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Four Reasons Why An Offsite Team Building Retreat is a Must for Your Business

April 18, 2019


Want to improve your bottom line? Consider an Offsite Team Building Retreat

an offsite team building retreat is crucial to growing your company, employee retention, and making more money
Your team will appreciate each other – and you – more than ever after an offsite retreat

When it comes to well-being and teambuilding, companies are investing in big time. Companies perform better, aka make more money when their teams feel better. In fact, research has shown that happy employees are more productive, while unhappy workers actually perform worse. Major outfits such as Uber and Salesforce prioritize team-building for professional and team development. And by team-building activities, we aren’t just talking icebreakers, cheesy games and happy hours around the block. Many companies now take their teams on excursions, such as day trips, and even retreats. While a day excursion is great, retreats are a great way to show your team that you care, as well as accomplish some major team-building and overall professional development.

As research has shown, financial incentives aren’t necessarily the best – and certainly not the only – way to improve your team’s morale. Therefore, companies are getting creative. On-site meditation, yoga, and other wellness activities have surged in recent years, but so have offsite trips. Many professional environments are intentionally not conducive to such socialization, and perhaps you want to keep yours that way! A retreat helps keep the office professional, while still affording your team the benefits of bonding through shared experiences and new perspectives. A retreat, especially somewhere magical, will lift your team’s spirits and improve your bottom line.

Read on for four reasons why offsite team building retreats are majorly effective.

offsite team building retreats are an incredible way to bond and strengthen your team, as well as improve employee morale
Your employees will bond over shared activities and memorable experiences

Team bonding

Your team will love reminiscing on the fish dinner they had in Italy or the foibles of ziplining in Costa Rica. One study from Harvard Business Review showed that when teams communicate better with each other – not just with their leadership, but the actual team members – they perform more efficiently. In fact, the most effective socializing took place when the teams socialized away from their workstations. A retreat is a great way for your team to shake off the masks that keep them from bonding during the normal workday.

Helps refocus your employees

A retreat is a great way to help your team refocus after a busy season or intense project. As mentioned, taking time off is linked to higher productivity and proven through many studies. It may seem counter-intuitive, but it’s proven that putting work aside for a bit brings about more focus. Overwork and feeling underappreciated causes burnout, which leads to lower productivity. The change of perspective and stripping away of daily stressors is a perfect way to refocus. Your employees will return to the office reenergized, reinvigorated, refreshed, and ready to tackle new projects. 

Your team will work more creatively

It goes without saying that the workplace can become a stressful environment. It turns out that stress, in addition to harming our health, also kills creativity, and creativity levels improve drastically when people feel relaxed. The science holds up! Hence why so many companies now have nap rooms, group meditation, and time for employees to take sanctioned breaks. An offsite retreat will help your team members feel more relaxed and also allow for the perspective shifts afforded by travel. Conversations held near the sea are much more likely to inspire innovation than watercooler chat.

Demonstrates that you value your employees… and they’ll work better in return

Imagine that a highly desired candidate was choosing between your company and another. If they found out that you host an incredible, fun offsite retreat, we’d wager they’re more likely to choose your company because they see that you care about employees. Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways from a retreat, from a team-building perspective, is that everyone feels valued. When you show that you care about their lives outside the workplace, your team members feel more loyalty to you and care more about bringing their best efforts into the workplace. Offsite retreats are incredible morale boosters! This also gives you an edge over your competition.

offsite team building retreats are an incredible way to bond and strengthen your team, as well as improve employee morale
Take off with your team for an offsite experience

In conclusion: a few basics for planning your team retreat

Go offsite, if you can. While there are many ways to have team building on site, many of the benefits mentioned above involve breaking out of the office environment. Humans are highly influenced by setting, and it’s hard for people to let go and relax in a place associated with “work,” no matter how much they may love their job. If you have a large team or limited budget, consider sending your leadership on an immersive retreat to help them both relax and hone their skills. That energy will trickle down through the rest of your team, and also motivate those on the lower levels of the company to evolve. If people know that incredible retreats are a benefit of getting promoted, it’s highly likely they’ll work harder for those promotions!

In general, retreats are an amazing tool for team-building, professional development, and fun. Reach out to us at Shefari if you’re curious about sending part or all of your team on a retreat!

 

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