BUILDING A CORPORATE RETREAT THAT ACTUALLY FEELS LIKE A RETREAT
If you’re a manager, chances are you could walk into your office, mention a corporate retreat, and hear a collective groan from your employees. Not only do corporate retreats usually offer little in the way of retreating, they often force employees to spend a precious weekend taking part in “teambuilding” or “learning” activities that serve them no actual purpose, other than to make them uncomfortable and anxious for the time when they can finally go home.
But even with all of their misfires, corporate retreats can actually serve a great purpose within a company, whether it’s helping build better teamwork among your employees or educating on a new product or philosophy of your business. If you’re considering planning a corporate retreat in the near future, there are a few ways to up your chances of it being a success. The first step is making sure that you’ve provided transportation for them to get to the retreat site. As for the rest of it, take a look at our list of tips for organizing a Long Island corporate retreat that doesn’t make your employees want to go home on the first night.
FIND OUT WHAT THEY LIKE
Learning your employees’ tastes will make the task of organizing a successful corporate retreat far easier. Be informed about what issues your employees feel are facing the company and their jobs. Ask them what they think needs to be worked on, what topics should be covered, and which speakers they feel would benefit the retreat. Collect their answers and take them into account when planning the retreat’s itinerary. Otherwise, you run the risk of boring or alienating a good portion of your employees and offering them nothing useful in the long run. Talk about a waste of corporate funds.
MAKE SURE YOUR SPEAKERS ARE RELEVANT
Organizing for a particular speaker to visit your corporate retreat can mean one of two things: inform and enlighten your employees and provide them with new insight on their work lives or…bore and confuse them to the point where each speaker session is a great opportunity for them to catch a nap. Arrange for an engaging and relevant speaker who can inspire your employees to challenge themselves in some way.
GET YOUR EMPLOYEES INVOLVED
No one wants to spend their weekend being preached at by one person after another, no matter how authoritative the speaker is. One way to interest your employees in the corporate retreat process is to involve them in the debates and provide them with breakout sessions that let them communicate with each other and with their superiors about exactly what they think needs to change in the company.
Many managers can forget that their employees often know more about certain parts of the company than they themselves do. Not respecting or valuing your employees’ experiences within your company is an easy way to send them looking for greener pastures. A corporate retreat should help them feel involved, not disregarded.
ASK FOR THEIR FEEDBACK
If corporate retreats are something that you plan on doing biannually or annually, you should certainly take the time to ask for your employees’ reactions to your inaugural retreat. Type up short questionnaires and make sure that they’re anonymous. Give your employees the opportunity to express in all honesty what they really thought of the retreat and its benefits, as well as the opportunity to propose any changes for the following year.
Corporate retreats, though notorious for being times when people are forced to rock-climb or endure boring speaker after boring speaker for an entire weekend, can actually be productive, enjoyable, and effective exercises in creating a strong team of workers and a unified front in the office.
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