Once only something Fortune 500 companies or tech giants offer to their employees, corporate retreats are now a growing trend across businesses all over the world from traditional companies to even small businesses.

Before you start worrying about the high costs STOP. With more hotels of varying budgets, cheap airfares and many nearby locations from Singapore,  retreats no longer have to be costly, luxurious, complicated or exquisite.

If you are considering an overseas corporate retreat or a team-building retreat for your team, before you get started planning or searching for hotels or destinations (I know that’s what we would do too), we urge you to read on below as we share the 3 core factors to consider when planning your upcoming retreat.

1. Goals & Objectives
2. Knowing Your Team
3. Budget

Goals & Objectives
The first part of planning any overseas retreat is first asking yourself why you or your organisation are considering such an event.Here are some objectives to get you going.

1) To help staff recharge & restart after a long year.
2) To thank staff for their amazing contributions in the past year.
3) To build stronger bonds across the team away from the traditional work environment
4) Brainstorm new ideas to transform the business

Knowing these objectives and how far up they are on your priority list will allow you to make better decisions along the way. For example, if the main objective of the event is to thank staff for the great year, having tons of meetings, brainstorming sessions & workshops might send the wrong message.

Your Team & Demographics
We always believe no two companies are the same and so what might have worked at your previous organisation might not necessarily work here. Here are a few areas to consider.

1. Management Team Or Entire Company?
2. Age Group Of Participants
3. Company Culture
4. Interests
5. Expectations

As you go through the process of planning your retreat or if you hit a roadblock along the way, always go back to the basics to help you make the right choices. Remember, you could organise the fanciest event or jam pack 101 activities in a day but if the activities planned are not suited to the group or the group is exhausted from running from place to place, then the corporate retreat might lose its impact.  In case you feel you can’t do this on your own, consider roping a few colleagues in to form a committee to provide different opinions or do a simple survey to gather information. If you need a template to start with, reach out to us and we’ll be happy to share with you ours. Don’t worry, no obligations or charges at all.

Budget
Budget, it’s always one of the more sensitive topics but it’s also very important. Having a set budget in place will help you manage costs and similar to the other two factors above, help guide decisions along the way.

If you don’t have a specific budget to start with, here are a few areas to consider.

1. Destination – Accommodation & Meeting Facilities
2. Meals
3. Transport – Transport to get to destination and local transport on site.
4. Event Management & Activities – Optional
5. Misc – Door Gifts, Prizes or an allowance?

By pulling together estimated costs, you’ll have a better idea how much it’ll cost for different destinations and allow you to narrow down your choices.

If you feel overwhelmed at this point & prefer to work with a corporate retreat, events organiser & team building provider all in one, instead of individual vendors check out our overseas retreats page here.

From a 5D4N retreat in Krabi brainstorming & even volunteering at an orphanage to a 2D1N Malacca visit including a customised Amazing Race or Treasure Hunt to explore its rich culture, we’ve done it all.

To head back to read another article in our blog or for more tips on team building, click here.