The process of producing a highly effective, productive, and well-performing team, whether it’s in-person or remote teams, requires business owners and managers to link performance with a range of team-building activities. 

The benefits of team building are nearly endless, and the list seems to get longer each year. In most instances, team exercises help employees understand, appreciate and develop skills that can be directly linked to their productivity. In addition to this, employees become more engaging with one another and customers, helping to increase performance and affect profitability, productivity, and lower absenteeism. 

In fact, companies and organizations that have high levels of employee engagement are 21% more profitable. Having a unified group of workers that are able to innovate and perform under pressure in a collaborative spirit not only helps companies improve their top line, but it creates a more positive work environment and can be linked to a balanced work-life experience. 

Increased Communication and Collaboration

For any business to thrive in a growing marketplace and a competitive environment, it must foster strong communication and collaboration efforts among employees. 

These connections are not only vital for the sake of business operations but can be reflected in how employees communicate with clients, stakeholders, and one another. 

Through several team-building activities and exercises, it’s possible to boost employee engagement. While these activities help with several elements, ensuring that employees can create more established relationships with one another is one of the crucial factors to consider. 

Once a team member can bond more effectively and increase their communication performance efforts, only then can there be better collaboration on work and projects. Communication, whether it’s verbal or non-verbal, can break down barriers that exist within the workplace, allow employees to become more comfortable with one another, their direct managers, or supervisors, and allows them to connect with their employer. 

Improved Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills

To ensure employees can thrive and grow in fast-paced environments, having the required problem-solving and decision-making skills is crucial for their professional development and the performance of the business.

Through a team building activity, team building games, and team challenges it’s possible to create more engaged employees that can contribute to the organization’s success. 

While some employees are naturally able to resolve issues or disputes, others will require some form of training or guidance. Effective problem-solving can help employees, at any level of their career, identify and analyze problems, assess the situation, and establish a solution on the available information. 

If information about the given task or problem is limited, employees will in some instances be left to their demise, having to make critical decisions based on their expertise and knowledge. 

In this case, decision-making plays a big role in the outcomes. It’s not always possible to fully see what the end results or outcomes will be, thus it’s important to have thorough training and mentorship that can help boost employee confidence and develop crucial decision-making skills. 

In part, it’s also important to remember that problem-solving and decision-making skills can be directly tied to employee communication. If there is a well-balanced level of communication between employees, customers, managers, partners, and stakeholders, it’s possible to achieve better results.

Listen actively

Active listening can result in establishing a mutual understanding between employees and managers; and managers and employers. Once the link has been created, individuals will become more aware of their position in the company, the role they play, what is expected of them, and how they can align their performance with company culture objectives. 

Bringing active listening into the workplace, more so into team building activities can result in employees becoming more engaged and aware of their surroundings. More so, active listening is a skill that sees workers taking a brief, understanding the outline, but only focusing on the more important parts thereof. 

On top of these qualities, active listening also helps to establish a line of trust among individuals in the workplace. Additionally, it can create a feeling of community among workers, helping them value one another, and create a sense of being heard and valued. 

While employees need to understand the importance of active listening to one another, it’s also vital that leaders, managers, supervisors, executives, and business owners practice the art of active listening. By doing this they will understand the needs of their employees, their customers, and stakeholders. 

Think analytically and creatively

Benefits of teambuilding events in the workplace is helping workers think more analytically and improve their levels of creativity. 

There are several examples of how analytical thinking can help businesses. One of the best examples is perhaps taking every setback or failure as a possible opportunity to grow or expand understanding about a given topic. Using analytical thinking skills will mean that teams and managers can incorporate different experiences, knowledge, and valuable key points to find a logical solution. 

The idea here is to get to the heart of the problem and see whether it’s possible to create viable outcomes from past exercises and present knowledge. This way when employees are faced with a problem outside of their expertise they can analyze the problem effectively, and make a decision based on the potential outcomes. 

On that note, it’s not possible to talk about analytical skills without mentioning creative skills or creative strategies. 

Breaking the norm could be one of the first steps to help employees get out of their routines. Another method would be to create more hands-on activities that can help teams express their creativity. This is also another avenue that can help employees uncover hidden talents, and relinquish team building benefits. 

Having a creative outlet ensures that employees remain sharp-thinking and that they can develop the necessary abilities to resolve internal issues such as conflict, deal with unsatisfied clients, and produce more creative methods that can directly have a positive impact on their work. 

It is possible to have employees that are more creative than others, and while it’s something that can come naturally or be learned over time, at best, employers and managers should consider how creativity in the workplace can not only improve employee satisfaction but also boost productivity. 

