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The First 3 Things To Consider When Planning Your Overseas Corporate Retreat Or Team Building Retreat

The First 3 Things To Consider When Planning Your Overseas Corporate Retreat Or Team Building Retreat

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. 

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The Benefits Of Team Building

The Benefits Of Team Building

“You don’t build a business, you build a team and then your team builds the business.”

So what might be so important about team building? Though the outcome of team building is the creation of team bonds, team bonds are not the only outcome of team building. There are some benefits of team building that differentiate them from the benefits of team bonds.

Fostering Of A More Collaborative Culture
Such a culture can be created through a more activity-based team building activities that requires teams to work together to complete the task. The main feature such team building activities will have is allowing different people to work and rely on one another in order to achieve the team/group’s objectives. Not only will this encourage people to trust one another, but in the long term create a closer and collaborative working culture. This is beneficial to the organisation on a whole, given that individuals who work closer together might help cover for one another’s pitfalls and allow for more innovative ideas to be developed.

Creating A Greater Understanding Between One Another
Effectiveness of any team or group is based on the level of group processes within the team and is subjected to several other factors which include team chemistry and transactive memory. Team chemistry refers to the fluidity of interactions between each team member. This can be enhanced through experience of working with one another and being able to understand each member’s working style better. Transactive memory on the other hand, is the knowledge and common understanding of each individual member’s strength, followed by task assignment that matches their ability. Through enhanced team bonds, team chemistry and transactive memory will be boosted, which could eventually translate to better team outcomes.

Developing Deeper Motivation To Work For Team Goals
Considering the social aspect of any human interaction, humans are naturally inclined to social goals and in a close group setting, could refer to group goals. When individuals are placed in a team, they are likely to work hard for the team goals, as much as they would for their personal goals. Considering this, with stronger and deeper connections being fostered within a team, they are more than likely to be more connected to the group goal, and work harder to achieve it. Therefore, fostering team bonds is likely to result in desirable organisational outcomes.

Inculcate sense of belonging, or a desire to belong
Besides creating a collaborative culture, such team building activities could create the ground for developing an inclusive culture within the organisation. Every organisation develops a different culture that is dependent on practices and traditions that individuals within the organisation promote. However, with greater exposure and more frequent interaction, any organisation would be able to create a unique culture for themselves. Developing a strong culture is likely to increase an employee’s sense of belonging to the organisation. With that, they are more likely to be motivated to pursue organisational goals.

These are desirable outcomes that can overall benefit an organisation or company’s objectives. As the current landscape moves into one that is more team based, it increases the importance of having effective teams. A group of individuals being put together, will not necessarily lead to the ideal outcome. It is through the positive influence of effective group processes, that a team may achieve their objectives. Through team building and creating lasting team bonds, the desired outcomes will surface and serve larger overarching goals.

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

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The Beginners Guide – The 8 Step Guide To Planning An Awesome Team Building Event

The Beginners Guide - The 8 Step Guide To Planning An Awesome Team Building Event

Having to plan a team building event for your organisation or department can feel like a daunting process especially if it’s your first one. With tons of things to consider and even factors beyond your control, it can often seem scary and overwhelming.

Here at PulseActiv, we gain our satisfaction not from winning as many clients as we can but helping organisations make informed decisions and if that results in engaging us, of course we will not complain :).

So here’s our 8-step guide that will help greatly simplify your planning process and organise a memorable, fun and meaningful event for your team.

Step 1 – Understanding Your Position, The Scenario & Your Goals
Before jumping straight into costs and other matters, the first step is understanding what your organisation’s goals are, what you want to accomplish and what resources you have to help you move forward. Having all these in hand will help provide some context and make the next few steps easier.

For example, why is your organisation conducting this activity?

a) To thank staff for their hard work for the year.
b) To set the tone for the upcoming year
c) To announce adjustments in the organisation’s plans, values & goals
d) To focus on a specific topic

Are you able to cope with the added responsibility on top of your main job?  That is an answer we will not be able to help you with however here are some questions to ask yourself.

a) What is your current workload?
b) Are you able to get help internally eg. setting up a committee to help you?
c) What kind of timeline are you working with?

