Everyone in your office may groan when they hear you talking about team building, but that should not bother you or anyone else. These things seem corny at times, but they really do work. Some of the most successful companies in the United States use these methods, and there is a very good reason for that. They do them because they work. Employees are all individuals, and many times this means there are problems with personality disputes and communication. If you can find a way to have them overcome these things, your productivity is going to improve, sometimes drastically.
When you think of corporate team building activities, the picture of someone falling into a group backwards, hoping they are caught, usually comes to mind. This is probably not used as often as you may think, but it is often portrayed in the movies and on television. This can be a useful corporate team building event though, as it does show you can trust your fellow employees and does a lot to increase the trust among all levels of management and subordinates. Without trust in any type of relationship, you have nothing. A team cannot survive without it.
Other types of corporate team building events are about as diverse as those who hold them. Many of them concentrate on fun activities that allow employees to interact with each other, and learn to rely on each other. Those working within the same company are usually competing with each other for promotions, and that means they often see each other as the enemy in a small way. Though the competition between employees means hard work and dedication from each of them, it can have bad consequences. They have to learn to trust and work together, even when they compete in other ways.
Because there are so many different types of corporate team building ideas out there, you can usually find something that is just right for your company with a little searching.
The first step in tapping into the SMERF market would – of course – be understanding exactly what the SMERF market is. This particular travel, meeting and event market consists of social, military, education, religious and fraternal organizations, hence the SMERF acronym. This growing market of potential clients is the bread and butter of some event planners who have chosen to specialize in organizing events and meetings for these particular groups, and with good reason.
Most corporate meeting and event planners who do not have experience with the SMERF market do not realize that their needs and wants vary greatly from corporate clients, which makes many planners ill-equipped to meet the unique challenges associated with SMERF event planning. This has opened the way for savvy planners who are well-versed in working with SMERF clients to tap into this lucrative market and make a name for themselves as an expert in this niche.
At first glance, it may appear that there is less money to be made when working with SMERF clients. It is true that these groups may not have the per person spending power of profitable corporations, and it is also true that events for these groups can be absolutely huge, including such challenges as booking 1,000 rooms for a single event. However, SMERF groups also tend to have a higher level of loyalty than corporate clients, which means that putting together a single successful event for a SMERF client could result in repeat business from a loyal client for life.
Your client has noticed that public opinion regarding incentives is not good. She is worried that her company will be seen as wasteful and she will be seen as a spendthrift. In some companies that assessment may be accurate, but in some cases it may be way off. If you have a client who is worried for no good reason, perhaps you can convince her that canceling the program isn’t only not necessary, it can be detrimental to the business’s bottom line.
One reason is that the employee may have been expecting it, and perhaps working with a goal like that in mind. Bob may have noticed that last year Joe got a trip to New Zealand for being the top producing sales person, and he just broke Joe’s sales record. If Bob doesn’t get an incentive gift, he’s not only going to ask, “Why bother?” but he may also end up working for the competition.
Another reason is because others are watching. If Bob and Joe are retail partners and the same thing happens, other retail partners will see that and also ask, “Why bother?” Driving sales down is a negative return on investment, and sales is the only thing that makes money.
So the real reason not to cancel is because the top ROI a client can get on a canceled trip is zero. Zip, zilch, nada. That’s if she’s lucky. If she’s not, she will have a possible attrition of good sales people, or less participation from retail partners, and general malaise of employee attitude.
Today everyone is pinching pennies, and for good reason; the economic crisis has been frightening. Anyone who isn’t at least a little worried isn’t paying attention. That said, it seems that it is possible to be too careful. One of those ways most meeting planners have already seen–companies are canceling meetings by the score, and others are going to teleconferencing and web meetings. While VoIP technology has made it possible to hold meetings more cheaply overall, it also costs in the long run. The values of “face time” are numerous.
The Risk of Impersonal Contact
Although email and other automated communications can save time and money, it also creates a barrier to more humanistic contact. Everyone has known someone who was misunderstood because of an email and created tension and disagreements–what a waste of company time! Meeting the people you email with keeps the humanity in conversations, and helps keep civility in them as well. People are a little less quick on their hot button when they can put a face with an email handle. Read the rest of this entry »
