Many businesses run corporate away days for their teams at least once a year, but what exactly happens on an away day and why are they beneficial for your organisation?
Let’s start with the basics, what is an away day? This is simply an opportunity for you to take everyone on your team or even your whole organisation out of the office environment and into a new space.
They have become particularly important in the era of remote and hybrid working, when it’s likely that your whole team isn’t together in the same physical space all that often. Away days have many benefits, but one of the greatest is an opportunity for the people who work on your team to get to know one another beyond their job roles.
What are the top three benefits of hosting away days?
Better team building
Away days are an excellent opportunity to help your team members bond. There are many ways in which you can encourage team building and you will need to decide what is most appropriate based on those who work for you.
You might choose a fun activity to do together. You could tackle problem solving exercises as a team. Or you might go down the route of using trust-building exercises to help break the ice.
The aim is simply to get everyone to interact with one another as people, rather than as job titles. Often the most effective team building happens in touchpoints between the main activities – conversations over coffee or dinner that help everyone learn more about their colleagues.
Enhanced creative thinking
Sometimes taking people out of their familiar environment can help them to think differently. A well-structured away day with the right balance of fun activities and strategy or creative activities could therefore pay dividends for your business.
To help the process along, you may hire an external facilitator. They can be a neutral voice who ensures that everyone contributes and participates equally in sessions. Could you use this time as a chance to come up with ideas to solve one of your business’ stickiest problems for instance?
Boost for morale
When an away day provides a reward – such as a nice meal, or even a fun activity – it can boost morale for everyone on your team. It shows that you value their efforts. Therefore, hosting an away day can be particularly relevant if you are celebrating a particular milestone.
Maybe you hit a huge sales target. Perhaps you’ve completed an important stage of a project that you’ve all been working hard on. Or you might have come through a very challenging period for the business and want to thank everyone for sticking with you.
If your aim is to boost morale, make sure you thank everyone for their efforts and do your best to create a celebratory vibe.
The key to running an effective away day is to be very clear about why you are running it and what you want to achieve from doing so. When you are clear about these two aspects of your away day, you will find it much easier to choose the right venue, activities and to design any working sessions you’ll include on the agenda.
