The importance of outdoor corporate retreats on company culture

Company culture is one of the key factors to employee satisfaction, workplace relationships and organisational loyalty. According to 94% of executives and 88% of employees from a Deloitte Survey, it is also highly important to the success of an organisation.

If COVID-19 had taught us anything, it is that creating a positive corporate culture is about connecting people and bringing a sense of togetherness and trust. As a result of the infectious disease, teams had to adapt the way they work, from working in the office to operating virtually – and it appears that remote working is here to stay; as an Upwork Survey estimated that by 2028, 73% of departments will employ remote workers. Top technology companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Google are already paving the way to indefinite remote work, as the CEO’s of the three organisations have confirmed that they will be offering hybrid/remote working environments indefinitely post-COVID.

As much as offering remote work to employees has its benefits, such as lowered business expenses, and a greater access to talent, it can have a detrimental effect to the company culture. According to Statista’s Challenges of Working Remote 2020 Survey, 35% of respondents expressed that one of the biggest struggles of remote work is the feeling of loneliness and isolation from the team and organisation. That is why in The Blue Zone Talk, Ffion Jones (Founder of Beautiful Minds and Training and Development Specialist) advises that organisations need to bring teams together (face-to-face) at least several times a year, and ‘do something transformative that can really build bonds’.

In the chat discussing all things hybrid working and company culture, Training and Development Specialist Ffion Jones expressed that because of remote/hybrid working, teams are spending less time together, therefore, it is crucial that team gatherings need to be ‘more than just spending time together’. They need to be carefully thought out and ‘made the most out of’. Outdoor corporate retreats are a great way to provide employees with that invaluable experience and bring teams together with outdoor team building activities such as surfing, hiking, coasteering, white-water rafting, and rock climbing.

When you bring your team together on a team building adventure and outdoor corporate retreat, you are giving your employees the opportunity to have fun outdoors and create stronger bonds with their teammates in a unique setting – ‘doing something different’, other than the workplace environment. This experience will leave them with an extraordinary and unforgettable memory that will help drive performance, enhance employee engagement, and create a positive company culture.

By getting the team out of the workplace setting into an environment out of their comfort zone, individuals transition into a heightened state of trust. Trust is a core fundamental of creating a positive company culture, and as Ffion Jones confirms in the Blue Zone Talk, ‘the kind of trust that you build in that environment is very difficult to replicate elsewhere’. She explains how these experiences will stick with employees for years, where they can utilise and ‘hook onto that experience [they] had together to be able to be resilient and keep pushing through tough times.’

No matter the size of the team or company, team building with corporate outdoor retreats is an investment that organisations will benefit from to enhance their company culture and togetherness, and create higher performing teams.

Written by Jasmine Panayides.

Interested in talking corporate retreats for your team? Contact Daniel Manley on [email protected] or +44 (0)7956166937 for a friendly chat.