When we think of team building activities, the old standbys are generally the first to come to mind. However, not every staff will get excited about yet another ropes course or trust exercise. Sometimes folks just want to have fun and will find an activity that is not quite so blatantly ordinary much more appealing.
Team building is meant to bring your staff together into a cohesive, effective team of co-workers, while fostering problem solving skills, encouraging them to think outside of the box and promoting personal and professional growth. While a challenging ropes course might encourage your staff members to push their personal limits and competitive group activities might foster teamwork, not ever team building experience needs to be strictly by the book and quite so focused. It really is okay to have fun sometimes.
Keeping this in mind, you might consider making your next informal team building activity a fun craft project that will encourage creativity and camaraderie, while also reducing stress and changing the pace of the normal daily routine.
Craft materials are inexpensive and easy to acquire, and the creation of craft projects is perfect for impromptu team building sessions. Incorporating crafts into a team building retreat or annual corporate meeting is also a great way to break the ice or provide balance between more challenging activities.
Team building is important for any company and is one of the best ways to ensure that you have a cohesive team that knows how to work together to meet company goals and create a productive, effective work environment. While it is important for staff members who work together in close proximity each day to get along well and know each other’s strengths, team building is particularly important for companies that operate from a number of sites. If these sites are located in different areas of the country or state, this becomes even more crucial for your success.
Large corporations with multiple sites can benefit from quarterly or annual team building experiences that take place in a central location. While bringing thousands of employees together in one location may not be a viable option for all companies, hosting a centrally located retreat that groups together staff members in each geographical location is an effective option that will prove beneficial to the overall health of your company. Firms with numerous staff members scattered around the country or around the globe may also want to consider virtual team building experiences using video conferencing technologies.
Of course, for small and mid-sized companies, in-person team building experiences will always be the most effective option and can even include simple exercises that are incorporated into regularly scheduled meetings or events.
If you work as a meeting and event planner for a corporation, there are very likely hiring policies and procedures in place that make the process of hiring new staff members clear and simple; however, if you are a self-employed planner looking to expand your staff, it may feel like more of a challenge to determine how best to acquire new talent. Fortunately, there are always folks looking for work; therefore, the task is simply to find someone with the skills, experience and personality to be a good fit for you and your meeting or event planning business.
Starting with people you know is usually a good first step. This does not necessarily mean hiring friends or family members, as this is sometimes a good idea and sometimes not. But, it does mean that you should keep an eye out for potential candidates at networking socials and events you attend, as well as letting people you work with know that you are looking to hire.
A great place to start can be the folks that work as event staff, such as servers, bartenders, check-in staff or security guards. Some of these people may have taken these jobs as a way to get into the event planning field and begin to make connections, or to cover expenses while they complete their college degrees.
Incentive travel planners may find themselves arranging travel packages for a variety of winners, including some with high salaries and others with more moderate incomes. Because of this, planners must ensure that all of their participants will be able to enjoy their travel awards equally, particularly if staff members at different pay rates will be traveling to the same destination at the same time. Fortunately, there is a very simple, convenient way to accomplish thus that is sure to appeal to all of the participants that receive travel awards: cruises.
Incentive cruises are an excellent option for incentive travel and provide an all-inclusive travel package that will allow each of your winners to fully enjoy their travel incentive, regardless of their personal budget. With included meals and snacks, complimentary room service, first-run movies at no charge, use of fitness facilities at no additional cost, free onboard activities, nightly entertainment and duty-free shopping, travelers at all income levels will find incentive travel cruises an appealing, enjoyable experience.
Opting for incentive cruises also provides additional benefits to the incentive travel planner and the company paying for the travel awards. As a cost-effective option that is simple to organize and sure to encourage employees to perform, cruises are an ideal choice when it comes to planning incentive travel.
Incentive travel planners are well aware of the many reasons they must keep a watchful eye on the costs associated with incentive travel programs. The company paying the travel expenses will naturally require a detailed list of expenditures and will have a budget that you must stay within, as well as greatly appreciating your efforts put towards saving money without losing quality. However, with all of this emphasis placed on how much incentive travel packages will cost the company, it can be easy to overlook the expenses that the participants will incur.
In some cases, this may be an insignificant detail that does not affect the participants’ ability to enjoy their travel award to the fullest, but for some incentive travel winners, the costs involved may prohibit them from taking full advantage of this opportunity – or from participating at all. It is one thing to arrange a luxury vacation for well-compensated executives who can afford to indulge in room service for every meal at high-end resorts, but it is quite another to arrange a satisfying travel package for hardworking salespeople or staff members who may not have high salaries.
Incentive travel planners should keep this in mind when selecting destinations and would do well to do a bit of basic research on area prices to ensure that affordable meals and entertainment options are available.
