One of the best assets a company can have is a strong team. When leaders and employees work together like a well-oiled machine, a thriving, productive workplace results. Employees feel valued and supported, and leaders can trust their employees to work hard for them.
Many elements are involved in forming a strong team. However, organizing professional yet intimate events is one of the most significant.
These events give employees a chance to get to know each other deeply and bond over things other than work. That said, they need to be well put together and meaningful for the events to have the impact you want them to.
These strategies will help you create memorable employee gatherings that unite your team.
Determine What You Want to Achieve With Each Event
Bringing your team together is a good reason to host employee gatherings. However, the events will be much more impactful if you have definitive goals for them. In other words, what do you want to achieve with each event?
Be specific and as detailed as you can when setting your goals. For example, instead of “bring my team together,” your objective could be “help my marketing, sales, and customer service departments get to know each other.”
Here are a few other examples of objectives you can attach to employee events:
- Resolve a conflict between employees
- Introduce a new system or policy
- Boost creativity and productivity in the workplace
- Gather feedback about how things have been going
- Get employees who never worked together to start working together
- Destress and have fun with each other to strengthen personal connections
Make sure every event has a clear goal attached to it so that you and your employees get something tangible out of the experience.
Get Your Employees’ Input
What’s memorable to you may not be the same for your employees. So, it’s important to get their input when planning events for them to ensure they’re based on what they want rather than what you think your employees want.
Make a list of events you think your team might be interested in. Note the different goals you want to achieve and how you plan on carrying these events out.
Then, schedule a meeting to go over these things with your employees. Lay everything you’ve come up with out on the table and allow your them to give their opinion on all of it.
Make changes to your plans based on their input. This ensures the events will make an impression on them. Also, employees will be much more excited about the events and engaging in them when they have a hand in creating them.
Think Outside the Box When Choosing Events
The great thing about employee events is that there are many to choose from. Think outside of the box, with the help of your employees, and pick events that will be unforgettable, rather than those that are common.
For example, the quarterly performance awards at a local event center is typical for many businesses to bring all teams together to celebrate their achievements.
Instead of the same old event center setup, you could take the event outdoors and make it a dinner party. An outdoor dinner party is much more intimate, fostering a sense of community and facilitating meaningful conversations and connections.
Make sure you do the following to ensure the outdoor dinner party goes smoothly:
- Choose the right outdoor space
- Check the weather for the day of your event
- Use reusable dinnerware
- Choose a great caterer and store and serve food carefully
- Set up lighting that sets the mood
- Create a welcoming space with decor that accentuates natural features
Aside from outdoor affairs and dinner parties, these outside-of-the-box events might be great fits for your team:
- Murder mystery dinner
- A company-wide ultimate game show
- Escape room or a city scavenger hunt
- Cooking classes or competitions hosted at your home
- Family fun day at the local amusement park, zoo, or beach
- Wellness sessions featuring yoga, meditation, or other mindfulness activities
Events like these will help your employees engage with one another and bond while having fun.
Cover Accessibility and the Essentials
You need to cover accessibility and the essentials with every event. Not doing so will lead to an unorganized, chaotic experience that your employees are more frustrated with than they are satisfied with. And that, in turn, makes it hard for them to get anything meaningful out of it.
One of the most important aspects to address in any event is accessibility. Every employee has a right to attend and enjoy the event, regardless of ability, skill, or experience. So, find out all of your employees’ accessibility needs. Put these details into a running document that you can refer to when planning each event.
Then, cover the essentials, including:
- The venue
- The budget
- The theme
- The decor
- Vendors you’re using
- The type of event and format
- How many employees will attend
- Who will be involved in the planning
- What the activities and entertainment will be
- When and what time the event is taking place
In addition to these details, pay special attention to the menu. The food is critical in creating an unforgettable employee event experience, especially if you’re doing something like a wine dinner. You strategically pair different wines with the various courses in the meal when hosting a wine dinner, hence the importance of careful catering and menu selection.
No matter the event, make sure the food is amazing and accessibility and the essentials are covered in detail.
Conclusion
Putting on basic employee events almost guarantees your team gets nothing out of them. Ensure events are organized, tailored to your employees’ wants and needs, have specific goals attached to them, and are outside of the box so your team leaves each one with something meaningful.
