little effort. Maintain a few snacks, such as granola bars or fresh fruit, as well as coffee and other work appropriate beverages.

Sponsor Job Shadowing Opportunities for Employees in a Different Position

New employees are often attracted to their job position due to the opportunity for growth. Use job shadowing as an opportunity to introduce the employee to the position while meeting others in the department. Job shadowing is easy to manage with little costs. Job shadowing is essential if an employee is considering transitioning to a new position.

What to Include in Job Shadow

  1. Participate in Brainstorming Session
  2. Attend a Meeting
  3. Take Notes During Planning Sessions
  4. Variety of Non-Confidential Activities

 

Hold Company-Sponsored Team Building Lunches

Food always has a way of pulling people together! Get your employees out of the office with a barbeque or restaurant outing. If your meal is outside, you can schedule fun games where employees work together. Sports work well for team building.

Sponsor Sporting Event or Team that Employees Can Participate in Together

Create a sporting team for your company to participate in together. This could be a community softball, basketball, or kickball league.

You could also sponsor a sporting event, such as a half-marathon or 5k. Provide your employees with company t-shirts. The t-shirts not only create unity but great advertising!

Encourage Team Members to Volunteer for Charity Together

The camaraderie that people develop when they volunteer together is powerful. Create a volunteer event with a local charity. The event could be picking up trash, building homes for poor families, or cleaning hiking trails. Volunteering together can create positive memories that unite the company.

Host Activities for Employee’s Families

Company lunches are great but many employees have families that they would love to involve with events. Hold family-friendly events where employees can develop friendships outside of work. The holidays are a great excuse to hold company parties.

Family-Friendly Events to Host

  1. Halloween trick-or-treating at desks in the office and pumpkin carving for the kids.
  2. Luncheon the week before Christmas before employees scatter their own ways.
  3. Bringing a big screen to the office for family movie night.

 

Team building exercises can be an investment for your company. When people work well together, they can get more done faster with a positive attitude. It is important to continue team building as your company grows.



How-To Run More Efficient Meetings

Business People in Meeting

Meetings are a powerful tool that can increase the productivity of your workplace. However, many managers fail to organize efficient meetings.

If you are a business professional than you probably have experienced a poorly run meeting. After all, the United States holds 11 million formal business meetings per day and $37 billion is wasted in meetings per year. If you are a manager that is organizing meetings, it is important to know how to deliver meetings that benefit your company.

The following tips can help you create more effective meetings in the workplace:

Know the Objective of Your Meeting

A meeting must have a specific goal. Ask yourself these questions:

“What do I intend to accomplish?”
“Are you alerting people to a change in management or a shift in strategy?”
“Are you seeking input from others on a problem facing the company?”
“Are you looking to arrive at a decision on a particular matter?”

Before you arrive at the meeting, know your objective and present it clearly to your employees. If your objective is a status update, consider if it can be sent over email.

Create Written Agenda in Advance

A written agenda is a great method to prevent vague intentions. Provide the written agenda to employees a day in advance. It should include:

  • Goal of Meeting
  • Topics to be Discussed
  • Materials/Documents that Could Give Employees a Better Idea of Meeting Background

Try putting your agenda in a template if you have weekly meetings. Templates can save hours in preparation time.

Stick to a Time Schedule

Time is money. Stick to a time schedule to ensure that you address each topic in a timely manner. Meetings can easily become careless, unfocused, and filled with “small talk” if you do not create a time schedule.

Your timeline should an outline of your agenda with the certain amount of time for each topic. Remember that you are paying your employees for their time so do not waste your own money.

Ban Technology

Engaging your employees will probably be one of the most difficult things to accomplish in your meetings. If people are bringing their smartphones or tablets into meetings then they will not be focused on you. They could be checking their emails, sending texts, and even on Facebook. Eliminate the technology to eliminate the distractions.

Start on Time, End on Time

Time is limited. Your employees will appreciate if you can respect their schedule. Make sure to start and end meetings on time. This way, people will be more respectful of your meetings and make more of an effort to attend.
Tip: Do not schedule meetings longer than an hour. Sixty minutes is generally as long as people can stay engaged on a topic.

Make sure that you are running efficient meetings. Your employees will appreciate it, and you can increase the productivity that a great company requires.