Employee engagement has become the key to ensuring the consistent growth and success of an organization. So, team-building activities are becoming popular as they enable employees to interact and have fun with their co-workers and feel more engaged.
Employee engagement is the level of emotional attachment that employees have towards their job, organization, and their teams.
Engagement is important as it influences the willingness of the employees to learn and perform at work.
It is also clear that their relationships with their co-workers form an important aspect of employee engagement.
However, building strong relationships with co-workers is not something that can happen overnight.
Both employees and management have to invest time and effort towards developing strong and lasting relationships, based on mutual trust.
This is how team-building activities can help organizations to achieve this objective effectively.
The key objective of team building activities is to get employees out of their professional mode and interact with their co-workers informally.
These activities help to improve communication between coworkers and establish a sense of trust between them.
They foster better collaboration and coordination between groups of employees and help them to develop effective team skills.
They understand the benefits of working together to solve problems and overcome challenges.
Most importantly, these activities help create a sense of belonging, safety, and comfort with their co-workers.
All these factors contribute to improving the overall engagement level of employees.
Organizations need to conduct team-building activities taking into consideration the differences in the personalities of employees.
It should foster teamwork in a fun-filled and interesting manner rather than being forced into it.
So, here are a few ideas for such activities that can ensure better engagement:
1. Organize Intra-office Competitions
2. Arrange Adventure Outings
3. Plan a Voluntary Activity
4. Invest in Creative Happy Hours
Intra-office competitions can be one of the most effective team-building exercises for almost every organization.
So, with a range of available options, such competitions are easy to organize regularly with high employee participation.
Football tournaments between different teams or departments or karaoke competitions can motivate employees to be part of an informal activity.
Another team-building activity that is becoming quite popular with organizations is adventure outings.
The informal and relaxed atmosphere helps to strengthen interpersonal relationships between employees.
The organization can arrange for employees to stay at a resort or camp and participate in different games and activities.
In addition, various group activities provide opportunities for team building in a fulfilling, exciting, and purposeful manner.
For example, a trip to a nature camp can enable employees to enjoy group activities like trekking, camping, rappelling, etc.
Providing opportunities to do some social work together is also a great way to help them bond with one another.
Especially, if the organization already contributes to different social causes, then employees can easily volunteer for such activities.
This can be a win-win situation as it helps co-workers bond over a good cause while creating corporate goodwill.
For example, organizations can work with charitable organizations that contribute towards adult literacy and environment preservation.
A happy hour may not just mean going out for drinks or bowling with the entire team.
Happy hours be any activity that enables employees to interact with each other without worrying about work.
Making the employees feel detached from their work sometimes can boost employee motivation in a significant manner.
This can include activities such as an informal lunch outing, a movie outing, or even a cocktail creation course.
Selecting the right team-building activities is important to employee engagement and ultimately the success of a business.
The above ideas can serve as a guide, but organizations should always experiment with other ideas as well.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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