Planning a team offsite? Keep these important things in mind

An annual team bonding trip is essential to keep employees’ work-adrenaline flow uninterrupted, and MNCs and start-ups in India have made this a thumb rule now. Most corporate houses are making all-out efforts to ensure their teams gather at resorts and take time off their busy schedules to relax, without missing any deadlines.

But do these offsites also go as planned? While most offsites end well, sometimes loopholes in planning can upset certain individuals or teams altogether.

Following these simple tips if you want to ensure your team outing is a success.

Location plays an extremely important role in ensuring an overall good experience. While a brand management team would like something closer to nature to brain storm, sales teams prefer a place with ample network connectivity to stay connected with client. Hence, the location could vary, but don’t ask people to vote for the location, select one and then inform the team about it.

Zero down on a place and check with your travel agent about who gives the best deal for the preferred location. Now, weigh them in terms of accessibility, area, amenities and distance from where you plan to travel.

The resort or hotel needs to be big enough in terms of open areas so that people can spend some quality time.

Get rooms that are next to each other. This will ensure more bonding and sanity as they are aware that someone they know is staying next door. Make breakfasts mandatory for all, so you know everyone starts the day together.

An important rule for an offsite is to keep the group as small as possible. “The more the merrier”, is something that doesn’t imply in this scenario, nor does the cost of overall stay become cheaper. Of course it could be fun having a big team at an offsite, but a small group can give each employee a personalised feel.

Note down the experience level, job role, and years of working in the organisation while selecting the team for the offsite. Besides, ensure there is some kind of diversity in the group, so that the whole purpose of bringing people together works out well. Try and plan a team-wise offsite. If you’re with a media organisation, it makes sense to take the editorial staff on an offsite that is different from the sales team.

An ideal off site team strength should not be more than 10 nor should it be less than six.

A week ahead of the offsite, check with some individuals what they are expecting from the tour. Accordingly, share your opinion on what they should look forward to. If you sense a trouble maker in the team, assign him or her a responsibility to keep them busy.

Check what deadlines the participants are work on through the tour and plan activities accordingly. Leadership is essential for every successful event and this offsite isn’t as exception. Let everyone take a leadership role in some kind of activity, like assembling people ahead of a game or ensure that everyone sits at the dinner table together.

Although it’s a day off from work, get everyone early on the breakfast table as this is where they would discuss ideas. As they settle themselves, begin discussions around team building.

This is also where they are free to plan their day among themselves.

Here’s what Partha Guha of East India Tourism, a Kolkata-based travel agency, had to say about organizing team bonding tours, “Corporate travels are the easiest as well as the most difficult to plan, simply because you have to travel with people, who might not share a heart to heart connect. Travelling should be a team building exercise not a team breaking one. Hence it’s crucial for the HRs to plan it right."

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