An announcement of a team-building event doesn’t elicit the same response it used to from employees.

Nowadays, they hear “team building” and assume it’ll be some boring activity with their manager trying too hard. Scenes from The Office play in their minds. But of course, it doesn’t have to be this way.

We at PowerHub plan team-building events that feel completely different from a day at the office. We steer clear of tired ideas and develop exciting ideas for activities many of our team never tried before. After all, team building aims to improve communication, trust, and comradery, and it’s difficult to achieve that if employees count the minutes until they can go home.

First, we define the goal of the teambuilding exercise.

We think about what we hope our team walks away with from the team-building event and use this goal to inform activity selection. Leadership used to try to organize the entire event, which can be a lot of work so we now ensure more than one person is in charge of planning.

In our experience, the best types of activities are those with interactive and collaborative elements.

We recently spent a day outside by the water enjoying the beautiful summer weather. The team bonded over delicious food and competed in various fun games. Breaking up into smaller teams made things even more exciting. We all enjoyed a little competition with field games, relay races, and oversized versions of board games we loved playing as kids, like connect four.

The medal ceremony was a great way to wrap up the day. There was a lot of talent to recognize!

Here are some images of the event:

Events like these are more important after years of living and working through a global pandemic. Being able to gather again for team building means a lot to employees working remotely or hybrid for the last few years. It’s a chance to catch up with everyone outside of a screen. An opportunity to have dynamic conversations where you can see everyone’s reactions and expressions in real-time.

At PowerHub, we think of team-building events as an investment in our employees. It brings us together and makes us stronger.

There are plenty of days in the year to work hard. What’s missing in most corporate settings is opportunities for employees to relax, let loose and have a little fun. But those are the type of opportunities that positively impact your team and improve corporate culture.

When done right, team-building days are the ones your employees will remember and continue to talk about in years to come. They’re the days where memories are made.

The fun you have today are the stories your team will be telling tomorrow. There was plenty of laughter and exciting conversations at our latest event. Before the day was done, there was already talk of the next one. Let’s keep the momentum going.