Once you’ve asked yourself the questions, you are ready to move on to the next step.

 

Step 2 – Budgeting
Budgeting is key to any organisation and similarly key to the success of an event and comes in two folds. It helps set standards and expectations prior to the event.

Part A – Research and understand the different expense types and the expected spending based on a low-budget, mid-budget & high-budget event.  Here are the few key cost components:

a) Team Building Organization & Management & Logistics – This could be in the form of engaging a team building events company with everything included in one package or heading to a concept activity venue such as an escape room / bowling or purchasing logistics to organise your own DIY event.
b) Venue Booking & Permit Requirements
c) Food & Beverages
d) Other Optional Items – Prizes | Door Gifts | Banners | Event Insurance

Such costs can be easily obtained by reaching out to all-in-one team building providers such as ourselves or reaching out to vendors of each segment and consolidating costs for each aspect.

Want to learn more in each category? Click here for an in-depth guide to budgeting for your event.

Part B – Speak to your team, management and bosses to check how much money is allocated for the event. If they do not have any numbers to work with, try to dig up previous activities conducted to get a sense of the budget in the past. If no information is available or if your organisation is new to team building, fret not, focusing on part A will still help you move along.

 

Step 3 – Selecting The Right Provider
Finding the right fit and vendor for your event is an important aspect of an event’s success and failure so here are some quick tips on that.

a) Google is your best friend – Google is the most used search engine in the world so we highly recommend that as a starting point when searching for a provider as they will lead you to many results.

b) Shortlist a few vendors to contact – Look through each vendor’s website to get an idea of the activities they do & their client portfolio. A picture is worth a thousand words.

c) Reach out to the respective vendors to get a quote and proposal – Try to provide the vendor with as much information as possible as this will help the vendor to get a more in-depth understanding. Here are some key details we often ask our clients.
– Event Date & Time
– Demographics Of Your Participants
– Objectives
– Past Activities Conducted
– Preferred Locations
– Budget

d) Vet through the proposals you receive. Here are some guiding points.
– Pricing – Compare packages across the various vendors and shortlist those that fit your budget.
– Activity options – Based on your team’s interest and objectives, select an activity you feel best fits your needs.
– Experience & reputation – Due diligence is essential when appointing a team-building vendor as you’ll be depending on them to execute your event to perfection. Ask for past event videos and photos as well as their past client portfolio.

e) Shortlist your preferred providers and request a meeting with them – Meeting the provider will allow you to better understand the activities they do and what they can offer you.

From there, select the vendor that’s the right fit for you.

For a more in-depth guide on selecting the right team building vendor, click here.

 

Step 4 – Finding The Right Venue
With so many venue options in Singapore and so many different configurations, it’s hard to decide what’s right for you. Here’s a quick sneak peek in the world of venues starting with venue types.

In essence, there are two types of venues in Singapore.

a) Venue + Food Places – Venue + Food places refers to venues where you have to pay a rental fee for the venue and have to cater food separately either from food caterers in Singapore or from the venue’s catering partners.

Why consider this option. Although there might be more cost elements to consider, venue + food options tend to be much cheaper with such venues often working out to be less than $10-$20/pax. Add that in with catering of $10-$15/pax and other misc items above adding an estimated additional $5/pax, it could work out to roughly about $25/pax-$40/pax.

b) Venue With Food Places – Venue With Food places refers to venues where you pay a package price per pax and includes usage of the venue and food. Examples of such venues are hotels or country clubs or convention centres. Venues like this tend to start from $45/pax up to potentially a $100/pax although there are some attractive promotions occasionally.

With that out of the way, it’s time to look into other consideration points when selecting your venue.

a) Venue size – Is the venue size suitable for your group and for the activity selected?

b) Nature Of Activity – What is the nature of the activity? Is it suitable for the venue proposed?

c) Has time been buffered in for setup before the event and teardown after the event?

d) Does the venue have a wet weather contingency for outdoor events?

