We all have just faced what would be possibly the worst year of our lifetimes. 2020 has been a challenging year to say the least, with professional setbacks and stress. Travel has been ruled out. Working from home poses another big challenge for employees – that of not being able to connect and communicate with colleagues and friends at work. Even small trips have to planned in advance. In organisations where work is a collaborative effort and not just by pure delegation, staff motivation is at an all-time low.
Also having to be cooped up inside homes for a large part of the year, has taken and is taking a toll on the overall wellbeing of the employees. While productivity may seem to have enhanced, thanks to limited time spent on commutes, but too much of these WFH sessions may possibly cause an early burnout among employees.
At a time like this travel may come across as a plausible solution. Why travel? Because it will help your employees break from the monotony of work and work from home. Experiential Travel will enrich the team with newer perspectives and positive memories. As an employer or team lead, your team will look up to you and value your inputs in helping them address this latent need of theirs.
We all know that there is no better way to teach people newer life skills than to expose them to situations that demand them to use those latent skillsets. The genesis of team bonding exercises is this very hypothesis. The best way for you to know your team and for the team members to really know their colleagues is to bring them together at the same place, have them participate in activities and exercises that makes them use their ingenuity, soft skills, analytical approach to complete the activity. It is also a showcase of their competitiveness and drive to excel, qualities that you may want to understand for future career progression. After all, what better way to test the innovative thinking and problem-solving mindset of a group of marketers, than to give the 3 things – wooden planks, inflated tubes and rope, and ask them to collect a treasure from across a flowing stream.
And trips don’t necessarily need to be connected with a conference or a product launch. Travel for the purpose of unwinding with your colleagues, forming new bonds, getting to know each other better is always beneficial. Atleast a third of our day is spent at work (either from home or office), and we need to be comfortable with the people that we are working with. Looking back, some of our strongest and most genuine friendships are formed with erstwhile work colleagues.
All these efforts of connecting with colleagues and employees, outside a professional setup has several benefits. First and foremost, is the sense of appreciation that your team will have for you, and then the extra ownership that they will have towards their roles. Getting to know the team, as persons and not at employees, will help connect with them on a much stronger platform. Most of the times, monetary compensation (salary) is not good enough to keep the team motivated and driven. Such outbounds and experiences are critical to unwind and rewind. These opportunities are chances for you to reinforce your trust in the team and for them to see you as a person and not as a boss.
To know how to put together that dream trip for your employees and team, click here.
