Bringing the team back from home:
For many companies, this past year has been a whirlwind of a ride; with dining tables turning into office desks, gaming headsets becoming your most valuable asset and training the dog to be extra quiet during those important zoom calls. It’s all been very different to our standard 9-5 workday.
Much like animals, we have learnt to adapt to these conditions in our new world habitat; with working from home becoming a compulsory rule for those “who were able to”, It soon became the new normal for many of us. Over 85% of companies worldwide swapped out their swanky office spaces for spare bedrooms last year, and 74% of those plan on continuing their remote working despite a plausible end to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
Much like everything, working from home came with it’s benefits and disadvantages, and whilst you smiled with joy when you found out you could cut out the hours commute time, It soon became clear that actually; Working from home required further engagement and attention as we attempted to stay in the office loop with our colleagues.
Didn’t you miss your daily gossip with your friends by the coffee machine?
Well, As of now, offices are stacking up on hand sanitiser and implementing one way systems as it’s time to finally return to your desk and switch out the PJ’s for office attire.
Much to many’s approval, the “new/old” norm is something we are looking forward to, however, due to the vast majority of last year being spent isolated with overloading zoom calls and online chatting – has it become more difficult for us to rebuild our existing office connections in person?
That’s where we come in. Team Building is demanded more than ever as we try to reintroduce ourselves to the 2021 workplace as the overloading amount of benefits are bound to project businesses back into the swing of things.
Why is team building important at this time?
Not only is team building a valuable asset for any team to have on board, but especially during these new ways of working, it is important for colleagues to start the day on track, motivated and happy.
The whole point of team building is to create a strong unit of employees – because an interconnected and respectful bunch of colleagues produce a much greater environment compared to those companies that don’t have strong bonded relationships.
The long list of benefits spell it out for you.
5 top Benefits of team building:
- Improved office productivity: Good relationships and atmospheres create safer and comfortable work environments. The more comfortable you can make employees feel during work, the more productive your employees will be. This has been scientifically proven in many recent research studies.
- Improved mental health: Keeping employees comfortable and in rich spirits at work has major benefits to people’s mental health. Poor mental health not only can begin to create more problems in the office but can also begin to develop among other employees, which then produces a longer list of disadvantages that reflect office atmospheres and company attitudes such as less productivity, toxic relationships and also poor motivation. So it is important that companies consider Team Building and other excursions that keep employees in the right state of mind.
- Better communication: Employees that are interconnected and have established good working relationships within the office have proven better at communicating socially and professionally with colleagues. Better communication has proven additional links with productivity, morale, confidence and happiness.
- Creative qualities are encouraged: Team Building brings out the best in people, and encouraging a workforce to be creative and use their initiative can have outstanding effects that can be brought back into the organisation. Creating this newly formed way of work encourages fresh ways of working and sometimes more efficient approaches to tasks.
- Respect, Trust and responsibility: Qualities can be picked up from team building or expanded on. Team building opens up opportunities to build existing relationships but also to bond with other (less known) members of the team, which gives staff a sense of trust and a responsibility to work well.
These are just a few key points of why Team Building is important if you want to keep and maintain a healthy and thriving workplace – but it’s not only limited to these factors, there are so many more benefits!