In the race for winning new clients and keeping the existing ones happy, business owners and companies frequently put a great stress on the high service level, proper company reputation and beneficial partnership. However, they frequently omit or pay too little attention to one of the basic principles of a good company – healthy relationship between its major assets – the employees. It is them who are the heart and soul of the company, and frequently it is their attitude that plays the most important part in the customer’s decisionmaking process. Therefore, successful businesses make building a strong team their priority, since they realize what huge benefits this investment will bring:
- Effective communication between employees.
- Breaking the barrier between company leaders and employees.
- Higher employee motivation.
- Creativity boost.
- Improvement of problem-solving skills.
In fact, there’s one more advantage to teambuilding – it is mostly done in the form of group activities that compel employees to work together, which is fun and pleasant, breezing fresh air into everyday routine.
Teambuilding activities employees will love
Mine field
This popular activity helps build trust and improve mutual understanding. The goal is to guide blindfolded team members through a “mine field” (area with scattered objects) using only verbal prompts.
Storytelling
Each group member receives one picture from the set that shows a sequence of events. The pictures are handed out randomly. The goal is to restore the sequence of events by in turns explaining the contents of each picture to the group, but never showing it to other team members.
Blind drawing
The participants are divided into pairs and placed with their backs against each other. One member receives a picture and has to describe it to his/her partner, but without directly naming the objects depicted. The task of the other participant is to draw what is being described. In the end, the pictures are compared. This activity shows differences in interpretation that hinder mutual understanding.
All aboard!
This physical activity requires team members to fit into a diminishing space by inventing ways to “shrink” the size of the team without actually sacrificing the members (for example, by physically supporting each other).
Old things new
This game is perfect for marketers and designers, but with some modifications it can be used for sales reps or other staff members. Each participant brings one item they have on their desk. They are given the task to sell it as the new product by working out the name, slogan, marketing plan during the set amount of time. Next, they are to give a short presentation in order to sell the product. The activity can be also done in small groups. It promotes creativity and helps look at the things we are used to in the new light.
Teambuilding contest using a time tracking system
The following activity, or rather a kind of competition, will not only be beneficial for building stronger team, but also help with breaking the prejudice among employees towards the time tracking system your company is using.
So, you will need a time tracking app like Yaware.TimeTracker, which evaluates the productivity of each employee based on the computer and web resources he/she uses. It is also required that each team/department member has access to personal stats, while the team leader can view the stats of his/her subordinates.
The idea is to organise a productivity contest between team/departments in your company, based on the objective time tracking system data. It is best done during a period of at least a week with the time period set at the beginning. This will not only motivate each employee to become more productive, but also spur their colleagues with poorer performance to work harder in order to win. It might be a good idea for team leaders to announce the overall productivity results daily for better motivation, and praise top performers, while also encouraging the weakest employees to improve.
After the contest is over, your employees will feel that a time tracker is actually their helper in managing their time better and finding out the “time-eaters”.
Yaware.TimeTracker can be useful not only with your teambuilding goals, and you can check out all of its possibilities during the 14 day-trial period, no strings attached.
