Throwing a company-wide event to engage your staff is an important way to show that you value your employees while setting the tone and enforcing your company’s culture. The raucous company party that ends in serious mischief may be a cliché for movies, but in reality, having an opportunity to socialize is incredibly important for boosting your company morale.
Who doesn’t love good food? A company event is a great opportunity to show appreciation for your staff by serving up a memorable meal. Especially for occasions like open houses where you’ve invited other companies to mingle, you should hire a corporate caterer to take care of your food items and ensure everything goes off without a hitch. So, what will you do on the day? Here are five team-building activities for fun and bonding among your staff.
1. Scavenger Hunt
This is a fun way to get your team moving either in the office or off-site. Staff can work in teams to collect items from the scavenger hunt, which can be themed to complement your business. Your staff will appreciate the opportunity to get up and explore, and you can host a catered lunch to wrap up the festivities.
2. Field Trip
Take an outing to a new part of town or a farm, or even book a short camp retreat. With the chance to experience a unique setting and get to know each other, a field trip is a great way to quickly break down barriers between staff and promote friendliness.
3. Professional Development Workshop
Bring in an expert to teach something new like leadership skills or new software and technology. You could even get your employees to take turns playing experts and teach each other based on their specialties as a fun skill-sharing activity. A professional development workshop gives your staff the chance to learn something new and hopefully work together as they put their new skills to use.
4. Volunteer Day
Bring your team together by organizing a volunteer day where you’ll give time to a good cause and leave feeling good about yourselves, too. Plenty of organizations like Habitat for Humanity and others coordinate corporate volunteer days where your team will visit a site to do a day’s worth of work in something that gives back to the community.
5. Cooking Class
Whether you do this on-site or off-site, arranging for a cooking class for employees gives everyone the chance to talk to each other in a fun, light-hearted environment. You can make the cooking class themed based on the time of year; for instance, you can whip up some gingerbread cookies or meat pies if it’s close to the holiday season.
More Than Fun
Treat your team-building event as more than an opportunity to relax and add a bit of levity to the workplace. Research shows that company events can yield a positive ROI because they promote collaboration, validate your employees, promote teamwork, and foster creativity.
