More and more companies are realising the value of teambuilding but to get the best out of it, it helps to have a few tips from the experts. Gianni Zammit and Josef Gafà of Jugs shared their golden rules with the Business Observer.
1. Each company is different
When it comes to team building, there is no ‘off the shelf solution’... what you need depends on which sector you work in, how many departments there are, what the headcount is and, most important of all, what you want to get out of it.
Teambuilding ranges from a simple social event which gives your employees the chance to meet outside the work environment, to intense sessions which delve deeply into character traits.
2. Get management on board
Very often, teambuilding is suggested by the head of human resources but it is also important to get management on board. This is not only because they have to pay for it but because they would gain from the experience!
Problems within companies are usually down to communications, trust and silos, which can only be solved by having both a horizontal and vertical solution.
3. Don’t underestimate the impact of a social event
A major target of teambuilding is establishing connections between colleagues. Do not underestimate how little contact there may be between people on different floors – let alone different branches. Very often they only talk on the phone or communicate via e-mail. Imagine how much more cooperative they would be if they have met and spent some time together. This is even more valid when there are departments that have conflicting interests, like sales and compliance.
If you know your colleagues on a social basis then they are less likely to take unnecessary sick leave as you are more appreciative of the burden that you are putting on them.
You can also shuffle the composition of the teams so that more people are exposed to each other
4. Teambuilding is a great way to involve new people
Teambuilding is very effective when there are new members – whether new members of staff joining the company or a ‘lock, stock and barrel’ merger or acquisition. A fun event, like games on the beach, is a great way to break the ice when you have two sides that are wary of each other.
Dealing with people who do not know each other is challenging. This is why how you split teams is crucial. Do not let them do it of their own accord, as they will naturally stick to their own cliques and to those they know. This would be so counter-productive that it is probably better to do nothing!
You could do it randomly by giving out coloured wristbands, but it is even better if you create teams in a more structured way, for example, spreading managers across teams.
5. Avoid too much competition
Having a winner is not always the best outcome, as it could create an even bigger rift! One game that Jugs uses is called Route 66. Instead of teams competing against each other, each one builds a different element, like a car, a bridge and so on. They all need each other and they need to coordinate, so the car and the bridge must be the same size, for example. You can also shuffle the composition of the teams so that more people are exposed to each other.
6. Bigger is not always better
Sometimes, a company will want a social event for all its employees, but once you start to delve more deeply into teambuilding, smaller groups might work better.
For a classroom-style session, 20-30 is the max as this enables the facilitators to bring out an amazing amounts of traits. Do you want to know who has leadership potential and those who are so passive that they fail to reach their potential? Do you want to know who works well under pressure and who is destructively competitive? Then keep groups small.
Jugs was also amazed at the success of using teambuilding for a company that was recruiting several people at a time. It enabled the company to learn far more about the 40 candidates than questioning them via a traditional panel would ever have done.
7. Once is never enough
Teambuilding has an immediate and palpable impact on staff but it is not a magic wand. It is a process. The effect will start to wear off after just a few weeks and if you really want your events to count, then see teambuilding as a regular drug and not a one-off injection.
And doing something every three years is not really going to achieve much.
Events don’t have to be externally organised. Plan a cook out. Take them on a walk. Get a speaker. Buy cupcakes. Ideally, you should do something every quarter. It does not have to be complicated.
Getting a work-life balance is very challenging nowadays and if families can see where you work it can really help
And follow it up with feedback, especially the analytical events. If people have made all that effort to engage, then let them know that the information will not just get shelved. Use it to organise training and to assess career paths.
8. Be prudent about involving family
Teambuilding is about just that – the ‘team’... so be prudent about including family as this is about creating connections between colleagues who work together. Participants might be distracted by their family’s presence and anxious that they are not bored, especially since they might not know anyone else. And employees might not feel as comfortable letting their hair down in case it is misconstrued.
Having said that, getting a work-life balance is very challenging nowadays and if families can see where you work and get to know the people you are talking about it can really help. After all, families have to be very supportive of work and long hours, and an event that includes the family – like an open day – can change the perspective of what the spouse does, let alone help children to appreciate what the parent does.
9. Add another dimension
If time permits, combine teambuilding with training. Take the edge off an intense technical training programme, with social teambuilding or use teambuilding to identify the personalities and help the trainer be more effective.
And consider adding a philanthropic aspect to the teambuilding. It could be a great way to raise money for a favourite charity.
Team-building leads to a sense of being united, higher morale and higher performance, according to research published in the International Journal of Current Research a few years ago. The figures – 89.1 per cent, 76.6 per cent and 78.1 per cent respectively – show the impact of organising these events.
One company in Malta has measured the impact even more directly. It started to organise a mandatory hour at the end of the workday on Fridays for people to get together over a drink – and reduced sick leave by 75 per cent.
But Gianni Zammit and Josef Gafà are happy to admit that they don’t really need numbers any more to persuade clients to invest in their staff.
“When we started out 15 years ago, we used to have almost only foreign clients as the concept was still relatively unknown in Malta. But big Maltese clients followed and nowadays even small companies are interested. They now see it as investing in their people not spending on them,” Mr Gafà said.
The idea behind team-building is to improve productivity by maximising staff interaction both horizontally and vertically.
Over the years, Jugs has developed its services, creating three distinct divisions which complement each other and offer a one-stop shop for clients – audiovisual, teambuilding, and what it calls ‘evening’ events like shows and themed parties.
“Conference and incentive clients, for example, would come for two to three days and usually need all three services,” Mr Zammit said.
But team-building is clearly the closest to their heart, allowing them to use the full spectrum of creativity and innovation that their team brings together.