Non-stop ringing phones, never-ending meetings, and pinging emails reduce the performance and increase the stress level in the office environment. The result is rushed decisions, unrealistic expectations, loss of energy and motivation!
If you are having such occasion in the office, this means it’s time to plan a team away-day.
Before you start organizing an away day, you basically need to decide what your objectives are. It can either be a time out of the workplace, just for rewarding the staff or it may be the launch of a new campaign, or finalizing a project, the reasons may vary. Whatever the underlying motives of the offsite you are planning, it would be ideal to merge it with a team building event, so people would have an opportunity to either get to know each other better or to resolve difficult relationships among themselves.
It could be a departmental away day – for example, for the sales team – or it might be for everyone.
Choose the right away day activities
Before making any plans, you can create an employee survey to find out their preferences of an away day. It may bring out some cool highlights which you did not even consider ever.
You never need huge budgets for a fun and engaging team offsite. On the contrary, an away day planned too cheaply will be realized by the staff and will decrease the motivation.
Most away days start with an ice-breaking activity followed by activities that relate to your objectives, usually organized by managers. Alternatively, you can run outdoor or themed events, which can underline some specific goals of the company.
Delegate the facilitation
To make the most of a day ‘out of the business’ it’s advised to delegate the facilitation of the content and logistics to a non-team member, either someone from another division or an external organization. Using an outside agency will generate a fresh perspective and very often a good facilitator will come with a wealth of ideas and activities to generate energy, ideas and raise morale.
Act on the lessons learned
For your investment to be worthwhile, it is essential to take as much of the day as possible. Collect feedback from the staff at the end of an event and evaluate ways of improving it the next time.
Try to implement the suggestions that have come out of the day as soon as possible. If you decided team meetings should be run differently, enforce those changes at the next meeting. The away days should kick-start a process of change.
To access a list of possible away day activities, visit HTC Events website.