For a more in-depth guide on selecting the right team building venue, click here.

If everything has been considered,  congratulations, you are done with venues and are ready to move on to the next step.

 

Step 5 – Customising To Your Needs
Once the vendor has been appointed, it’s time to get down to customising the little details. No two companies are the same and hence, their needs and requirements might also differ.

Here are the different areas you should think about.

a) Demographics of your participants – Do the activities proposed suit their needs? Is there a need to make revisions based on the vendor’s proposed program?

b) Timeline – Is the timeline proposed what you are comfortable with?

c) Add on requirements – Do you require any other items apart from the team building package? Prizes? Door Gifts? Banners?

 

Step 6 – Marketing To Your Participants
Now that you’ve got all the details down, it’s time to settle the next most important thing in getting your event together, gathering the participants. To do so, we suggest putting up an e-poster to inform them of the event in a fun and exciting way and perhaps a google form if you need to collate attendance, dietary requirements or even shirt sizing.

 

Step 7 – The Final Touches
The final touch typically comes into play 1 week before the event where you’ll need to finalise your participation as well as clear up any queries you have and approve any outstanding items.

 

Step 8 – It’s Time To Have Some Fun, Let Your Vendor Do The Work
It’s an event day so enjoy yourselves.

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

 

Team Building Event
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The Beginners Guide – Selecting The Right Team Building Vendor For You

THE BEGINNERS GUIDE -
SELECTING THE RIGHT TEAM BUILDING VENDOR FOR YOU

The Beginners Guide series

Finding the right fit and vendor for your event is an important aspect of an event’s success and failure so here are some quick tips on that.

a) Google is your best friend – Google is the most used search engine in the world so we highly recommend that as a starting point when searching for a provider as they will lead you to many results.

b) Shortlist a few vendors to contact – Look through each vendor’s website to get an idea of the activities they do & their client portfolio. A picture is worth a thousand words. Many vendors use stock photos to spruce up the design of their website/ activity so if they don’t show any real photos of their activities, try checking out their gallery or asking them for photos.

c) Reach out to the respective vendors to get a quote and proposal – Try to provide the vendor with as much information as possible as this will help the vendor to get a more in-depth understanding, enabling them to provide the most accurate quote and proposal possible.

Here are some key details we often ask our clients.

– Event Date & Time

– Demographics Of Your Participants

– Objectives

– Past Activities Conducted

– Preferred Locations

– Budget

d) Vet through the proposals you receive. Here are some guiding points.

– Pricing – Compare packages across the various vendors and shortlist those that fit your budget. Quick tip, it is important to do an apple to apple comparison in terms of what’s included in the package, venue pricing etc as different vendors offer different package types. If it gets too confusing, find a vendor that includes everything you need in their package and check with the rest of the vendors the pricing based on a similar package. PS, expensive does not always mean the best.

– Activity options – Based on your team’s interest and objectives, select an activity you feel best fits your needs. No matter what the experts say, you know your team best.

– Experience & reputation – Due diligence is essential when appointing a team-building vendor as you’ll be depending on them to execute your event to perfection. Is the team building their core service or simply one of their event types? Ask for past event videos and photos as well as their past client portfolio.

e) Shortlist your preferred providers and request a meeting with them – Meeting the provider will allow you to better understand the activities they do and what they can offer you.

From there, select the vendor that’s the right fit for you and we’re good to go!

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

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Team Bonding Vs Team Building

Team Bonding Vs Team Building

We often get questions on the difference between team building & team bonding so we thought why not answer it here.

Team Bonding
What does the term bonding actually mean? Similar to how a bond can be referred to the binding of an individual to a contract, investment or agreement, bonds between humans refer to the unifying quality that connects individuals to one another. This is important in a team/ group setting where it refers to a unifying bond between an individual, to others in the group and to the group as a whole and if present, may translate to greater desire to work hard for the group often done through fun activities. Some examples of team bonding activities include sports activities such as Telematch Games, Archery Tag, Bubble Soccer & Dodgeball, activities featured in our Mini Olympics Challenges or outdoor fun-based activities such as our signature Amazing Race & Running Man Challenge. PS, it can even be as simple as attending a cooking class, bowling night or a simple board game day in your office.

