Work is better when you enjoy the company of your colleagues and co-workers, and having the right environment is a big part of that. One of the best ways to create a friendly culture at work is to improve the quality and quantity of social interactions between your colleagues – inside and outside of the workplace. Contributor Conor McArdle – Brighter Business.
Getting them to engage with each other outside of their work roles is a sure-fire way to get your staff to develop healthy and rewarding social relationships, inside and outside of work.
Get social
Create the opportunities for your colleagues and staff to engage with each other in a non-work context. To keep on top of the activities, you’ll need to be organised – and somebody will need to organise your people.
Asking a team member to take on the mantle of Social Secretary will help to keep things cohesive and well-planned, which is absolutely essential when it comes to booking tables, making payments, arranging logistics and so on.
These activities can be as simple or as complex as you like; your imagination is the limit. Go-karting? Laser tag? Pub crawl? Footgolf? Invite suggestions from your staff so that everyone gets a fair say in what’s organised – this is a cheer-ocracy, not a cheer-tatorship.
When you’re at work, you’ve usually got your head down and your focus on something important. Being able to take a break and talk about something other than work is a godsend, so why not start a book club? We’ve done exactly that at Opus Energy and it’s been a great way to get the team together in an informal setting and talk about something that we all enjoy.
It’s as easy as organising a lunch together where you can talk about your favourite books and choosing a book that you’re all interested in, then deciding how frequently you meet! We’ve found that four to six weeks apart gives everyone time to finish the book (or at least get close to finishing it).
If reading isn’t your thing, or a shared interest between yourself and your colleagues, expand the brainstorm. Card nights, board game nights, sports that you can bond over – again, your imagination is the limit.
Day-to-day team bonding opportunities
Make the most of the opportunities that you have to bond with your colleagues; you spend a good portion of your days together, so it can help to pass the time if you all get on! Occasional team lunches – particularly when welcoming a new-starter – are a great way to get everyone to spend some time getting to know each other in an informal setting. Families that eat together, stay together.
Christmas or summer parties, where appropriate, are great ways to keep the team spirit up and build rapport and team spirit amongst colleagues. You can also introduce some easy and low-cost employee engagement initiatives to maintain motivation and enthusiasm.
