The real cost of NOT having team away days!
In our hectic working lives the significance of team away days might be easily overlooked. Those days when we step outside the office for some team-building fun. They might appear as a luxurious indulgence with no direct impact on the bottom line but is that true? The decision to skip a team away day can come with hidden costs that impact team dynamics, productivity and overall success. Grab a coffee, take a seat, and let's explore team away days and why they're an essential, rather than a mere luxury.
Beyond the workplace: Creating meaningful connections
Picture this: amidst a sea of spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides, colleagues remain more recognisable by their email signatures than their faces. In a typical workplace, interactions are often limited to work-related matters. Particularly in this new remote working, post-Covid, world we find ourselves in.
Yet, team away days create an informal environment where team members can create personal connections. They provide a chance to attach faces to names and unearth fascinating titbits, like discovering that Bob from Accounting is a karaoke king.
Imagine these days as the ultimate networking event, but without any awkward small talk. Laughter, shared stories, and bonding transform into a sense of camaraderie, trust, and understanding. These connections lay the foundation for enhanced collaboration, promoting open communication, idea sharing, and seamless teamwork. Borrowing from a very famous international networking manual, to do our best work we must “know, like and trust” our colleagues. And away days are the ultimate generator of “know, like and trust”.
Conflict resolution: transforming challenges into opportunities
Conflict is inevitable. It happens and we can’t avoid it. But the way it is managed can make all the difference. Team away days offer a platform to address conflicts constructively, averting potential crises without confrontation. These days aren’t all about icebreakers and forced, organised fun; they can educate us on preventing conflicts from escalating. Through workshops, team-building exercises, and candid discussions, participants acquire effective communication skills, conflict-resolution techniques, and the art of exploring differing viewpoints. This skill and knowledge extend into daily interactions, leading to smoother project execution and reduced misunderstandings. Disagreements evolve into dialogues as the team establishes their common purpose.
The cost of not investing
Though the benefits of team away days might seem intangible, the cost of neglecting them can be very real. Let’s think about some of the costs of not investing in team away days.
The price tag for a team away day varies based on location, activities, and duration. On average, a one-day session for a small team of 10-15 members might range from £1,500 to £3,000, this includes costs for a venue, meals, transport, and facilitator fees. While the expenditure might raise eyebrows, let’s consider what happens when we skip team away days and explore some of the less tangible costs
Increased conflict costs: Unresolved conflicts sap time and resources, leading to decreased morale, heightened stress, and staff turnover. ACAS have explored some of the expenses linked to conflict management. These include the management costs of handling a formal grievance (£951 per case), disciplinary proceedings (£1,141 per case), and recruitment to address turnover or dismissals. ACAS estimates that the average cost for each individual involved in a conflict is nearly £3,000. How many conflicts might an away day sidestep? One? Two? More?
Workplace culture impact: A poor company culture can lead to employees quitting their jobs. BreathHR has found the annual cost to the UK economy to be £23.6 billion. Team away days help to develop trust and purpose, creating the foundations for high-performance teams. Creating positive workplace cultures provides many benefits to employers including improved morale (cited by 44% of surveyed employees), enhanced customer service (43%), and reduced employee turnover (35%). And there’s a bottom-line impact here too. According to Gallup, increased employee engagement (which is what we’re talking about here) can generate a differential of up to 20% on both productivity and profitability. Who wouldn’t be a fan of those numbers????
Performance deterioration: Without opportunities for team bonding and relationship-building, team members struggle to collaborate effectively. This can lead to miscommunication, delays, reduced performance and a lack of innovation. The cost of decreased performance can be difficult to quantify precisely but it can result in missed deadlines, lost opportunities and compromised work quality. According to Booz & Company, innovative companies grow their top and bottom line (+11% and +22%) faster than other, less innovative, companies. So we’re potentially incurring (hidden) cost and losing out on (potential) growth.
Networking and relationship erosion: Networking fuels personal and professional growth. Learning organisations outperform non-learning organisations; according to a report by McKinsey they can enjoy higher income per employee by as much as 200%! Team away days encourage cross-functional collaboration and open doors to fresh ideas and opportunities. We enjoy peer-to-peer learning, sharing of best practice, normalising of experiences, confidence building; not just knowledge and skills, but mindset too. The absence of these interactions can stifle growth, potentially impacting careers and innovation.
The essential investment
Before you write off team away days as a ‘luxury item’ on the company expense list, consider that every penny spent is an investment. It's an investment in the team's dynamics, performance, and long-term success of your organisation. The significance of conflict resolution, cultural enhancement, and effective communication cannot be overstated; and you will see them on your bottom line, in some way. The real cost of not having a team away day is much higher than you might, on first glance, think.
So here are some thoughts to consider when deciding whether to hold an away day.
· When considering allocating resources, recognise that this isn't solely about a ‘nice day out’. Instead, think of it as an investment in your capital assets. Just as you would service a piece of production machinery, or maintain a building, by holding an away day you are investing in a more resilient, cohesive, and productive team.
· When designing your away day, think about how you would like everyone to “think, feel and do” differently afterwards. That way, you’ll be sure to deliver something that will have a positive impact on your people and your business, and not just a ‘nice day out’.
If you are contemplating your next team away day and ensuring you get the most out of it, reach out to me. Let's work together so you can be reassured that it will be worth the investment.