Check Out Team Building Events: Why, What, and How?:

Come Up With Innovative Solutions

In a separate branch, developing innovative solutions requires both analytical thinking and a creative approach. Although this might be considered a different entity on its own, in the workplace all three of these elements are closely connected and interlinked with one another. 

Think of it like this, a new product cannot enter the mainstream consumer market, without first coming up with a new concept, the creative process, and then analyzing success and market acceptance, the analytical process. 

Innovative solutions, whether it’s a new product, service, or even something that can help teams manage their work more effectively, requires them to understand how to think and strategize more adequately. 

Innovation can often come from the most unusual places, and in the same breath, it’s not possible to constantly experience innovation in a company where employees are disengaged, unsatisfied, stressed, burned out, or even underpaid. 

The better employees are treated, the easier it will be for them to develop innovative thinking skills and abilities. At the same time, those employees that already house these abilities will need to feel valued, appreciated and their work recognized

Only after following this guidance will it become possible to operate a company culture that’s at the forefront of industrial innovation. 

Communicate Effectively

As already mentioned, team-building activities can help establish or increase successful team communication efforts. Here we see not only employees that are more engaged with one another and their managers, but it can also filter through to other aspects of the job. 

Effective communication is just as important to help resolve ongoing disputes and issues in the workplace. Employees that have grievances with one another, or a manager should feel comfortable enough to voice their opinion in a respectable, yet professional way. Through these channels, internal problems can be resolved without the need to involve additional parties. 

Then there is cross-departmental integration, which is often more seen in larger corporate companies. Through communication, different branches of the business or company can easily collaborate on projects. On top of this, it helps to establish internal relationships and can help to give birth to some new ideas. 

For every person in the business to know exactly what is going on, and what is expected of them every day, it’s important to make better communication an essential element of every highly productive team or business. 

Make Decisions Confidently Based on Evidence

Office team building exercises and events are a way for staff members to develop more confidence. The understanding of confidence can be both personal and professional, and in the workplace, confidence ensures that employees are respected by their peers, and build a brand or company culture reputation that is authoritative.

Confidence can be the key to helping improve workflow, come up with new ideas, increase trust among employees, and establish more independent-working employees. 

In instances where employees are left to make decisions by themselves, or resolve important matters without the assistance of their colleagues or a manager; confidence can be a guiding factor in this case. 

Not only can successful team building exercises help employees become more confident in their decision-making, but it’s also a way for them to learn how to take responsibility for themselves, their work, and the important contribution they have to the company. 

Confidence can be taught, though it requires the necessary individuals to take lead at times. On top of this, the ability to be more confident in their work helps employees become more engaging through the means of sharing insight, ideas, and knowledge with one another. 

Work Together as a Team

The best team building activities is to ensure that all employees can work together as a team. It’s one thing to have a team of staff members collaborating on the same project or work when in reality they tend to be more disconnected from one another. 

Team building exercises can be one of the most effective methods to build stronger teams that can work together on challenging ideas, come up with solutions, deliver results and increase company productivity. 

Additionally, once employees can collaborate more freely, it’s possible that managers could see team members take on more responsibility where necessary, eliminate micromanaging, and promote a culture of innovation. 

There’s also the understanding that if employees work together as a team, they can lighten the workload on one another, lower absenteeism, and impact retention. 

All of this can be directly impacted if individuals feel that they are being supported in a safe yet positive working environment. 

Enhanced Trust and Cooperation

With team building activities and team activities, employers and managers can develop trust among themselves, and among employees. When employees feel that they are being trusted, they tend to be happier and feel less pressured to constantly perform. 

Not only is it a good thing to have created a sense of trust between management and staff members, but also among peers and colleagues. 

Knowing that peers can trust one another reflects a working environment where employees feel safe to share their work and ideas, ask for help when needed and rely on their colleagues for guidance. 

On the back of this, trust can help improve decision-making and judgment, not only on an individual level but within a team as well. 

Bringing trust exercises into team building exercises allows teams to understand one another better, learn the strengths and weaknesses of their colleagues, and help to contribute a deeper connection with one another. 

Increased Motivation and Productivity

We’ve already mentioned quite a few times how team-building activities and events can help improve employee motivation and productivity. It’s only once employers and managers understand how to present these events in a way to boost performance that real change can be experienced within the company. 

A lack of motivation can lead to an increased number of disengaged employees, and according to a Gallup study, only 13% of employees are engaged at work. Keeping employees motivated requires employers and managers to understand workers and their needs. 

In line with this, it should be said that employers should often recognize employees for their work and reward them, either through monetary or non-monetary means. 

When employees feel that they are being valued, and listened to and that their work is making a difference, it’s often that they feel the inherent need to do more or go the extra mile.

