I’ve had a lot of people asking me recently why I whisk my teams away from the office so often and why I have spent time and money developing an outward bounds centre for the company. To me, the benefits of getting away from the familiarity of the office and out in the fresh air and countryside are huge. Most importantly, it helps to strengthen teams. I think that if you want to reinvigorate and motivate your staff, you need a break from the everyday. Personally, I find that getting outside and getting involved in some team exercise to be a very effective way of enhancing team bonds.
The UKFast outward bounds centre is in Snowdonia National Park; a former hotel and grounds next to a lake. We use it during the recruitment process so that new starters can challenge themselves with small group trips to climb Mount Snowdon. Yes, it’s difficult but that’s why those new recruits pull together. Getting to the top of a mountain gives you a confidence boost that climbing the stairs up to the office just can’t come close to! When they get back to the office, they have already shared an experience with other employees who they often form quite strong bonds with, having cooked, climbed and sometimes built rafts together on the two-day Snowdon trip.
I also recently took my Marketing and Communications team to Snowdon so that we could strategise and generate ideas and campaigns in the sunshine, away from the hustle and bustle of Manchester city centre. Often, the best ideas pop into people’s heads when they are doing something unrelated like walking. The boost in motivation after the team had spent this time in Wales was huge and productivity rocketed when they returned to the offices. Giving your teams experiences that they can share – away from the workplace – is a great way to build team morale and strengthen relationships, and I can’t recommend the great outdoors enough as a setting for this kind of transformation.
UKFast is one of Europe’s fastest growing technical companies (as ranked by Deloitte and the Sunday Times Tech Track 100) and supplies dedicated and cloud hosting as well as co-location services to thousands of clients across all industries. The company has recently launched its new cloud product, the eCloud, which is set to change the face of cloud computing across the UK.
Any comments? Email sarah@mashmedia.net
