Teamwork in Your Office: Top Tips
The workplace should be a place of collaboration and group effort. When multiple heads come together, you get the best results. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way. If you notice some disconnect among your employees or think that they can work together better, here are ways to improve teamwork in your company.
- Encourage positive reinforcement
When an employee does well, that should make everyone on the team feel good. After all, one person’s success is everyone’s success. Encourage positive reinforcement for accomplishments from everyone on the team. Start by demonstrating a good example yourself. People at entry level positions will hopefully follow you example. The praise may also encourage them to work harder to receive the same praise. Employee reward and recognition is a proven method for encouraging employees to work harder. While it may encourage a bit of competition, that could also be a good thing. It makes employees work harder, and friendly competition can be fun.
- Team-building activities
There are a variety of team-building activities available for your employees to learn how to work together. The best part of it is that most of these activities are actually quite fun! Some companies take their employees to Wallyball or Escape rooms. Wallyball is a sport similar to hockey on go-karts with two teams. Escape rooms lock everyone in a room and encourage them to find a way out together. Another option is to group your employees up and make one talk the other one through an obstacle course.
- Start a sponsorship program
You want to give your employees the best guidance possible. Unfortunately, many people in management are spread too thin to give every new employee the personal attention that they need. There are plenty of small questions that can be answered quickly and effectively by veterans in the department. For this reason, it’s a good idea to set up a group of advanced employees that new employees can turn to for help. Make a point to keep new employees seated next to these helpful team members.
- Social functions
Encourage your employees to go out together. Organize events such as bowling, movie nights, sports games, and happy hours for your employees. It gives them the opportunity to socialize with their coworkers in an environment away from work. This gives them the opportunity to bond and talk about things that they normally wouldn’t talk about. When they reconvene at the workplace, they are a little more closer than they were before. Of course, make it very clear that the employees should maintain a certain level of professionalism, even if they are outside of the office.
If you’re looking to do some good, you could consider organizing a charitable outing. Everyone will feel good about themselves, and they will get to bond.
- Decorate
It’s amazing how happily people will come together to make the office a more beautiful place to work. Create a group for people to join and decorate. they can do it every single holiday, but the office needs decorations at other times, too. To incorporate a little bit of competition at the same time, consider having groups decorate different parts of the office and then have the office vote to see which decorations were liked the best.
There are plenty of creative and productive ways to encourage your team to work together better. A cohesive team gets work done more quickly and better. It also makes being at work way more enjoyable. You can tell that people enjoy being at work and the atmosphere is much happier. It’s a win-win for everyone!