Team Building
Team building on the other hand, is slightly different. Whilst team bonding focuses on creating a unifying bond, team building is useful for those that want their team to be more productive and stronger as a whole with still a small element of bonding. This concept recognizes that every member brings to the table their skills, strengths & weaknesses and by working together as one, the team can become much stronger. The activities in team building create opportunities for members of the team to better understand working styles, preferences, strengths and pitfalls of their teammates and are designed to help build skills such as problem solving and communication as a team and create takeaway aka “Aha” moments for reflection through team activities that often can be applied to the everyday office life. The biggest benefit of team- building is often the long-term results. Some examples of team building activities are one world pipeline and our custom building the dream team activity.

So Which Is For Me?
The answer is, that depends. The biggest question we always ask our clients at the start is what do they want to get out of the activity? At the end of the day, it really boils down to what you feel your team needs. If the team is already a high performing team and the focus is to create unifying bonds, then we would recommend conducting team bonding activities as they have a stronger impact in forming bonds than team building. However, if team performance or working on a particular area is your focus, then team building is right for you as you get the best of both worlds.

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

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Leadership Tip – Making Team Conflict Productive

Leadership Tip - Making Team Conflict Productive

We’ve always believed that the strength of a team is in different people of different backgrounds with different perspectives and different personalities coming together for a common cause and goal, all with the burning passion to get the best out of each other.

Ultimately, when you have a strong team like that, conflict on the team will be inevitable. Before you start feeling upset, demoralised & overwhelmed about it, fret not because when conflict is managed effectively, it is more often than not a good thing.  Plus, we’ve got your back so here are our 5 tips to making team conflict productive for your team.

Know Your Team
If you’ve gotten to this part, you’ll already know our stance on having diverse personalities, skills and experience in the team. Recognizing the value of each member’s strengths and weaknesses, skills and traits and how it helps the team and complements the rest of the team will help lay the groundwork for effective conflict resolution when conflict arises. Building team awareness across the board and appreciation of different styles will also put teams in perspective during discussions.

Pro-tip, if you feel that during discussions not everyone is actively participating, go one step up and reach out to those who are less vocal within the team and work with them and encourage them to ensure their ideas get added into the mix.

Address Common Conflict-Related Problems
Conflict is a good thing but two common problems we see in teams that could lead to negative outcomes are displays of passive-aggressive behaviour and the presence of one or two domineering personalities. If you notice any one member within your team displaying such behaviours, it’s important to quickly nip it in the bud through a private conversation with them sharing the examples you’ve seen and explaining why it’s affecting the team and becoming detrimental as well as trying to find out their motivations.

Model A Conflict-Positive Attitude & Promote Diverse Thinking
Constantly work to build a mutual understanding among the team that conflict is normal and healthy. For example, during tough moments of frustration share quotes on how having team conflict could potentially lead to better ideas and show them that you value and appreciate spirited debate. Show them it’s ok and actually ideal to tackle issues head-on when done constructively so they don’t second guess themselves when the outcome does not go positively in their favor. At the end of a heated discussion, thank the entire team for their passion and commitment and embrace the “lessons learned”.

Resolve Disagreements In A Way That Satisfies Different Members Within The Team
This goes back to knowing your team but in a different way. Apart from knowing their strengths and weaknesses, keep in mind that different conflict resolution strategies work best for different people. Keep all the different personalities in mind during conflict resolution. Some members might feel humiliated when things do not work out their way or some might not be comfortable being called out. If required, meet with them privately.

Make Time To Listen
Sometimes, when deadlines are creeping up and the team can’t seem to agree on a resolution or get past a certain conflict barrier, it might be tempting for you as a leader to force an end to the issue through power or go with the person with the most experience. Don’t allow yourself to get to this. Make time to listen to all sides so you can better understand the core of the issue and help the team to develop a solution.

