Do Corporate Team Building Exercises Really Work?

Posted by Jake Mandel on May, 18, 2021

 

Encouraging teamwork and strong relationships between employees is one of the most important roles for any manager, after all it’s your job to get the most out of your team right?

The stronger the bond between team members, the more they will get on and the better they will understand each other. The result is a more productive, collaborative and efficient team that works better together.

But how do you achieve this level of unity in a team? Do you take them out for lunches each Friday, do you host annual Christmas events or do you introduce an employee rewards program? 

We get this question a lot here at Teambonders, and we firmly believe that team building events are one of the most effective ways to invest in the success of your team.

Yet team building has often fallen into the trap of feeling like a corporate-y buzzword that has no real meaning. We can assure you that it does have meaning, and that hosting the right team building events does truly have value when it comes to bringing your team closer together!

How can organizations benefit from successful team building?

Team building events do work, and when done right they will bring huge ROI for your organization by helping your team to build stronger bonds, improving collaboration among employees and improving team morale.

Here are just a few ways your business will benefit from team build events:

Improved employee motivation: Employees want to feel valued by both the organization they work for, and their team members. The more valued they feel the better the work they will produce. The American Psychological Association found that team building makes employees feel valued, and valued employees are motivated to perform well!

More engaged remote workers: Virtual and hybrid team building exercises are fantastic at engaging remote employees and making them feel part of the time. In fact, Gallup found that feelings of employee isolation can reduce productivity up to 21 percent. Team building events prevent those feelings!

Improved communication: Inter-team communication and collaboration is crucial to successful outcomes. The best team building events are specifically designed to improve communication between your team members. This study from Harvard Business Review found that socializing between team members improves communication patterns more than 50 percent.  

Some tips to ensure your team building events are successful 

Identify what you want to achieve with your team building event

Team building events involve a range of exercises, but they aren’t all aimed at achieving the same objectives. You need to think about the specific qualities that you are looking to strengthen in your team and what ROI you expect to realize from your event. 

Do you want to improve communication between your team members, do you want to invest in an event that will make your employees feel valued, do you want to resolve conflicts between specific departments or do you want to improve your team’s problem solving capabilities?

What you want to achieve will play a huge role in the type of team building activity that you host.

Find a balance between competition and collaboration

Your team building event should be competitive enough in that it’s fun for your employees and becomes a talking point within your office, but it shouldn’t be competitive over collaborative - you need to find a good balance between the two. 

Remember, the goal of your team building event is to improve communication and bonds within your team, not force them to intensely compete with each other.

Find the right mix of fun and team building

Just as important as finding the balance between competition and collaboration, is finding the right mix between fun and team building. Events like zip lining, go-kart racing or bowling may all be fun and help your team to bond, but are they truly helping your employees to learn the team bonding skills that will make them more successful in the office?

Host team building events that provide your employees with skills that actually apply to their job, with teamwork, collaboration and communication all forming a strong focus of what you are trying to achieve.Want to learn more about the benefits of team building events, and how your organization can host one that helps you achieve your objectives? Get in touch with Teambonders today, we would love to answer any questions that you may have.

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Tags: Team Building