Team Building UK, Team Events, Events, Corporate Team Building Days

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Team Building UK

The UK has some of the most stringent Health & Safety standards in the World. Most blue chip companies go even further than the prescribed standards to ensure the wellbeing of their employees. Yet the majority of companies employ team building providers without checking on their own policies and procedures. In effect they are handing over the wellbeing of their employees to companies who do not have the same standards as they do and in some cases companies who have no standards at all.

This is not to say that these companies are purposefully dangerous but some team building providers are small or one man bands and lack the resources to have set up and run an acceptable Health & Safety policy on an ongoing basis. In my experience less than 10% of companies so much as enquire about Health & Safety and the vast majority do not even check whether event providers carry adequate insurance. This is a shocking fact and I believe that it is caused by that dangerous adversary of risk management; assumption.

It is very difficult to assess the size and standard of operation of a company from their website. Companies may look like an International operator with hundreds of employees when in fact they are a one man band trading from a spare bedroom. It is essential that those booking events ask for reassurance in the form of copies of insurance cover documents, a written Health & Safety policy and Risk Assessments of each of the activities being undertaken. This is a simple process; documents need to be seen and dates need to be checked to ensure that they are current.

Every activity provided by an event company should have a unique Risk Assessment. In some cases there is clearly no risk at all, but still the procedure should be undertaken. In such cases the Risk Assessment will read 'this activity has been assessed and classified as low risk' with the name of whoever undertook the Risk Assessment. Companies should have a designated Health & Safety Officer who has undergone training and is sufficiently experienced to know how to recognize potential risks.

Team Events

Corporate team building events are targeted to not only enhance employee performance, but also give birth to a healthy working environment. Since these events usually take up a lot of resources, it is crucial that certain factors be given attention so as to ensure that the aims of the event are met.

To begin with, it is important to understand and outline the main objectives of the event being hosted. So, if the objective is to take an already performing team further and reward it for its performance, then an event of celebration would be more useful. On the other hand, if the idea of the event is to break down the communication barriers between the team, then the approach will need to be completely different. The first and foremost step to hosting a successful corporate team building event is clearly identifying the goals and objectives.

The next stage is a more intensive one -- the entire planning of the event. Right from briefing the staff about the event to its final execution, each aspect needs to be carefully planned. Both the psychological aspects as well as the logistics of the event will need to be taken into account. So on one hand while the emotional health of the team members needs to be considered as part of the planning process, at the same time details such as location and seating will need detailed attention as well.

Planning of the event will also involve ensuring that the team members network with each other. This can be a difficult task since most will want to sit with their closest coworkers. Step in with a seating plan and ensure that friends are not put on the same table or in the same team. Create an atmosphere for the team to get to know each other during the team building event.

Events

How can you prepare team building days or even team building games, when you are against the clock and have restricted time?

Even if you own your own corporation, every moment counts...especially if you need to take time out of business hours to educate your department. Team building is essential for a corporation to ensure the following;

%u2022 Improving and growing your company
%u2022 Maintaining excellent working conditions
%u2022 Keeping your team members thinking optimistically
%u2022 Motivating and engaging staff
%u2022 Getting staff excited about working together

But how can you balance fun and games with legitimate business education? After all, everyone is here to work. The currency hasn't changed; time is still money! This is why it's important to balance whatever fun activity you devise with a professional touch. You must keep the company or organisation's best interests in mind at all times.

If your goal is employee motivation, training or other development, then start devising your objectives from the business' point of view. If your aim was to motivate the workers to be thrilled about working, then adapt that into a new strategy of how you can motivate the team members to be excited about the business.

Corporate Team Building Days

Corporate entertainment events are those events which a company or organization hold for their clients, staff or shareholders; it is a good way in cementing business relations. They can be for a large audience like conventions or smaller ones like retreats. Many corporate events in Toronto usually happen once or twice in a year.

Most companies go to extreme lengths to make these events as memorable as possible. There are different ways that can be employed to make an event successful.

The most common are where companies hire event organizers or corporate booking agencies. Companies mostly hire a whole agency that covers all the things that can make a corporate event successful, ceremonious, while others choose to hire individuals rather than a whole agency, which they most likely, cannot do without other activities, depending on the event size and the sponsors' objective. Most agencies in Toronto cover aspects like food, sports and games, hotel bookings and so on. When a company hires an individual to cover their event, they mostly go for comedians or a DJ who can also double up as a Master of Ceremony (MC).

