We’ve all been there: the dreaded work slump. Whether you call it spring fever or the 3 p.m. crash, this dip in productivity can derail your employees and lead to stress as a result of having to work even harder to catch up later on. All companies can suffer from this decline in performance, particularly around the holiday season or when temperatures warm up in the spring. Even though this decline in performance can be quite common, it can also be detrimental to your business.
A prolonged lapse in productivity can cost your company money and lead to employees feeling less satisfied with their jobs. For your business to be as successful as possible, all your workers should be consistently performing at high levels, but how do you achieve that when your workers are burned out and counting down for the clock to strike five?
Rock Paper Team has seven ways to improve performance at work from making employees feel valued to participating in team building activities for work.
1. Give employees a reason to believe
Company culture is becoming more and more important to the workforce, especially in regards to younger employees. No one wants to go to work every day for a faceless company – they want to know who they are working for, what the company’s values are and how they play a part in the company culture. Remind employees that they’re an important part of the company and give them a reason to believe in your business’ values. When people know what and who they are working for then they will be happier and more productive during business hours.
2. Never underestimate the power of a reward
Even when employees feel bogged down, one of the easiest ways to improve performance at work is by rewarding employees for a job well done. Whether it’s a small victory, a big accomplishment or even just the end of the week, employees will appreciate a little extra encouragement. Sporting events and office lunches can be great ways to reward the people who work for you or, if you’re looking for something a little more interactive and tailored to your company, Rock Paper Team’s food and wine team building events are a great way to reward employees in a fun and relaxing atmosphere.
3. Foster a team environment
It’s easy for employees to get wrapped up in their work and focus solely on the part they play at the office, but this will not help your company live up to its full potential. Working together in a collaborative environment brings out new opinions and ways of thinking, which can result in some great ideas for your company! Also, when people see themselves as part of a team with everyone working toward a common goal, performance often increases. Rock Paper Team offers corporate team building activities like our interactive workshops, which bring companies together and foster both individual and group development. Participants are encouraged to improve their teamwork skills and foster a new awareness of their team’s potential. Plus, they get to have fun while they’re doing it!
4. Show employees you care
No employee wants to be just another name in a set of paperwork – they want to feel valued by the company they work for. Celebrate personal occasions in your workers’ lives like birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and new children. It doesn’t have to be a huge event (we know how hard that can be for larger companies), but even just a simple card or a small gift can go a long way in making employees feel cared for. When people feel appreciated by their company, they are more likely to perform better at work.
5. Encourage open communication
Sometimes, employee performance levels sink because of a communication issue. If co-workers don’t feel comfortable discussing new ideas or voicing their opinions, it can hinder workflow. Communication really is the key to a happy and productive work environment. Our photo scavenger hunt team building activities are the perfect way to encourage open communication between employees while letting them have some fun too! Our scavenger hunts get teams working together to solve problems and come up with creative ways to complete all the requirements on their list. The best part about participating in these kinds of team building events is that the communication skills gained will carry over into business hours as well!
6. Encourage innovation
Technology is constantly shifting. With all the new gadgets, processes and software coming out each day, it can be difficult to keep up. Constantly having to learn a new system can be challenging for employees, but fixing broken processes and finding new ways to save time and money can really benefit the entire company. Encourage your employees to get creative and search for better ways of doing things by encouraging innovation at work. When they do discover a new strategy, it will help everyone in the office become more productive!
7. Bring on the fun
When all else fails, having fun together is the cure for everything. If your employees are feeling burned-out, it is probably time to get out of the office and blow off some steam! There are endless ways to have fun with your employees, but we think our corporate team building activities are the best of both worlds (even if we are a little biased). Our dance team building events will have co-workers moving and shaking together, and that always leads to a lot of laughs! Having fun together encourages bonding, and these bonds lead to better working relationships in the office as well. No matter which type of activity you choose to participate in, having fun together will certainly improve employee performance at work.
Don’t Let a Lapse in Performance Get You Down
It may feel like it at times, but a lapse in employee performance won’t last forever. Whether it’s finding a creative way to thank your employees for all of their hard work or using a corporate team building activity to develop new skills and help co-workers bond, you are only a few steps away from turning employees back into the killer teammate they are. If you need more inspiration for improving work performance or want to chat about the team building events we offer, contact us today. Building strong teams is our passion and we are always here to help!
Thursday Thoughts – Weaving People Together
UncategorizedWhen I first started my career in Ministry, I had a Spiritual Director (a coach). During my time with Fr. Jerry, I learned one of my gifts is Weaving People Together.
