Why Combine Team Building with Your Christmas Drinks?
Why Combine Team Building with Your Christmas Drinks?
Planning face-to-face team building events can be tricky, especially if you offer remote / hybrid working arrangements, or if you employ freelancers. But as an organisation, this doesn’t mean you should give up on them.
Firstly, why are team building events important?
According to Forbes, team building is the most important investment companies can make. Team building activities build trust, improve communication and encourage collaboration between employees. They boost employee engagement which in turn makes for a successful organisation.
For more on the importance of team building events in 2022, read our article here.
Use Christmas time to your advantage
Most companies, no matter their employee working arrangements, still host Christmas events. (We can happily confirm that the Christmas party isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.) Therefore, consider ‘TAGging’ (pardon the pun) some team building activities onto your festive event(s) when you can more easily guarantee availability and maximise on numbers.
Here’s how:
1) Include facilitation exercises in your Christmas party
The Christmas party is the optimum time for team bonding: everyone is together (people don’t tend to miss the Christmas party), and they’re in good spirits.
If you have new starters, freelancers or remote workers who’ve never met before, bonding exercises can help put people at ease. Small and simple ice-breaker activities take the pressure off the pre-dinner small talk and foster a relaxed environment later on.
2) Embrace role-playing games
No, team building activities aren’t all trust falls and fox/chicken/grain scenarios. Sometimes team building means a good murder mystery evening - AKA an excellent opportunity to get your colleagues to work together to ‘solve a crime.’
Murder mysteries are especially brilliant for those who are shy or more introverted. As everyone plays a role, there is less social anxiety.
With Team Activity Group’s murder mystery evenings, we provide the actors who’ll host the evening, give the info and the clues.
3) The morning after the night before
It might be left field, but post-Christmas-party activities actually go down a treat!
Sore heads and low serotonin levels are almost a given after the Christmas party. If yours is midweek you can guarantee no work is getting done the next day.
This is precisely why you should plan a (not-too-strenuous or serious) team activity for the following working day.
If you have remote workers, choose from our virtual team building activities. Or otherwise, encourage people back to work with a few more hours out of the office. It might sound counterintuitive, but it works.
A scavenger hunt around town could be just what everyone needs to get motivated again.
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Remember, the main thing is to consider your company’s work culture and find a team activity that’s right for you and your colleagues. And don’t neglect team building just because of the office setup.
Here at Team Activity Group, we still have some slots available for Christmas party bookings and team building activities around the festive period. Book now to avoid disappointment!