How Much Will Team Building Make Your Employees Feel Valued?

As a business owner, one of the most important tasks you have to do is to make sure your employees feel valued and appreciated at work, and for good reasons. Studies have shown that happy employees are likely to be as much as 12% more productive than unhappy ones, and feeling valued is by far the biggest contribution to employees’ happiness. So, figuring out how to make your employees feel valued should always be on your mind. While there are many approaches you can take if you want to show your employees your truly value them, the one that has the potential to be the most far-reaching and bring you the best results is team building. If incorporated successfully, team building has the potential to build lasting and meaningful bonds between your employees which will, in turn, make them form a stronger connection with your business as a whole and ensure that they feel as though they are contributing to the bigger picture. However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind when trying this approach.

Plan ahead

The first and the most important step towards successful team building is to define the goals you want to achieve clearly. In this case, it should be aiming to build more meaningful connections with and between your employees in order to make them feel more valued. Having this clearly defined will give you something that you will always be able to turn to and orient around, allowing you to eliminate distractions and to stay true to your goals.

At the end of the day, it’s also really important to remember that even though team building is primarily done through various organized activities, the only way to start seeing real results is by striving to constantly work towards it. So, instead of just having a designated team building activity every now and then, try to keep the ball rolling at all times through all interactions, big or small. Now that we've talked about that, let’s take a look at a few practical ideas that can help you achieve this task.

Reward their successes

One of the most effective ways to conduct team building is by utilising the momentum and good spirits that come after successfully finishing a group project, especially a demanding one. Instead of just giving a few pats on the back, try making this into a proper celebration and reward the good job your employees have done. For example, you can take them out for a group lunch or surprise them with special gift bags showing them their work is appreciated but also encouraging them to continue working together in the future. An idea you can also utilize is to go with a more symbolic reward like a trophy or a special thank you note which you can then display at your office, constantly reminding them of the great work they've done.

Encourage them to communicate

Good communication between employees is one of the integral things every successful business must possess and, in fact, it is at the core of any team building. So, finding ways to get your workers to communicate with each other should be one of your main goals. This won’t only lead to your business becoming more productive and efficient but it will also naturally encourage people to bond with each other, adding to their sense of value and worth. The first step towards encouraging communication is to build a company culture that promotes everyone to speak up and talk to each other, either by utilizing and promoting social media platforms to facilitate communications or by inspiring people to communicate through various team building exercises.

Engage with individuals

As a team consists of a number of individuals that make it up, you should also focus your efforts on making each and every one of them understand the importance of a positive team spirit and encourage them to engage with others. There are bound to be a few black sheep that may find it difficult to open up and bond with others, and this is especially where you will need to use your leadership skills by motivating them and pushing them to engage with others, but only within their lines of comfort. This will lead to everyone becoming more understanding of the ideas behind your focus on team building, making them more willing to contribute which is a must in order for team building to be successful.

Conclusion

As we can see, team building can be a great way to make your employees feel valued but only if it’s done with the right goals in mind and if it’s incorporated successfully in alignment with those goals.