As I worked with different staffs as a fellow team member we would have team building professionals come in for training and workshops. The one question always asked was “Who on the staff is the most collaborative.” The answer from all of the staffs was the same – “Dan Colgan”
For me, being the youngest of 10 kids in my family, it was always natural to work with others and combine talents and resources to make the end result the best outcome possible. Throughout my younger years, I worked in theater, choirs and programs that were team-centric where we lifted each other up to be the best we could be and achieve.
I’m currently teaching a course on Holiness for adults and I am reminded about my gift of Weaving People Together. In the first 2-weeks of the course, the amount of sharing personal and spiritual stories are amazing, but not surprising. When I create and facilitate programs, I encounter people letting their guards down and interact with one another.
One of my friends and colleagues, Jacklyn Lim (CEO of OSM Partners – www.osmpartners.net), after experiencing one of my team building programs, said: “You have this uncanny ability to get adults to say Yes to things that they would never say yes.” One of the other comments Jacklyn shared was “One of the things that stood out to me was how quickly an unfamiliar group of people learned to work together, delegate and capitalize on each member’s assets to complete a project.”
Bottom line – From my experiences, I encounter people who want to connect and grow. Throughout my life, I have been given the opportunities to bring people together and use my talents to create safe, fun and productive environments, events and programs. This is why I do both Team and Community Building – it’s in my veins and my soul.
What gift or talent do you have that you bring to the people in your life – whether professional or personal?
Cheers!
Dan
www.rockpaperteam.com/
Showing Respect In The Workplace
Team BuildingTo grow a successful, innovative business, it’s important to build a work culture that highly values respect. Showing respect in the workplace is a fundamental human virtue that positively impacts productivity, engagement, and creativity – all qualities that help employees thrive and work towards a common goal. All business owners should provide new and current employees with respect in the workplace training that covers how to behave and interact in a way that fosters a desirable work culture.
Below are three ways we have identified as the most important areas where employees should practice respect within an organization: communication, conflict resolution, and team building activities. Each one of these areas helps employees and leadership learn how to demonstrate respect to coworkers through daily interaction, creative collaboration, and even when conflict is involved.
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NYC Summer Activities For Office Team Building
Team BuildingAh, sweet summer, you’re back again! No doubt, the people of New York gain a boundless energy when the warm summer months come around. Although the thrill of summer may not have the same effect on the corporate office world the way it does grade school kids, New York City is in no short supply of activities that can excite and engage adults outside of the office this Summer 2016. There are plenty of summer activities that can spice up the office from baseball games to picnics to scavenger hunts. Here are some of our favorite summer NY activities for office team building that will build communication, break barriers, build trust between employees, and increase overall morale and productivity in the workplace.
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Increase the Success of Your Sales Team with Team Building Activities
Team BuildingEvery team in the office can get into a slump from time to time, but you never want these lapses in productivity to have a lasting, negative impact on your business. When it comes to your sales team, however, a period of decreased performance can be devastating. You count on these people to bring in new business, and when the team isn’t performing as well as they could be, your company is losing out on valuable opportunities. One way to fight the slump and give employees the boost they need is through team building activities for sales teams.
Think about it: your sales team constantly has to be “on point” in order to track down new leads and close the best deals, and the success of your company depends on it. That’s a lot of pressure to be under all the time. And when things aren’t going well, it’s easy for those employees to develop negative attitudes toward themselves or their jobs — and that certainly doesn’t help anyone. With a fun sales team building event, your sales team can come back to work refreshed and excited to tackle a new set of challenges and prospects.
Team building activities are more than just games — at least the way Rock Paper Team does them. With RPT, you’ll get a unique, customized event that is perfectly tailored to your sales team (full of exciting activities and fun lessons they can take back to the office). A RPT event is a great way for stressed employees to blow off some steam and explore new problem solving skills. Depending on your goals and what you want to accomplish with a corporate team building activity, we will plan the perfect package for your company’s sales team.
Team Building Activities for Sales Teams
As we mentioned above, the pressures facing sales teams are unique. If you’re concerned about team morale, events that let teams relax and enjoy some bonding time away from the office are a great fit. Food and wine activities like wine tastings, brewery tours and cooking classes are a great option — sharing a meal and a few drinks is an inherently social and celebratory activity, and it provides an easy opportunity for team members to bond outside of office hours. Plus, you get to experience something different than a traditional corporate happy hour.
Events like photo scavenger hunts and interactive workshops are great sales team building activities. They get co-workers out of the office and into a new environment, where they can tap into their creative side to solve problems in a no-pressure environment. When team members aren’t under specific pressures to succeed, they feel more comfortable sharing new ideas and thinking more creatively, because there’s no fear of failure.
