Over the years, our onsite team building venue, Mythe Barn, has seen hundreds of fantastic team building days. Our rural location is perfect for outdoor activities, with large event fields, access to rivers and off-road tracks for raft building and motorsports.
The barn itself is a beautiful, bright space and ideal for hosting indoor team activities such as table-top escape rooms and Crime Scene Investigation. We know that planning a successful team building event can be difficult, which is why we have put together 10 top tips to guide you through the process.
Set a goal
Team building days are incredibly important in the growth and development of your employees, and their mental wellbeing. When planning activities, keep in mind what you want to achieve from the activity:
- Do you want to strengthen the team?
- Build bonds between staff?
- Inspire your team for the next stage of a challenge?
Make sure your goal remains at the forefront of your mind and choose activities that can help reach this goal.
Set a budget
It is important to establish a realistic budget. This will make the enquiries and booking process simpler and quicker. Your budget may also dictate the duration of your chosen activities, so it’s worth deciding early on in the planning process.
Consider the abilities of participants
Team building will only work if all participants are actively involved and engaged. It is always important to consider the abilities of your team and assess how well they will get involved in your chosen team building activities.
Think about age, disabilities and personality types when choosing an activity that everyone can enjoy. If you’re working with a diverse group with a lot of particpants, perhaps a multi-activity day or treasure hunt, would help cater for everyone?
Accessibility may also affect the timings of your team building event. Do many of your staff have responsibilities outside of work? Factors such as childcare or taking care of relatives may affect availability. It is important to assess your teams’ abilities before choosing an activity.
Take it out of the office
Wherever possible, it’s a great idea to take your team building outside of the office. A change of scenery will help keep participants engaged and add to the excitement of the event. Using a venue like Mythe Barn, with lots of outside space also reduces the number of distractions.
It’s easy for participants to be side-tracked in the office by emails, phone calls and day-to-day responsibilities. You need everyone focused on the day to get the best out of it.
Think about incorporating your CSR goals
Team building days are a great way of giving back to the local community at the same time as developing your team. CSR and sustainable events allow you to
incorporate your business goals, whilst engaging in a great away day. We offer activities like Plan Bee, which helps sustain the local bee population (and results in delicious honey!). There are lots of ways to incorporate charities or the environment into your activities. Speak to one of our friendly team for recommendations!
Get a professional in
OK, we may be a bit biased on this one, but we highly recommend getting a professional team building company in to organise your corporate team building day. Although it may sound simple to organise, there are a lot of factors to consider in order to make it successful. Eventurous have over 30 years of invaluable experience – so make the most of our expertise.
We can help you plan all the finer details such as venue finding, setting up equipment and health and safety checks. Hiring a professional team also means that everyone can take part, and everything is taken care of on the day, leaving you to enjoy the benefits as much as everyone else.
Build up to the event
Once you’ve got your activity booked, start building excitement! Team building should be fun and something for participants to get excited about.
Top Tip: If your team building day has a theme, why not send out emails with a teaser of the event theme?
If you plan to announce the event in a meeting, why not show a video to get everyone anticipating the day? Videos offer a great way to get everyone engaged and ready for the day.
Have fun!
For your event to be a success, it should be fun! Participants are more likely to take away positive learning experiences from activities they’ve enjoyed themselves, which will lead to higher engagement in the workplace after the event.
Team building should always be viewed as a positive and enjoyable thing. Research some fun and exciting team building activities such as country pursuits, where participants can learn axe throwing, rifle shooting and falconry.
Debrief
After your event has taken place, the days learning should be taken back to the office and implemented in the day-to-day working environment. Within a few days of the activity, host a debrief meeting to gather feedback from participants and find out what they learnt.
Reiterate how these skills can be used in the office and nurture the bonds created between different teams. It’s also a great way to find out what worked well, giving you better insight for the next event.
Relive the memories
In the weeks and months after your team building activity, you can look back on the experience and keep new skills fresh in everyone’s minds. If you hired a photographer or videographer for your event, share photos and videos with staff and on social media. Consider writing a blog about your experience for the company website or newsletter. You could even create a hashtag for your event to share any photos?
Whatever you have in mind for your next team building day, Eventurous can help every step of the way. From ideas and venue inspiration, to set up and event management.
Call the team on 01827 215 200 or send us a message and we’ll get back to you asap to discuss your exciting plans!
