Why Is Team-Building Important In The Workplace
We have all heard about team-building activities in companies, right? Those boring events in which employees are forced to have fun and no doubt fill them with horrible memories of episodes of ‘The Office’.
Well, think again. Team-building events do not need to be this way. In reality, they are an invaluable exercise for any organisation, especially an organisation that wants to grow and cultivate powerful company culture.
A company culture in which employees feel valued, are free to share ideas and concerns, trust each other, and can collaborate easily.
The importance of team-building in a successful business cannot be overstated. This article will explain why this is the case and underline why you should take team-building seriously.
The Importance Of Team-Building
Here are some of the key reasons why team-building activities are such an important investment for your business.
And not only will you understand the benefits of team-building activities, but will also learn about some brilliant team-building ideas and how to implement them.
Keep reading to find out the five main reasons why team-building is important in any organisation.
1. Team-Building Builds Trust
Team-building exercises are a fundamental way to develop trust among members of your team.
The best team-building activities mimic many of the situations your team will face in the workplace and allow team members to get to know and understand each other’s working styles and habits. For high-performing teams, a high level of trust and understanding is essential.
What’s more, successful team-building involves diverse teams interacting through various activities, boosting employee engagement across the board and creating positive relationships throughout. This directly translates into happier teams, grounded in trust not just in each other but in the organisation also.
There are so many excellent team-building activities for building trust and team spirit, such as:
- An Amazing Race: What better way to build trust among members than by having them work together to race across a metropolis like Bangkok or over the islands of Samui? And the Amazing Race is a great team-building activity for blowing off steam and rewarding your team members.
And a happy, trusting team is influential for a company’s culture. Definitely think about this for your next team-building event.
2. Team-Building Improves A Team’s Communication Skills
The best team-building activities also create a more positive work environment. And a positive work environment is key to encouraging employees to work together more intimately.
When teams work together efficiently and effectively, they are more likely to find the best and most optimal way to handle even the most difficult tasks.
A great example of a team-building activity that can boost employee morale within the entire team while also encouraging effective team building and fostering communication skills is an Escape Room.
And Escape Room is an excellent team-building tool for many reasons, including:
- Encourages collaboration
- Develop trust
- Develop problem-solving
- Help teams work towards a common goal
- Encourage creative and fresh ideas
- Good for employee motivation and mental health
All these benefits of team-building come together to improve communication within the group and of each team member.
With good communication, each team member understands their role and the role of their colleagues. This is key to a strong team as it allows employees to assist each other in achieving goals.
Good communication is especially important in the world of remote teams. Communication is so much more difficult across internet connections and different time zones.
There are also many virtual team-building events to help improve team effectiveness in the online world – a great example being the Virtual Escape Room. This activity and others like it inspire connections between remote employees, bringing them together and helping them communicate more easily in the online workplace.
3. Team-Building Connects Remote Teams
As mentioned above, team-building is an excellent tool for connecting remote teams. But it goes beyond helping remote employees to communicate with each other.
Virtual team-building exercises are ideal for:
- Improving employee engagement
- Developing a connected and strong company culture
- Creating a diverse and highly successful team
- Improving efficiency across your business
Virtual team-building exercises provide fun activities in which a disconnected team can come together and learn to understand each other better.
What’s more, with the advancements in technology, there are some incredible virtual team-building activities, such as:
- Virtual Murder Mystery: This team-building activity is great for getting remote workers to feel comfortable and at ease with their fellow remote team members. And a Virtual Murder Mystery is a brilliant way to ensure employees across the board are developing skills like problem-solving, teamwork, communication, and leadership.
- Virtual Treasure Hunt: Remote teams within an organisation all have a common goal, though this can sometimes get lost. The Virtual Treasure Hunt is a way to encourage this idea and how best to work together to achieve it in a fun and relaxed environment.
It is clear that virtual team-building is only going to become more important in the business world of the future. Not only can it lead to more engaged employees and more effective teams, but also to increased employee satisfaction and a company culture of happiness and value.
4. Team-Building Encourages Innovation
What does any business want other than a team that is forever connecting to produce fresh ideas? Even the most creative and effective team will hit a mental block at some point.
Regular team-building events are a way to limit the frequency and impact of these periods.
Team-building fosters the type of environment where the free exchange of ideas is encouraged, no matter how outrageous. This freedom will lead to a more positive work environment in the first place, and a creative, open space more likely to foster innovations also.
Regular team-building events will also help in those times when team members are stuck on a tedious or monotonous task or when the business is struggling to keep things fresh moving forward.
Make sure you choose the right team-building activity for the outcome you want. One of the best for innovation and creativity is an improv class.
This will keep employees active mentally and encourage them to always think of new ways to approach problems and situations. What’s more, it is also one of the best ways to improve team performance and create a cohesive team.
5. Team-Building Promotes A Happy Team
The benefits of team-building are not strictly related to developing new skills and reaching company goals. A team-building event is a brilliant way to reward team members for their hard work and inspire happiness across the team.
A brilliant team-building exercise that is sure to make your team happy during the next team-building event is the Sailing Destinations. What could make your team happier than having them work together to sail their own ship and island-hop between the beautiful islands of Thailand?
Not to mention, of course, that happy teams are strong teams – team-building events cant really motivate employees. And when employees are motivated they will give their best work.
And the happiness that results from regular team-building activities means employees are less likely to leave, reducing turnover rates. This also promotes a great company culture from the outside as somewhere people want to work – meaning your business is likely to attract the best talent.
Why Is Team-Building Important In The Workplace
We hope it is clear now that team-building is important for success as a company. And that you must work hard to incorporate team-building activities into your business plan moving forward.
Team-building is a great way to:
- Develop effective communication
- Help teams perform optimally
- Building strong relationships in other departments
- Make new employees feel valued
- Create a happy environment where employees can be their authentic selves
And what’s more, it can be just as good virtually as with in-person teams. There’s more to motivation in the workplace than patting an employee on the back when their sports team wins.
Team-building is the best thing you can do to improve the culture of your workplace and the effectiveness of your business going forward.
So why not start planning your team-building event today!