The bonds and creative thinking skills developed during team building activities for sales teams can easily be taken back to the office and used to transform the attitudes of your sales team. And a more successful sales team means more leads for your business, and greater success for your company as a whole. And who wouldn’t want that?
If you’d like more information on team building events in NYC and what Rock Paper Team can do for your company, contact us today!
7 Ways to Improve Performance at Work
Team BuildingWe’ve all been there: the dreaded work slump. Whether you call it spring fever or the 3 p.m. crash, this dip in productivity can derail your employees and lead to stress as a result of having to work even harder to catch up later on. All companies can suffer from this decline in performance, particularly around the holiday season or when temperatures warm up in the spring. Even though this decline in performance can be quite common, it can also be detrimental to your business.
A prolonged lapse in productivity can cost your company money and lead to employees feeling less satisfied with their jobs. For your business to be as successful as possible, all your workers should be consistently performing at high levels, but how do you achieve that when your workers are burned out and counting down for the clock to strike five?
Rock Paper Team has seven ways to improve performance at work from making employees feel valued to participating in team building activities for work.
1. Give employees a reason to believe
Company culture is becoming more and more important to the workforce, especially in regards to younger employees. No one wants to go to work every day for a faceless company – they want to know who they are working for, what the company’s values are and how they play a part in the company culture. Remind employees that they’re an important part of the company and give them a reason to believe in your business’ values. When people know what and who they are working for then they will be happier and more productive during business hours.
2. Never underestimate the power of a reward
Even when employees feel bogged down, one of the easiest ways to improve performance at work is by rewarding employees for a job well done. Whether it’s a small victory, a big accomplishment or even just the end of the week, employees will appreciate a little extra encouragement. Sporting events and office lunches can be great ways to reward the people who work for you or, if you’re looking for something a little more interactive and tailored to your company, Rock Paper Team’s food and wine team building events are a great way to reward employees in a fun and relaxing atmosphere.
3. Foster a team environment
It’s easy for employees to get wrapped up in their work and focus solely on the part they play at the office, but this will not help your company live up to its full potential. Working together in a collaborative environment brings out new opinions and ways of thinking, which can result in some great ideas for your company! Also, when people see themselves as part of a team with everyone working toward a common goal, performance often increases. Rock Paper Team offers corporate team building activities like our interactive workshops, which bring companies together and foster both individual and group development. Participants are encouraged to improve their teamwork skills and foster a new awareness of their team’s potential. Plus, they get to have fun while they’re doing it!
4. Show employees you care
No employee wants to be just another name in a set of paperwork – they want to feel valued by the company they work for. Celebrate personal occasions in your workers’ lives like birthdays, anniversaries, marriages and new children. It doesn’t have to be a huge event (we know how hard that can be for larger companies), but even just a simple card or a small gift can go a long way in making employees feel cared for. When people feel appreciated by their company, they are more likely to perform better at work.
5. Encourage open communication
Sometimes, employee performance levels sink because of a communication issue. If co-workers don’t feel comfortable discussing new ideas or voicing their opinions, it can hinder workflow. Communication really is the key to a happy and productive work environment. Our photo scavenger hunt team building activities are the perfect way to encourage open communication between employees while letting them have some fun too! Our scavenger hunts get teams working together to solve problems and come up with creative ways to complete all the requirements on their list. The best part about participating in these kinds of team building events is that the communication skills gained will carry over into business hours as well!
6. Encourage innovation
Technology is constantly shifting. With all the new gadgets, processes and software coming out each day, it can be difficult to keep up. Constantly having to learn a new system can be challenging for employees, but fixing broken processes and finding new ways to save time and money can really benefit the entire company. Encourage your employees to get creative and search for better ways of doing things by encouraging innovation at work. When they do discover a new strategy, it will help everyone in the office become more productive!
7. Bring on the fun
When all else fails, having fun together is the cure for everything. If your employees are feeling burned-out, it is probably time to get out of the office and blow off some steam! There are endless ways to have fun with your employees, but we think our corporate team building activities are the best of both worlds (even if we are a little biased). Our dance team building events will have co-workers moving and shaking together, and that always leads to a lot of laughs! Having fun together encourages bonding, and these bonds lead to better working relationships in the office as well. No matter which type of activity you choose to participate in, having fun together will certainly improve employee performance at work.
Don’t Let a Lapse in Performance Get You Down
It may feel like it at times, but a lapse in employee performance won’t last forever. Whether it’s finding a creative way to thank your employees for all of their hard work or using a corporate team building activity to develop new skills and help co-workers bond, you are only a few steps away from turning employees back into the killer teammate they are. If you need more inspiration for improving work performance or want to chat about the team building events we offer, contact us today. Building strong teams is our passion and we are always here to help!