It can often be difficult for businesses to make the decision to book a corporate away day for their team. You might think that your team isn't perfect, but they're still working to an acceptable standard. To help you identify whether an away day is right for your team, we've put together a list of 8 signs that your team could benefit from a corporate away day.
1. Team members have trouble with communication
One of the first signs that your team needs a corporate away day is that they are either struggling to communicate, or communicating poorly.
Lack of communication often means that wires get crossed and things are frequently misunderstood. Or perhaps due to poor communication, people do not feel comfortable enough to share ideas and contribute to the team.
One way to assess whether the communication in your team needs to improve is to analyse the language used. One sure sign of poor communication is the frequent use of 'no,' or 'but.' If people become defensive about their ideas, they are more likely to shut down the ideas of others with a 'no' or a 'but', causing a breakdown in collaboration and perpetuating a negative environment.
Research shows that negative communication not only creates an uncomfortable office atmosphere, but also leads to lowered employee productivity, increased employee turnover and a less profitable company.
2. Your team struggles with negativity
Another sign that your team needs a corporate away day will come from a persistent negative atmosphere or negative use of language in the workplace.
Perhaps your team are acting selfishly, they are pessimistic, or they are letting negative events outside of the workplace effect their performance and attitude at work. Negativity is particularly damaging as it can be infectious in the workplace. If one employee has a poor attitude, it can quickly spread to the rest of the team.
Negativity in the workplace often leads to absenteeism, poor performance and low morale, all of which impacts on your company's ability to deliver excellent service.
3. There is a persistent lack of clarity
Lack of clarity about the direction of the team, business goals or overall purpose can all contribute to a dysfunctional team.
Do your team meetings frequently take 2 hours rather than 10 minutes? This is a clear sign of lack of clarity within the team. If your team enters a meeting without proper planning, or without clear direction, then meetings are likely to frequently overrun. Lack of clarity also means that team members work in silos. Lack of clarity on common goals can often result in individuals focusing on their own role and responsibilities, with little idea about the roles and importance of others.
All of this not only harms communication and productivity, but also effects employee buy-in. When employees have clarity about the goals, aims and plans of the company, and even better, when they are allowed to become a part of shaping these, they are more likely to engage with work in a long-term, meaningful way.
4. There are frequent frictions between team members
Another one of the signs that your team needs a corporate away day is that there is always 'workplace drama.'
American Society of Employers research into workplace drama shows that workplace drama can affect the company's bottom line. Employee turnover is likely to be high, productivity is likely to be low, and morale is often poor in a volatile, negative office environment.
Of course, you can never expect that all members of your team are going to get on with each other 100% of the time. However, if workplace frictions are a frequent occurrence in your office, you need to take action to resolve this issue.
5. Your team suffers from lack of accountability
Lack of accountability can be one of the clear signs that your team needs a corporate away day.
Lack of accountability can often mean that employees are unable or unwilling to admit to faults. This often makes it difficult to pinpoint why projects are delayed or completed incorrectly. But why does this mean that your team is dysfunctional?
Lack of accountability often comes from a negative team atmosphere in which employees are afraid of the consequences of admitting to a mistake. This can be a sign that your office does not have a structure in place for respectful, constructive criticism and there is a fear of a backlash occurring.
Lack of accountability often leads to delays or failures of projects, low morale, unclear priorities and diminished trust between team members.
6. Your team members aren't engaged
A lack of engagement or lack of motivation among team members can be one of the more difficult issues to notice, but once recognised is one of the most obvious signs that your team needs a corporate away day.
Employees may still be completing work on time and to a satisfactory standard. However, it is important to work out whether your team members are really engaged in the work they're doing, willing to go the extra mile, or whether they are simply completing the bare minimum.
This is detrimental to business as quite simply, disengagement costs you money. Engaged employees are more likely to work harder, complete work to a higher standard, keener to use their initiative and are more likely to remain long-term employees.
7. Team productivity is low
You should definitely consider a corporate away day if the productivity of your team is low or unsatisfactory.
Perhaps employees are struggling to hit their goals and targets, or you find that there is a lot of idle, unproductive time among your teams. Often it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for this, as lack of productivity is usually a long-term, deep-rooted issue.
It goes without saying that low productivity affects the bottom line of the business, however it can also lead to low morale and high staff turnover.
Do these signs that your team needs a corporate away day resonate with you?
Cambray's training department have decades of experience in running corporate away days. Our trainers meet with team and business leaders in advance to discuss specific challenges and goals. Then they tailor the corporate away day to address the problems specific to your team.
Our away days are run in a beautiful hotel, situated in the countryside in the heart of the Cotswolds. This relaxed atmosphere provides the perfect backdrop for your team to team-build, problem solve and grow.
For more information, or to discuss how we can help with your specific requirements in more detail book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our trainers today. Alternatively, fill out the contact details below to receive a call from one of our experts.