While this isn’t always the case, and shouldn’t be the primary resolution to boost team productivity, it’s essential to see how workers can become more productive through the use of team-building events. 

Teaching them how to think more analytically or providing them with logical solutions, or even perhaps giving them a platform to express their creativity will help their morale, and boost motivation which can then be linked to employees being more productive within their personal capacity and with other team members.

Check Out Benefits of Team Building: What Are the Benefits of Team Building?:

Advantages of Team Building

Now that we have an understanding of the benefits that come with team-building activities, it’s time to look through some of the basic advantages these events can have and how they can positively impact employees. 

Problem-solving Skills

The American Society for Quality defines the process of problem-solving as follow: 

  1. Define the problem 
  2. Generate alternatives
  3. Evaluate and select alternatives
  4. Implement and follow up on the solution

Using team building exercises, managers can develop activities that will test employees’ abilities. More so, it will help them understand current problems within the workplace or their work, and select an alternative solution. Once they can effectively understand the alternatives and the outcomes thereof, it’s only then possible to witness the results in action. 

Innovation

Together with creativity, innovation can help employees set themselves aside from other competitors which can be tied to professional growth. Additionally, for the company or organization, more innovative employees often see a higher level of satisfied customers and better performance. 

For employees to remain innovative, it’s important to give them access to the right resources and materials they might require throughout the process. For the employees who are unable to innovate more naturally, at best it’s advised for managers or employers to come up with viable strategies that can spark their ingenuity. 

Personal Growth

Yes, team-building events can help with personal growth as well. For starters, these events test and develop a whole range of skills and abilities. 

This enables individuals to learn what their strengths, weaknesses, and failures are. Additionally, it can show them where they might improve, and through what channels they can use to boost their personal development. 

Happiness

Research shows that happier employees are more productive, almost 12% more productive compared to those employees who are unsatisfied with their job. 

Keeping employees is never an easy job, as it requires employers to constantly be aware of what employees need and desire in the workplace. 

Taking the time to develop activities and events that will help employees express any desires, teach new skills, and help them to develop professional abilities can reflect in their work, and how satisfied they might be in the workplace. 

Less burnout

Employee burnout has always been an issue, and over the pandemic, a growing number of workers realized how their jobs contributed to their stress and anxiety which ultimately lead to increased levels of burnout. 

More than half – 59% – of American employees currently experience some moderate levels of burnout, an increase between 2021 and 2022. Burnout results in employees feeling unsatisfied with their jobs, leading to more quitting, increasing employee turnover, costing companies more money, and resulting in slowing productivity. 

While corporate team building activities might not directly resolve employee burnout, they can however help employers connect more with the workers, managers can better understand their teams, and employees can safely voice their needs and concerns.

FAQs

Why Is Team Building Important in the Workplace?

It can help employees foster more meaningful relationships with one another, leading to better communication, and collaboration and impacting company productivity and performance. 

How Does Working Effectively on a Team Give You an Advantage in the Workplace?

It shows that individuals are confident in their abilities, and can make decisions based on logical reasoning. Additionally, it shows that individuals have a higher level of communication skills, can provide solutions, and adapt to their environment more effectively while driving performance. 

Why Is It Better to Work as a Team?

It can help promote a healthy work environment and a positive office culture among employees. Additionally, it’s been seen to boost employee morale, and strengthen relationships between colleagues which can lead to improved communication, office confidence, and the developing of new skills. 

What Is the Most Important Point of Team Building?

Helping a team member build and strengthen their relationships with one another and their managers. Develop new skills, and understand where more effort is required to help mitigate failures and learn from past mistakes.

Final Thoughts

Team building exercises require managers and employers to coordinate activities that will help bring teams closer, connect employees, and help them develop the necessary skills they need to improve performance. 

While not every team-building event can develop the same range of skills, leaders must decide on events that align with company objectives and employee needs. These events were created to not only establish new relationships but also to help employers recognize where there may be faults within company structures. 

The more efficient teams become over time, through communication, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving, the easier it will be for the company to set itself apart from competitors, and become a thought leader within the industry. 

Sabine Ghali

Kelly Murphy

PRESIDENT & FOUNDER

Certified Meeting planner with 20+ years of event management experience, founder of ConferenceSource, expert in meeting facility sourcing & contracting in North America, Europe, South America and Asia. Kelly will manage your budget as if they were her own, negotiating the best possible rate and hotel contract to benefit and protect every client and exceed all expectations for all planning aspects for sales meetings, educational meetings, product launches, incentive trips down to a small board of directors meeting. We make meetings easy understanding your meeting objectives and delivering meeting matched components.