Ola Polczynski 10 November - 5 min read
For many businesses, the team bonding experience often stops at the weekly Monday team catch up session, or perhaps the CEO delivers a regular update from the boardroom, and then you might end the week with some Friday afternoon office nibbles and drinks. And while these sessions are all 100 per cent necessary in promoting face-time and a regular flow of information within the company, it’s often confined to the office ‘space’ where employee attention can be somewhat dispersed.
Often businesses and business owners are so focused on making sure their staff are working hard that they forget a critical component of a productive workforce – happiness. A happy team is generally more satisfied, more likely to stick with a company and are all-round better at their jobs. The Spenda Experience
1. Understand your goals
Really understand WHY you’re meeting up and want to get out of the gathering. Off-site experiences cost money so you need to make sure you are getting a return on your investment. Do you want to improve communication between teams? Are there morale issues to work through? Do you want the whole team to be a part of strategic planning? Once you know your goals, you can better plan the activities for the day.
2. Timing Matters
The worst thing you can do is plan your events around key deadlines within the business. Perhaps sales have key targets to meet at the end of each month. The tech team may be working on product features that have tight deadlines. Be conscious of what everyone is doing and give people a lot of notice so they can schedule their work around the event. While you can’t completely avoid task conflicts, planning ahead will minimise their impact.
3. Location, location, location
If you are planning on holding regular off-sites, keep it fresh every time and change up the location. Also, be cognisant of where everyone lives and try to keep it fair. Our Spenda team is quite spread out across Perth, so we try to mix up the location of our events. Sometimes we favour the north of the river crew, and other times, the south-siders get the better deal. It’s all about compromise.
Of course, with COVID-19, air on the side of caution and follow the advice given by your respective location. We’ve been really lucky here in Perth, but if you are not able to meet up in person, get creative. Perhaps you can organise a company pub quiz or planning session across video chat. Keep connected with your team in whatever means you have available to you.
4. Change it up
Don’t plan the same event every time. Mix it up with different activities. Every gathering should have a different purpose. Maybe one time you want to promote team bonding, so plan challenges and games that require teamwork and problem-solving. Next time it could be getting everyone involved in building company values. Another gathering can be used for strategy and planning.
5. Make it fun
Never trust those people who say you can’t have fun and get your work done at the same time. Because you absolutely can. A company off-site SHOULD be fun. While you have everyone’s attention, use this time to build a happy and collaborative environment that gets everyone excited about their position in the company, and about the company’s future. Remember, off-sites don’t need to be expensive, get creative and you can find something to do that’s suited to any budget.
At Spenda, we like to think we’re a pretty awesome bunch. We work hard and we also like to play hard. We believe that every single team member plays a key role in Spenda’s success today and into the future, and our social gatherings really help to keep us connected as one team.
Think you’ve got what it takes to join the Spenda team? We’re always on the lookout for amazing talent to join our growing team, so hop on over to our Careers page and get in touch with us.
With measures such as the Federal Government’s JobKeeper Payment Scheme ending on 28 March 2021, a slight cooling in the country’s economy wouldn’t have been a surprise. However, that hasn’t been the case.
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You might have heard a bit about Spenda and perhaps you are keen to learn more? Or maybe you have recently discovered our business? Either way, we thought we’d dive deeper into who we are, what we do and how we help businesses excel so they can trade faster and most importantly get paid quicker.
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