Do something positive – company events
February 24, 2009
At the moment there’s loads of news about poor employee morale, the struggle to maintain commitment and motivation in hard times and a general lack of positivity. Employers are finding it hard to keep employees’ spirits up and therefore team work, communication and mutual support (the things that are most in need), are thin on the ground as suspicion and self-preservation prevail as the common behaviours of naturally concerned staff. Even if your company isn’t going through upheaval such as redundancies, it is impossible for the workforce not to be somehow affected by the knock-on effects of the recession, so it’s important to generate ways of increasing morale, teamwork and strong relationships within the workforce.
One way of bringing people together at work is to arrange a joint event that people can become involved in and possibly ‘bond’ over. This doesn’t have to involve a lot of money – for example in my organisation we have entered a charity run as a company team, and everyone running has been set a challenge to raise as much money as possible for a nominated charity. Almost half the workforce has signed up to the run, which was really pleasing, and many other employees will be joining in by coming down to cheer us on on the day.
This type of event can have many different benefits – there’s staff ‘bonding’ over the fact that we’re all training and there are many conversations going on in the staff room or at the kettle about how far people have ran so far, what pace they’re doing, how much their legs are aching and what they’re wearing on the day! Of course, the fact that we are raising money for charity gives participants a shared sense of purpose and also contributes to the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda, which can be a good feature on a corporate website or in the local press. There is also the health and wellbeing benefits of having a workforce that regularly exercises – so giving people something to aim for encourages this outside activity.
I’ve done this kind of thing before in previous organisations that I’ve worked for, and whilst it’s really hard work and something I’m not overly looking forward to at the moment, it does always turn out to be a great day out and a good morale-boosting exercise for the workforce.
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