Why team building is crucial for GCC companies

Team building is the most important investment you can make for your people.

Studies show that only 15 per cent of a person’s success is determined by job knowledge and technical skills, and 85 per cent is determined by an individual’s attitude and ability to relate to other people.

Team building activities go a long way in achieving better workplace relationships as they have a positive impact on company processes and goals.

Building an ideal company culture where employees feel nurtured and strive for greater productivity is achievable: 90 per cent of leaders think an engagement strategy will impact business success. However, only 25 per cent of them have a platform or a strategy to influence their employees.

Furthermore, when you have a team, you want to keep that group engaged and loyal. Retaining employees is vital to success. It is a fact that 60 per cent of executives listed lack of collaboration as one of their top leadership challenges.

Participants in employee training programmes like leadership development are 45 per cent more likely to stay with their employer. Based on your specific needs, each of these team building and professional development programmes combine work and play. Your team will learn by hand-on experiences and have fun in the process.

Team building activities are important not only for the immediate experience of the activities performed by the team, but also for group skills, communication and bonding.

These kind of challenges help in breaking the ice between employees, making them forget their differences in addition to bringing them closer together in tackling a challenge with one common goal. This will naturally lead them to work more harmoniously together in their natural work environment.

Organisations that communicate effectively are 4.5 more likely to retain the best people; and participants involved in active learning (doing a real job, a simulation, a training game, etc) retain 90 per cent of the information through the power of play.

Some of the team building benefits include:
• Improved communication
• Develop team roles
• Time to develop skills
• Long-term benefits
• Better relationships
• Improve productivity
• Increase motivation

It is clear that one of the most powerful reasons for team building is to get results. Through a series of planned team bonding events that are fun and motivational, teams build skills like communication, planning, problem-solving and conflict resolution.

HR departments have to keep in mind that job satisfaction is an important part of a person’s employment. Feeling worthwhile, being part of a team and having a sense of achievement within the working environment are essential elements to happiness. These feelings can motivate a workforce and ensure they are at their most productive, and in turn, this attitude will motivate their colleagues.

Working on the premise that happy staff are productive staff, companies often find that team building activities positively affect the productivity of individuals, teams and the company as a whole.

Lina El Saheb is managing partner at HintHunt