Why Team Building Events Are Good for Business

Have you tried team building events for your corporation? Team building activities can help boost employee morale, improve company communication and help employees get to know each other so that they can work more cohesively. If you haven’t considered team bonding activities and their benefits to your company culture, keep reading for ideas and inspiration.

Team building has become more popular since 2020 with the move from in office to working from home. According to TeamBuilding, virtual team building has increased 2,500% in the last 2 years, and there’s a reason. When employees feel isolated, productivity can be reduced by as much as 21%. The good news is that virtual and in-person team building exercises and activities can improve morale, boost employee engagement, enhance excitement across the company, improve the company culture and increase productivity.

Of course, you may be wondering how companies get great results with team activities. The companies with the greatest team building success start by making the activities feel different than the typical workday. They also make sure that every employee feels included and valued. When these 2 things are present, employees are more engaged, and engaged employees can help increase profits by as much as 21%, according to Forbes.

How do you arrange a team building event?

Team building activities can take place anywhere, and they can be virtual or in person. Just keep the groups small, usually 12 to 15 people, to help make sure everyone is engaged and involved. Let’s look at some team building ideas that companies are using.

Team building activities can take place anywhere, and they can be virtual or in person. Just keep the groups small, usually 12 to 15 people, to help make sure everyone is engaged and involved.

1. Creative thinking contests

Contests are a great way to get new ideas for your business and help employees feel involved in the company. To do this activity, determine what your business needs. Is it a new product, a way to streamline a process or a new perk, like installing a gym on-site? Once you’ve determined what your business needs, turn it into a contest and allow your employees to brainstorm the ideas. You might even want to make it a contest between departments to see who finds the most innovative idea.

A little healthy competition of this sort is great for team spirit. Let the other departments vote on the ideas and offer a prize for the winning team. Just make sure to follow through and implement the winning idea or product.

2. Board game tournament

Another great idea for team building is a board game tournament. After all, who doesn’t love a little friendly competition between departments? Popular tournament board games include Monopoly, Chess, Checkers, Jenga, and Scrabble. Of course, you could give your employees a blast from their pasts and have tournaments for Dominoes, Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Trouble or Life. If your employees show an aptitude for trivia, you could have a Trivial Pursuit tournament or a trivia night.

You could also have card game tournaments, and it doesn’t have to be poker. Popular card games include Rummy, Go Fish, Crazy Eights and Spades. The benefit to having card and board game tournaments is that they have nothing to do with work, and everything to do with engaging team members in a group activity. These give your employees time to decompress while getting to know each other. It’s a great way to encourage team bonding.

3. City or country scavenger hunt

If your employees like to get outdoors, enjoy fresh air and explore, consider a scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunts make great team outing events. You can host them in the area around your building or in your city, or you could host them in the country at a state park. Of course, there are 2 ways to do a scavenger hunt. You could have your employees take pictures of certain things, or you could have your upper management hide items for your employees to find. The team that takes pictures of the most items or finds the most items wins.

4. Escape room events

If your employees love to solve puzzles, consider an escape room event. Escape rooms are a great team building activity for building critical thinking skills and developing team management. At their core, they involve nothing more than solving elaborate puzzles. Common themes include murder mysteries, trapped by technology, prison breaks and museum or bank heists. You can design your own, or purchase pre-made kits. Just make sure it’s something every team member can participate in.

5. A team outing

Team outings are great ways to improve communication skills and build camaraderie. The outing can be as simple as going to a restaurant for happy hour or taking a team hike at the nearest state park. They also can be complex and involve physical activity, like obstacle courses or survival-type themes. Of course, these will be designed to be inclusive of the entire group. You can make any of the above ideas a team outing by simply choosing a location away from your company headquarters to host your team building event.

The benefits of team building exercises

When it comes to a team building exercise, the benefits are also the goals. After all, you want your team members to feel engaged, appreciated and valued so that they’ll work harder and offer innovative ideas that can help your business grow.

A successful team building event creates trust in peers and leadership and opens the doors of communication. It helps improve critical thinking, problem solving and leadership skills, which can help your business operate more smoothly. It helps the entire team communicate more effectively with each other and with management, and it increases productivity, which can help improve your bottom line.

Fun team building activities are essential for employee engagement. According to Gallup, engaged employees are 81% less likely to miss work, and they have 58% fewer accidents. Companies that have high engagement experience an 18% decrease in employee turnover and a 28% decrease in theft.

For more information on how to build a team culture, see what the experts at Zenefits have to say. Zenefits’ tools and resources also can help you build a better HR department and management team.