Workplaces

What Is Team Building and Why Is It Important?

July 18, 2023

What is Team Building?

When you hear the term “team building” you may roll your eyes, but modern team building not only has proven benefits, but can also be a lot of fun.

Team building is the process of using various social activities or games to help your team strengthen bonds between one another and work as a more cohesive unit. Team building allows members of an organization to communicate, connect, and have fun in a different setting than work with the goal of building trust, comradery, and friendship between team members.

In addition, team building has also been proven to help foster better work environments with more satisfied, productive employees. Whether you want to improve the relationships between your employees or create a sense of community in your workplace, team building can help your organization achieve its goals.

Why is Team Building Important?

Team building is extremely important for two main reasons:

1. It increases communication, friendship, and trust among employees.

2. It fosters a work environment that shows you value employee well-being, in turn increasing productivity and engagement.

According to a report from Gusto, over 80 percent of employees believe that a sense of community is important when it comes to building a successful workplace culture, but less than one-third of workplaces engage in even simple team building activities such as company lunches.

A study from Harvard Business Review found that team building can improve “communication patterns” by a staggering 50 percent- that means less missed emails and more informed employees. On top of better communication and friendship between employees, team building also helps build mutual respect between employees and their superiors.

Happier employees mean more engagement, more productivity, more revenue, and less turnover.

Team Building Now

Modern teambuilding has moved beyond board games or a night out to dinner (although those activities are okay too) as the practice becomes more popular and the benefits become more apparent. Think outside the box when it comes to team building- nothing is off-limits.

Some of the most popular examples of team building activities now include escape rooms, go-karts, trivia nights, or in-office game breaks such as charades or the human knot. Always remember to keep the ability status of your employees in mind to remain inclusive.

Anything that forces employees to get to know each other and interact in a different light than the traditional workplace setting counts as team building and can help both your employees on a personal level, and your organization on a cultural level. Team building isn’t just about fun and games, although that’s exactly what it is. Team building is about improving your workplace’s culture and the experience of each individual employee.