Even if a company is holding a team building event, it has become increasingly important to hire a DJ to judge the mood of the audience. Like most other event agencies, the services of a DJ should be hired in advance, with a down payment, so as not to collide with another event that the DJ may have, to agree on the price and to also prepare adequately. A company that goes for an event agency has many choices to look at. Most of these agencies offer sporting facilities like a golf course, bowling alley, a soccer pitch and others.

Team Days

Team building days are not about grown men and women role playing just to have fun, though that sadly is often the case. The away day activities need to be targeted to the individual teams participating, and tailored to their individual needs. There has to be a plan in place to ensure that the end result can improve the team in a meaningful and lasting way, otherwise there's really little point in doing it.

Team members can often be heard saying that they had a great day, and that they bonded better with other members as a result, However, they may also say that they felt the event failed to contribute to the achievement of the team's common objective. This simply means that the team building exercise was poorly planned, and certainly not tailored to the team's essential needs.

First of all, it is necessary to decide exactly which kind of activity day should be planned. There are now a large variety of activity days to choose from. There are events, activity days, seminars, group retreats, workshops, meetings in every kind of guise, and more. It should therefore be obvious that the team building day should be planned so that the type of day best suits the team's needs.

It is usually a fact that a team building activity of just about any well planned kind will result in enthusiasm, a certain degree of euphoria and perhaps even a feeling of achievement. However, this can all too often be short-lived. Before long the team will be no better off then they were before, and the team building day will probably become a disappointment to you.

By comparison, a well planned team building activity day that is carefully tailored to the needs of the team, and that also takes the team's common objective into consideration, can result in feelings of lasting commitment and a renewed focus that doesn't tail off as the following weeks pass by. Needless to say, this is the kind of result for a team building day that does not disappoint you.

Corporate Events

When you're planning or managing a small event, it's usually possible (and often preferable) to handle the decisions and details yourself. Dinner parties, small meetings and even medium sized events are manageable affairs. By contrast, corporate event management typically requires outside help. The scope of these events is much larger. The number of decisions to make and details to manage are far greater. Many companies specialize in helping others plan such events. In this article, we'll explain the parts of an event that these companies manage and the types of corporate events that can benefit from their services.

Outsourcing Event Management

Because corporate events tend to be large affairs, the margin for error in planning and execution is small. What's more, the time and effort required to organize these events is substantial. Those who attempt it on their free time often feel overwhelmed. Companies that focus on corporate event management can handle many of the details easily. These companies already work with a number of vendors and venues. These relationships allow them to organize large events efficiently.

Corporate event planners will typically handle most of the details for your event. These include hiring caterers, entertainment and reserving a suitable venue. They'll also supply the staff needed to serve drinks, prepare and serve food and take care of any requests from your guests. You'll also be able to outsource your technical staffing needs.

There are several types of events that need careful planning and execution. For example, many companies host product launch shows to which they invite industry analysts, customers, partners and even reporters. The success or failure of a product launch event can have a dramatic ripple effect as the affair is covered in local or national media. On the other hand, corporate holiday parties may be a quieter occasion, but still require professional management

Team Building Activities

Team bonding is all very well, of course, it's good that team members can bond together and get along well as a team of people, but just about any group of people can do that - it doesn't necessarily make a team though. Sadly, any significant improvements gained in team effectiveness as a result of team bonding will probably be coincidental, and not as a result of the experience.

Team building is altogether a different matter. If taken in the context of a team away day, then proper planning, execution and management of the event is critical to the success of the desired team building outcome.

The team activity or activities that the team undertake on a team away day should always be the kind of exercise that needs and involves similar team working approaches that are practised and employed in the workplace.

Of course, the approach used need not appear similar, and certainly should not be so. They should be entertaining and fun and appear to be quite removed from the day to day work activities that team members undertake. However, the underlying basic approach should have a common resonance with the workplace that can mould the team into something more than just a bunch of people having fun on a day away.

One common mistake in team away days and the activities that the team take on is an over-emphasis on the activity itself, rather than on the general direction that the team building exercise is supposed to be taking. The activities are only a means to an end and not the end itself. They are designed to strengthen a team by exploring the strengths and weaknesses of individual members and allocating the appropriate tasks to the appropriate members.

When the success of an activity is seen as the goal, and failure to achieve the desired result of the activity is seen a failure, the team is rarely if ever strengthened in any meaningful way. However, when the activity is seen as a simple and fun way to express the team's ability to work harmoniously together, mirroring their ability to do so in the workplace, then an altogether different and much better outcome is achieved.

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