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When businesses approach us looking for fun and engaging team building activities, the first thing we look at is what they want to achieve through the event. While team building has an unrivalled ability to improve workplace performance, improve communication between team members, encourage creativity and boost morale, for it to be really effective your first need to know what you want it to achieve.
The problem is, most managers can’t even imagine how they go about measuring the success and ROI for team building activities. And this can put them off even attempting it, leaving their teams static and struggling to achieve the sort of cohesion that equals success.
At KDM Events, we are experts in team building events – both physical and virtual. Over a number of years, we have applied our award-winning creativity to plan and deliver activities to workforces that work to improve areas of weakness and boost motivation in teams. In this article, we’ll look at how you can measure the success of your team building activities and explore the kinds of objectives you might set when planning your corporate team building event.
Before you can even think of how you will measure the success of a team building activity, you need clear objectives.
To do this, you need to take a long, hard look at your team and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Where do they excel? Where do the wheels fall off? What needs to be improved in order to increase output and productivity? When you’ve carried out a frank, no-holds-barred evaluation of your team, you’ll then have a good idea of the areas you’d like to target through team building.
Here are some common examples of team building objectives:
The above is a list of very general objectives, but they should be enough to give you a starting point. All teams are wildly different in the way they work together. For example, newly formed teams may need help bonding and getting to know one another. On the other hand, well-established teams may need a shake-up and a little bit of encouragement to approach problem-solving in a different way.
When you’ve chosen your objective, you’ll also want to establish a point of comparison, so when you come to evaluate the success of your activity, you have something to compare the results against. Without this, you won’t be able to tangibly know if there’s been any improvement.
When you have an objective, you’ll be better placed to organise team building activities and events which work to that. Then, after the fact, you’ll want to have another sit-down and evaluate how successful that activity was in achieving your desired objective.
Surveys or asking for feedback is a fantastic way to measure the success of an event or team building activity. Another great thing about this method of measuring success is that you have the flexibility to ask the kind of questions that will elicit the information you need.
Surveys and feedback forms work particularly well if your objectives relate to workplace communication, team bonding and job satisfaction. What better way to get to the truth than actually hear what your team has to say? As well as this, asking for feedback will help you to understand your team’s needs in future events and activities.
We recommend using an anonymous survey or feedback form in order to get the most honest responses. Employees need to know they aren’t going to get into trouble when they submit it, and anonymity is proven to improve uptake.
If you like hard numbers (who doesn’t?) then the metrics at your disposal are a great way to measure the success of team building. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to record a baseline beforehand so you can truly see the results in all their glory.
Baseline metrics you could look at include absenteeism, output, profit and employee engagement. Which metrics you look at will depend on your objectives. For example, if the goal of your team building activity is to boost productivity, looking at profit or sales over time can help you to understand if that’s worked.
Successful teams aren’t born, they’re made. Therefore, they need time to come into their own and really flourish. You can expect that, following an effective team building activity or event, your team will be super-motivated which can result in a burst of productivity. This is great – and not be sniffed at. But this is a long game and you’re looking for sustained and steady improvements over time. So, be sure to keep measuring and touching base with your team.
It’s also important to understand that building a productive, high-performing team requires a lot of input over time. As well as team building activities, things like regular feedback, incentives and opportunities for team bonding are important for boosting morale and retaining the best in your team.
There are many advantages to using team building activities for all kinds of groups in a corporate setting. But if you’re not sure where to start, we can help! Our team of Event Managers eat, sleep and breathe all things events and team building and are on hand to support you in understanding what kind of activity your team needs and delivering it in an engaging way which has a big impact on your ROI.
Whether you’re considering virtual team building activities or physical activities in the office or for a corporate event, contact us today. We’ll work with you to understand your teams and suggest the very best options for your requirements.
