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With COVID in the rear view mirror, corporate retreats have once again become one of the most popular ways to bring together remote and hybrid teams.
While office culture may not show it, human beings are all social creatures. So it isn't too surprising that corporate retreats end up delivering some huge benefits for your organisation.
Just make sure if you are booking a corporate retreat you understand how to pick the best corporate retreat location.
Whether you are an in-office organisation, offer hybrid work, or are fully remote, the setting most people operate in every day isn't condusive to getting to know each other well enough to build trust. Trust is the backbone of workplaces, and high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy and 13% fewer sick days (Harvard Business Review).
Building trust at a corporate retreat means less day to day work, and more time invested in getting to know each other, and can include team building activites, workshops not led by leadership and a raft of other options.
Water cooler conversations are a thing of the past, especially for virtual teams, so how is it that people learn how to communicate better?
It used to be running a course on the multiple types of communications, and learning how some people are more visual learners, or prefer to read, or are completly adverse to Slack messages that simply say 'Hi'.
Simply by changing the environment, you are giving people the freedom and flexibility to converse differently and potentially learn a new way of working with others.
Creativity is something that can drive increased performance and innovation at work. When was the last time you were given a specific amount of time and freedom to dedicate yourself to solving a problem at work, whether in your team or not?
It is my belief that every corporate retreat needs to include some work on creative problem solving.
New environments often result in altered ways of thinking, and having multiple people work on (productively!) a problem, you can often find solutions that you may not have otherwise done so. In fact, 34% of employees shared they have had their most creative ideas on a company or executive retreat (TravelPerk).
By giving employees the ability to break from routine, relax and have fun, you are giving them the opportunity to care more about the organisation. Consider what it would mean for your staff if they were to be able to spend a week offsite, working through challenges and learning that other people, in other departments, are actually human?
Let’s take a leaf out of one of our first clients at BizziEvents. They ran a poll before the event announcement to determine staff sentiment, then a week later announced a weekday corporate event (2 days 1 night down in Lorne).
The hosted a few events that were for staff around planning and team building, and booked out a restaurant for people to have dinner as singles, couples, families, or groups. Back at the hotel they continued the night and had a karaoke open mic for those interested.
They then re-polled staff two weeks later to see a 25% boost in the sentiment scores and that month saw the highest new order revenue in the last 12 months.
Did I ask if the revenue covered the corporate retreat?
The benefits to corporate retreats continue, with the ability to plan strategic outcomes, introduce and test new executive leadership, celebrate sale team milestones, or reward hardworking employees with a retreat. If considering inviting family we recommend reading whether you should or shouldn't invite family to your retreat.