Hosting a Successful Team-Building Event

A positive company culture involves an environment in which employees feel comfortable, passionate, and excited about their jobs and the people around them. Hosting successful team-building events is one way to assist in fostering a positive company culture and a thriving workplace. 

Purpose of Team-Building Events 

Company team-building activities are a great way to bring employees together from all departments. These team-building activities don’t typically involve the day-to-day work or roles that employees are used to performing in their positions. Instead, team-building events focus on activities for employees to do together outside of the traditional work environment. The purpose of these company team-building events is to bring people together in a way that facilitates friendships and relationships and to help bring coworkers together to learn more about each other outside of typical job tasks. These team-building events can then inspire employees to feel more motivated at work because of their positive team-building experiences. Team-building events help to break down communication issues and department barriers while encouraging workers to enhance collaboration and creativity. 

Types of Team-Building Events 

Ideas for team-building events are plentiful as there are endless options and possibilities! Many companies choose fun team-building events that facilitate group activity, such as a cooking class where the team works together to cook a meal or a painting or pottery class where the teams have art to create but do so in a group atmosphere. Escape rooms are still a popular team-building activity as the employees work towards a common goal – escaping from the room! Other types of team-building events could involve sports, such as bowling where the company is broken down into teams. Sometimes these teams are premade by the company’s team-building event planners to mix departments so that employees can meet other coworkers that maybe they don’t have the opportunity to spend time with during the normal workday. 

It’s important to determine if it’s large group team building or small group team building, as this will help you select the best team-building activities for your company.

Not all team-building events must take place outside of the office. It’s possible (and fun) to set up a team-building event at your company’s location. Perhaps there’s an outdoor area for activities or a conference room that can be set up for a special lunch. These team-building activities at the office can take place a few times per year or even monthly. For example, celebrating monthly birthdays with cake and desserts once per month for all employees born in that month is a great way to bring people together for a special cause. This doesn’t involve much more than serving dessert and possibly renting specialty linens for the occasion. Employees will enjoy taking time to celebrate with each other and look forward to the team-building break each month.

Keys to Successful Team-Building Events

Planning a team-building event can be an efficient process. There are a few ways to guarantee a successful team-building event. While you don’t always have to survey your staff when choosing the best corporate team-building activity and allow the event to be a surprise, asking staff for a team-building activity wish list is a nice way to include employees in the event planning. Consider the internal suggestions when planning the most appropriate team-building events.

Think about the goals for the team-building event. Are you looking to foster an environment of communication between employees? If that’s the case, select a team-building activity that allows for plenty of conversation and time for “chit-chat,” versus choosing an activity that is so involved in its process that natural conversation and getting to know each other is limited.

Fun team-building activities are obviously the best option as people want to have fun. Select a few team-building activity ideas and choose the option that seems as though it is the best fit for your company and offers the most fun environment for the experience. 

Reserve time for conversation. It’s important that team-building activities and events leave time for employees to mingle amongst themselves, get to know each other, and have time for conversations outside of the actual activity.

Breaking from team-building events for a catered meal and networking is an important way to allow coworkers to spend time together. Depending on the team-building event location, the venue itself may offer a menu or catering package to choose from for the team-building meal. If the venue doesn’t offer catering, or if you are hosting the team-building event onsite and use the conference room or another office space for the luncheon and networking, consult a local caterer to provide a great meal for your employees.

Event Rentals for Team-Building Events

When hosting a team-building event at an office, or even another event venue, you may need to rent tables, chairs, tabletop items, and other event rental items from a rental company. Event rentals that satisfy buffet-style meals are great for team-building events. Buffet tables and tabletop items make it easy for employees to serve themselves. 

When working with a rental company, speak to the specialist about the guest count and the number of tables and chairs you may already have on hand, so that they can help you determine if you should rent additional tables and chairs so that everyone can be seated comfortably. Renting lounge furniture is also a great idea for team-building events, as it fosters a casual seating style for coworkers to mingle.

To add fun and unique elements to team-building events, consider event equipment rentals such as a cotton candy machine or popcorn machine. Small touches, such as popcorn, cotton candy, or even sno cones add much to any event for employees.