.png)
As a small business owner, you know how critical your employees are to your organization. Their work helps keep your company running smoothly, satisfying your customers and ensuring operational excellence. However, employees of a company usually don’t know one another before they begin working together for 40 hours each week. That’s where the importance of team bonding comes into play.
Team bonding allows your workers to get to know one another personally. When employees feel comfortable around each other, they’re more likely to have positive interactions that benefit your business. You can encourage relationships between your employees through team-building activities designed to get them to interact.
According to Team Building Hub, 63% of leaders feel communication improves among employees after group activities. However, many small businesses fail to make the connection between team-building activities and improved employee happiness. Sadly, 31% of companies do not invest in employee bonding, even though 55% of managers believe that group activities would enhance the work culture.
Types of Small Businesses that Benefit from Team Bonding
Any small business can benefit from fun team-building activities for work. The ones that see the most benefits have a staff of over five to ten people. Employees in larger groups of workers may interact with one another less frequently, so team-building exercises allow them to get to know each other better. Companies with multiple departments also benefit from team-building. Employees often get caught up in a silo mentality, where they maintain communication within their group but rarely interact with others outside their department.
Team-building activities incorporating multiple departments within a company can encourage workers to break free from the silo and learn how their work impacts others. For instance, you could facilitate an exercise between the finance and sales departments or between your marketing and engineering groups.
In-Office Team-Building Activities
Numerous in-office team-building activities can encourage collaboration between your employees. Here are a few favorites:
1. Try a Few Team-Building Games
Board games are an exciting, fun, and inexpensive way to encourage team building along with lots of laughs. Apples to Apples and Jenga are two easy games that multiple people can play. They both require teamwork and skill building. Heads Up is a free, downloadable game available on iOS and Android. Each player takes a turn holding their phone above their head with the name of a famous person displayed on the screen. They must guess the celebrity’s name based on the clues provided by their colleagues.
Best for: Creativity and laughter
2. Set Up a Hack Day
Hack days are prevalent in tech and engineering. However, other companies can also use them to brainstorm ideas or solutions to their problems.
To set up your hack day, determine a pressing problem that all employees can contribute to solving. For instance, you may ask them to brainstorm ideas for a new product or service or a way to streamline an inefficient process.
Best for: Breaking apart silos
3. Host a Lunch and Learn
A “lunch and learn” combines food with learning new skills. Find an employee in your office with a unique talent that most people don’t know how to do well. For example, maybe one of your employees can perform magic tricks or play an instrument. At your lunch and learn, you’ll ask the employee to demonstrate their skill to other workers and explain how it works. Your employees will learn something new, and the individual will get a chance to shine.
Best for: Building presentation skills and encouraging skill-building
Out-of-Office Team-Building Activities
If you’re ready to take your employees outside the office for fun team bonding activities, many options are available.
1. Try an Escape Room Challenge
Escape rooms are all the rage, and you can probably find a few in your city. In an escape room, participants must solve a mystery or challenge to “escape.” You might face multiple situations, such as being stuck in a jail cell or uncovering a whodunit. Escape room challenges provide participants with a variety of clues or items that they use to resolve the situation. Typically, admission runs between $15 to $30 per person, and you can book multiple employees at once.
Best for: Team collaboration and engagement
2. Volunteer
Another way to encourage team collaboration while also supporting a good cause is volunteering. You can allow everyone to take a day off from work to volunteer for a local organization. For instance, ask your team to clean up a local park or enroll them in a community walk. Volunteering gets people away from the office and allows them to further their relationships outside work. You can feel good knowing you’re supporting an organization that needs your help while promoting outdoor team-building.
Best for: Building relationships and morale
3. Plan a Trip
Another way to encourage team bonding is through a short trip. Depending on your organization’s finances, you could organize a trip to a fun city! During the trip, you can plan various activities that require everyone to participate. Trips can be expensive, but they encourage relationship-building in a way that other activities can’t since they usually last for multiple days outside the office.
If the costs of a trip are prohibitive, consider taking out a business line of credit from Idea Financial. We offer loans with quick approval, usually within the same business day.
Idea Financial Can Help You with Your Working Capital
At Idea Financial, we understand how challenging growing a small business can be. We’re here to help support your organization’s growth with our flexible financing options. Check out our solutions to discover how we can assist you as you scale your company.