Pro-tip, If you tend to always side with the most experienced person and force a discussion, this could also potentially lead to a bigger problem within the team where the rest of the team members might give up challenging ideas if they feel you will not listen.

If you have any other tips you would like to share, we’ll like to know! Don’t worry, we’ll credit you and provide you and your team with a special discount off our team building activities. Email us at [email protected].

To head back to read another article in our blog or for more tips on team building, click here. If you haven’t already read about how good team conflict helps your team, read about the 5 ways team conflict is good for your team here.

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Finding The Right Venue For Your Team Building Event

Finding The Right Venue For Your Team Building Event

With so many venue options in Singapore and so many different configurations, it’s hard to decide what’s right for you. Here’s a peek in the world of venues starting with venue types.

In essence, there are two types of venues in Singapore.

1) Venue + Food Places – Venue + Food places refers to venues where you have to pay a rental fee for the venue and have to cater food separately either from food caterers in Singapore or from the venue’s catering partners.

Within the venue + food venues, there might also be hidden costs such as rental of tables & chairs (Not all venues come with logistics) & AV techs (If speakers & projectors are needed). Some examples of such venues would be Marina Barrage indoor venues, Lifelong Learning Institute or Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre.

Why consider this option. Although there might be more cost elements to consider, venue + food options tend to be much cheaper with such venues often working out to be less than $10-$20/pax. Add that in with catering of $10-$15/pax and other miscellaneous items above adding an estimated additional $5/pax, it could work out to roughly about $25/pax-$40/pax.

We highly recommend tapping on such venues if budget is a concern because less doesn’t always mean worse. We’ve found some really nice venues for really good rates before.

2) Venue With Food Places – Venue With Food places refers to venues where you pay a package price per pax and includes usage of the venue and food. Examples of such venues are hotels or country clubs or convention centres. Venues like this tend to start from $45/pax up to potentially a $100/pax although there are some attractive promotions occasionally. If you are looking at hotels, we highly recommend RWS Sentosa, MHotel & Hilton Hotel whilst if you are looking at convention centres, check out Suntec City  Convention Centre.

With that out of the way, it’s time to look into other consideration points when selecting your venue.

a) Venue size – Is the venue size suitable for your group and for the activity selected? Quick tip, for team building activities, you often need slightly more space than a traditional theatre-style seating with certain activities requiring 2-3 times more space so work with your vendor to ensure the venue is sufficient.
b) Nature Of Activity –
i) What is the nature of the activity?
ii) Is it an outdoor/ indoor activity?
iii) Does the venue have any restrictions? Eg. no inflatables or painting allowed?
c) Has time been buffered in for setup before the event and tear-down after the event?  A good time to set aside is 1 hour prior for setup and 1 hour post-event for teardown however take note this differs from activity and activity as well as requirements so check with your team building vendor before securing your venue.
d) Does the venue have a wet weather contingency for outdoor events?

If everything has been considered, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Head back to our awesome guide to planning your team building event here.

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

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5 Quick Activities To Connect & Build Bonds With Your Team During Circuit Breaker

5 Quick Activities To Connect & Build Bonds With Your Team During Circuit Breaker

With the government’s latest measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 and the number of cases rising almost daily, staying home & working from home has become more important than ever to help stop the spread.

Unfortunately, this also means no more random desk chatter or lunches with colleagues as well as less chances to bond with your colleagues although shoutout to zoom for being a lifesaver for virtual meets.

As team-building experts having organized over 1,000 events from amazing races, team bonding games to experiential team-building, we know how important it is to keep your team together, connected and engaged despite the circumstances so  we thought we’ll do our little part and share with you 5 quick mini activities/ initiatives to try out during this work from home period.

Virtual Home Tour
In these trying times, staying connected and united is more important now than ever. Instead of having everyone keep to themselves and working in isolation, take the opportunity to get everyone to share a little bit more of their personal lives and provide a sneak peek into their homes & families.  Remember, it’s the little things that matter the most.

