When you mention team building to your employees, what’s the general feeling about it? A lot of the time, it can be met with some derision, and people don’t really think there’s much benefit to it, and that can mean that some employers decide against it. After all, if the team itself isn’t interested, why bother?
Well, the reality is there are many reasons to bother because team building has a wide range of benefits. Once you know what they are, you’ll be keener to give it a go, and if you can give your workers reasons why it’s good for them to get involved with, that will help with morale as well. With that in mind, here are just some of those reasons.
Learn About Teamwork
If there’s one thing that team building will definitely do, it’s teach everyone about teamwork. A lot of people will assume they already know all there is to know about working in a team, especially if it’s something they do on a daily basis, but getting a little more insight into exactly how each member of that team ticks can be hugely useful, and that’s what team building can do.
When you engage in team building, especially when it’s something like an escape room, you’ll learn how each person works, and that means you’ll know exactly how to use their skills and knowledge in your business. In the end, that’s going to make the business itself run more smoothly, but it’s also going to ensure that the team member you’re thinking about is more satisfied with their work because they’re doing something they’re good at and that they like – that makes everyone happy.
Healthy Competition
Having some healthy competition in the workplace isn’t a bad thing, even if you might think it is before you find out more about it. It’s that word, ‘competition’, that makes things confusing, but in this case, that’s good – the competition between work colleagues or perhaps different departments is really just a way to motivate them to do more and work harder, and a team-building day is a fantastic opportunity to let their competitive sides shine through.
Of course, you don’t want your employees to be so fixated on winning that they don’t think about anything else because that will be bad for business, but when it’s used sparingly and it’s all in good fun, competition in the workplace is a positive thing, and you can show that to people during their team-building day.
Taking A Break
In some cases, it’s not really what your employees learn on a team-building day that’s important. In fact, that could be anything at all, and if it happens to benefit your business once it’s all done and everyone goes back to their normal jobs, then that’s a bonus, but it’s not something some bosses think is a priority.
What some bosses think is a priority (mainly because it is) is to take breaks from work once in a while. Giving your team a chance to get out of the office and leave the stresses of work (no matter how great a boss you are or how wonderful the business is, it’s always going to include some element of stress) behind for a few hours can bring about some amazing results that can actually improve your business – and it will make your employees happier as well.
Breaks should be part of every workday, and just a few minutes (but ideally longer) can help to re-energize people and boost their mental health. They’ll often find that stepping away from a challenging situation and then coming back to it later after a break will give them a fresh perspective, and they’ll be able to find the answers more easily. So imagine how great they’ll be able to feel after a whole day out of work without thinking about anything other than their team-building tasks. They’ll be ready to work much harder, and if they can also use some skills they learned on the team building day, that’s even better.
Networking Opportunities
Making friends or even just getting to know people in the workplace isn’t always easy – there’s a lot going on, and very often, different departments will work separately, so people only see a small number of other employees. Or perhaps everyone works remotely, which means there’s even less chance of getting to know people.
A good team-building day can change all of that and ensure that people from different departments can connect with one another. That’s useful because it means that if they need to be in touch regarding work, they’ll know who they’re speaking to, and it makes every interaction a much easier one. Work will get done more quickly, and the atmosphere in the business will be better too.
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