When the economic climate is tough it can often be events or activities that help promote well-being at work that are the first to be deleted from the budget. Evidence from recent studies conducted by New Economics Foundation, the UK’s leading think tank promoting social, economic and environmental justice, show that people who achieve good standards of well-being at work are likely to be more creative, more loyal, more productive and provide better customer satisfaction than those with poor levels of well-being at work. From the individual’s perspective well-being may be all about maintaining a good work/life balance or healthy lifestyle. The same could also be said from the company point of view although, clearly, such companies would also wish to see outcomes from any well-being activities they support financially to have outcomes that are relevant to the workplace.
So are such cost savings a false economy or a worthwhile measure?As the much circulated ‘conversation’ goes:
CFO asks CEO “What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?
CEO “What happens if we don’t and they stay?”
Replace the word ‘people’ with ‘teams’ and the message remains the same. Almost always it is the team effort (or lack of) that determines whether a project is deemed a success (or not). Whilst a good leader can inspire, if the team are under-motivated or not joined-up then the task still remains enormous.
Team building does not need to be expensive or over complicated. But it does need to be relevant to the workplace. It also needs to be suitable for all abilities (both in the work place and physical sense). In organisations where the work force age spread may range from the teenager through to the near-retiree finding the right balance is important. Ultimately, whatever team building format you select it must be both engaging and inspiring but, perhaps, more importantly, work!