Group Virtual Workout
There are a million and one benefits to exercising and we won’t waste your time sharing it here as we only want to focus on two. First, exercising helps reduce stress and in times like these, helping & encouraging each other is important. Second, exercising together with colleagues helps keep everyone accountable. If exercising is not for everyone in the team, try having a mediation session instead.

Speed Typing Challenge
If your team is a competitive one, help keep the spirits and energy up through an online typing challenge. This is especially good to do during a dull day or halfway through a virtual meeting. Click here for a quick link to one. To keep it exciting, consider setting up a zoom chat prior so you can watch everyone’s game face and egged each other on.

Werewolf
If you are searching for a dynamic team game to engage your team whilst keeping everyone sharp. Werewolf might be the game for you. A game of wits, deceit and skilful manipulation based on careful listening and voting and lots of discussion, players will have to figure out who else is on their team and find a way to help their team win without exposing their identity. The best part, this game can be played on Zoom or Google Hangouts.

Pixel Art
Did you know that apart from collating, accounting and recording data, spreadsheets can also double up as a space for teams to work together to enhance their creativity? Introducing spreadsheet pixel art where you can add a little code to sheets that can automatically replace numbers with a colour to fill the cell. So allow creativity to breathe freely as teams work to make a complete art piece together. If you are looking for a template to start with, we’ll be happy to share ours. Reach out to us at [email protected] and we’ll send one to you. No questions asked.

So until we meet physically, stay safe & stay home!

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

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5 Popular Office Perks To Retain & Boost Morale

5 Popular Office Perks To Retain & Boost Morale

Ever heard of the quote, take care of your team and they will take care of your customers and the rest will take care of itself?

Employee retention and engagement are core to a company’s growth and with millennials making up a large part of the workforce today, workplace perks have now become more important than ever. Gone are the days where a good salary package, health-care plan and retirement plan would suffice. Employees now want and expect more. A survey conducted in 2015 by popular job and recruiting site, glassdoor proves just that.

Here are 5 office perks used by some of the world’s biggest companies to engage their employees. We’ve combined it into 5 easy parts PS. if the world’s biggest companies are doing it, it likely won’t hurt to follow. I mean if we want to be the best, we need to learn from the best right?

A Cool Workplace
From having a cool office design (check out this inc article here ), to open workspaces that also allows for collaboration, to games at work from a Nintendo switch to foosball tables and even an arcade basketball machine to the most important, a well-stocked pantry, many companies have constantly try to up the cool workplace games. Try one or a few of these initiatives and we’ll guarantee it’ll be a hit with many and more importantly will help boost morale because who doesn’t like to come to work in a fun place?

Flexible Work Options
Flex Hours – Instead of having a standard 9am-6pm workday, go flex where productivity is measured in terms of work done and not time spent in the office because if one gets their work done, it doesn’t matter when or how long they’re in the office for. If this is too big an undertaking to take on, start with something like allowing employees to come in anytime with a time-frame and leave with a certain time-frame and work from there.

Sabbatical Program – While this entire concept isn’t entirely new, sabbatical programs were previously offered more to in the academia stream but more than ever, we are seeing many top companies including this in their perks. From top consulting firms such as Bain & Company & KPMG to everyone’s favorite fast foods, Macdonalds, this programs are becoming more popular than ever so consider this into your repertoire and allow your employees to take a short break from their job to prevent burnout or allow them to pursue their life-long dreams without losing their commitment to the company.

Educational Opportunities
Providing training and development opportunities to employees will not only help employees showcase their skills and talents and allow them to perform better at their roles. This further education also provides them the chance to grow professionally and keeps them motivated providing a win for all. Just in case your CFO is asking what happens if you invest in your team and people leave? Ask yourself, what happens if there’s no investment and they stay

Group Activities Amongst Departments Or The Entire Company
Having team dinners or meals during festive occasions, a team-building event for the entire company or even small team-bonding activities for a department not only gives the team a break and helps them feel appreciated, it also helps strengthen bonds and allow employees to get to know each other on a personal basis out of the workplace allowing them to cultivate friendships and relationships that could grow into something bigger both for themselves as well as the company because who doesn’t enjoy coming to work in an environment that feels like a family. If budget permits, consider taking them overseas for a retreat.

