There’s No I in Team: Signs Your Company Needs a Team Building Event
Signs Your Company Needs a Team Building Event
Do you feel like your employees are somewhat disconnected? If so, you may want to try team building. Read on to learn if it’s time for a team building event.
American workers as a whole aren’t very happy in their jobs. In fact, two-thirds of full-time employees admit they’re disengaged in the workplace.
There could be any number of reasons for this, but a team building event can be an effective solution to bring morale and motivation back to your office.
If you’ve been wondering if a team building day is what your employees need, here are several strong signs you may want to invest in one.
The Passion is Gone
When workers lack enthusiasm about their jobs and are going through the motions to get to Friday, that’s definitely a sign that you could use a team building day.
They may have also lost sight of your company’s mission statement and goals. A team building event can remind them of why they chose to take their job in the first place.
Gossip is Running Rampant
Workers having hushed conversations in the break room or other semi-private areas makes other employees uncomfortable.
It also means they don’t feel comfortable discussing work matters out loud or expressing concerns to management. Or worse, they may be saying negative things about a third party who isn’t present to defend themselves.
Employees may even start to form cliques and exclude coworkers from important project meetings and conversations.
Gossiping employees can bring morale down and hurt others’ feelings. Workers need to respect each other to help a business reach its goals.
A team building event can help your employees get to know each other a bit better. It also teaches them to respect where other people are coming from.
No One Wants to Help Each Other
Business success requires workers that help each other out, even if they’re from different departments. When phone calls and emails are going unanswered because another person is unwilling to help out, it can create a frustrating situation.
Sometimes workers ignore another person’s request because they’re too busy working on their own project. When it becomes a pattern and involves the same employees, team building exercises can help.
Employees Waste Time On Non-Work Activities
It’s normal for someone to want to take a breather from a project and check their phone or Facebook for a moment. But if employees are spending long periods of time on social media, texting, or personal emails to avoid getting work done, it can hurt your company’s bottom line.
Wasting time shows that workers aren’t into their job duties. This can cause productivity to dive and deadlines to get pushed out. This is dangerous if your company has promised a new product release to your customers.
Customer Service is Lacking
If your business is one that relies on good customer relations and service to be successful but your employees aren’t concerned with keeping customers happy, this can truly hurt your bottom line.
Sometimes it’s a lack of training and information when employees don’t know how to deal with customer complaints and resolve problems.
Other times, it may be caused by a lack of communication between departments. Team building can encourage better relations between departments and remind employees why customer satisfaction drives the company’s success.
Discord Between Old and New Workers
If your company has a high turnover rate or has expanded and hired several new employees quickly, this can cause discord. Even with the best training, new employees can’t fully appreciate how departments operate until they’ve been with the employer for some time.
Seasoned workers may also feel threatened by newbies and worried about their jobs. Team building can help break down barriers and misconceptions between new and old workers and help them see each other in a new light.
What to Expect At a Team Building Event
A team building event gives your employees a break from the office environment and their duties for a day. It encourages your workers to let loose and laugh with each other through any number of engaging games and exercises.
Team building events help people see each other in a whole new light. This can help improve office relations and create better communication. They form stronger bonds which can lead to increased job satisfaction and decreased employee turnover rate.
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to team building events. It can involve a comedic improv performance, a cooking class, and more.
Best of all, any size company can benefit from a corporate team building event.
Keep Motivation Going After a Team Building Event
Even with the most fun and engaging team building event, your work as a leader and motivator is not done. A team building day is not a one-and-done cure for every company. It takes commitment on management’s part to keep employees happy.
The problem may be with your company and management style and not your workers.
Maybe you’re holding too many department meetings because you feel you have to have them. Or perhaps employees feel uncomfortable about discussing work matter with their managers.
If you’re not rewarding your employees with the occasional free lunch or social event to thank them for their hard work, that can also impact motivation.
There are many team building strategies you can use to continue motivating your employees after an event.
Hire Us For Your Team Building Event
If any of the signs we’ve listed above sound familiar, we’d love to help you. WITS (Workplace Interactive Team Building Seminars) has helped hundreds of business clients create better interaction and productivity among its workers with personalized team building events.
Although we have locations in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, Austin, and Green Bay, we can also travel anywhere nationwide. Contact us to learn more about our team building workshops and how they can benefit your employees.
