Reasons Why Team Building Should be One of Your Priorities as an Employer

Team Building… a concept dreaded by both employees and the employer. Employees dread this term because usually it entails gathering collectively as a company and sitting through boring speeches or presentations and ending with some sort of ice breaker or corky challenge. The only benefits of team building in the eyes of an employee is that it is done on company time and they get to socialize with their work friends. But as a business owner or management level employee, it is your responsibility to create a strong team environment and if your employees and you are dreading the team building sessions, you’re doing something wrong!

Team Building is becoming a must in organizations. It is moving away from the dreaded activity and moving towards a creative and workplace culture building activity! If you have not made the switch here are five reasons why you need to:

  1. Teamwork Boosts Performance

It has been proven time and time again that team work boosts performance. We have all experienced situations in our lives where the whole team is not on board and it really puts a halt on the whole project. Two brains are better than one. The more brains, the more results.

 

  1. Decreases Stereotypes and Misconceptions in the Workplace

Team building activities allow employees to network and bond in the workplace. This will allow for them to break down stereo-types of one another and decrease perceptual biases we as humans naturally acquire towards one another. With team building comes meaningful interaction, and that will result in a better understanding of each person as an individual. Understanding the individual will assist the team to flow better.

 

  1. Increase Communication and Collaboration

This point sort of ties in to stereotypes and misconceptions. Exposing employees to one another in a not so work setting will allow them to get to know each other more personally and understand each other and themselves better. You will see groups naturally form and learn who collaborates well with who. This can later be brought back into work assignments and ideally boosts performance.

 

  1. Millennials

Of course, we bring up millennials. But in reality, by 2025 they will make up majority of our work force and Millennials love teams! Creating a strong team building program will contribute to your corporate culture and get you recognized in a completive work field. Team building is a prominent factor in companies like Microsoft and Hootsuite that have been innovative in their corporate cultures to attract the generations entering the work force.

 

  1. Encourages Innovation and Creativity

Fun and innovative team building activities will encourage the creative and innovative juices to flow through the minds of your employees. With many of them together at once, interacting, sharing ideas and flaunting different personalities – creativity and innovation will follow.

With all this being said, please do not take all this in and still be that company conducting speeches and corky ice breakers. Be innovative and creative when deciding how to engage and blend your employees! Here is a great resources from Huffington Post about how to get your employees engaged in team building activities!

I am interested in what your company does to engage employees in team building activities! Send me an email at danielle@careercontacts.ca and share with me your innovative and creative ideas.