Health & Fitness
This brings us to our next point, Health & Fitness. Studies have shown that there is a positive link between exercise and one’s brain health. New evidence of an association between cardiorespiratory fitness and brain health. What are ways you can encourage this in your workplace? Organize sports/ activities clubs such as running groups or other interest groups or if you have the budget to do so, try providing a small budget to all employees to encourage them to exercise every month.

One disclaimer, we’ll like to mention that organizations are all different in nature and different industries might have different requirements/ needs so try it out and see if these work for you and make modifications if necessary and don’t be disheartened if they don’t. It just means you’ll have to look under more stones for answers.

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

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5 Benefits Of Virtual Team Building

5 Benefits Of Virtual Team Building

With the pandemic accelerating a shift online, companies can now connect teams from all over the globe to work together on projects. But… how do we then build team rapport, productivity & connectivity for remote team? Virtual Team Building might not be the one size fits all solution however it’s a great tool for companies to use. Here, we will explore the top 5 benefits of virtual team building.

#1. Increased Productivity
One of the most apparent benefits of virtual team building is increased productivity. Of course, productivity is key to any successful business, but it can be hard to achieve when working with a distributed team.

When employees feel connected together on projects, they can share ideas and work more efficiently. That can lead to better results for your business.

#2. Improved Communication
It can be hard to communicate with team members in different parts of the country or world. If communication is difficult, you might feel like you’re not getting the most out of your team.

Virtual team building can help to improve communication among employees. When workers are physically present in the same room, they can easily have side conversations and interrupt each other. But when they’re communicating online, they’re more likely to stick to the task at hand and focus on the discussion.

This improved communication can lead to a better understanding of the project and its goals. It can also help build trust among team members, essential for a successful team.

#3. Enhanced Creativity And Problem Solving
It can be tough to develop new ideas or solutions when you’re stuck in a meeting room or office all day. But, sometimes, all you need is a change of scenery to jump-start your creativity.

You know that creativity and problem-solving are essential for your team’s success, but it can be hard to find the time or space to let your mind wander.

With virtual team building, employees can take their work wherever they go. For example, they can collaborate on projects while on the bus or in line at the grocery store. And they can share ideas in real-time, which can lead to enhanced creativity and problem-solving.

Virtual events are an interactive way to bring your team together. For example, you can have people work together in Abducted games and solve puzzles while trapped within the virtual room! This type of activity will improve problem-solving skills as a team as well as enhance creativity.

#4. Greater Flexibility
The best thing about virtual team building is that it’s flexible. You can use it to supplement your existing team-building activities or as a primary team building means.

Anywhere and at any moment, you may establish a virtual team. So you can fit it into your schedule without having to rearrange your day. And if you have employees who are located in different time zones, you can easily accommodate their schedules.

This flexibility is perfect for businesses with employees who travel frequently or work odd hours. You can also use it to connect with remote workers or freelancers.

#5. Cost Savings
Traditional team building activities can be expensive. For example, you might have to pay for travel, lodging, and meals for your employees. And you might have to rent out a meeting space or conference room.

Virtual team building can help you save money on team building activities. For example, you won’t have to pay for travel or lodging, and you can use free video conferencing tools to connect with your team.

Plus, you can use virtual team building to connect with employees who work remotely. So you don’t have to pay for their travel expenses.

Conclusion
While there are some challenges to virtual team building, the benefits of bonding a remote team far outweigh them. It can help you save money on costs, build relationships, and improve communication. It can also help you overcome geographical barriers and time constraints; if you’re looking for a way to develop your team, consider virtual team building. It’s an effective and efficient way to get the job done so what are you waiting for?

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

 

Virtual Team Building Online Interaction Group Photo

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