Return on Investment

A wry, multimillion-pound ad campaign by Vodafone, depicting hapless employees taking part in clichéd team-building activities, has met a mostly po-faced response from the team-building industry. The billboard advertisements, on the back of research the mobile phone giant conducted with Yougov, revealed that while 66% have taken part in team building activities, more than half (54%) do not feel that doing more would help them work better with colleagues. Cringe-inducing activities cited in the survey included ‘bush tucker trials’, bikini-clad bed-baths and lingerie parties. Nick Hamilton, Inconnection Managing Director, said that “the images depicted in the ads are more in keeping with team building events from the 1990’s and don’t represent team building activities today.” Drab tasks are clearly outdated and Inconnection find that company briefs now range from the need to ‘do something fun’ to ‘we want to build leadership skills in an interactive, enjoyable and engaging way’.

Define your aims

Team building events are often much more than just building a happy team, it’s imperative to encompass specific training objectives and link in with commercial aims to ensure you achieve the maximum ROI from your team building event. You should define your aims and even survey staff before and after the event to get a clearer idea of its success. Some companies fall short before the team building event has taken place because they seek what’s new as opposed to what will work for them and help achieve their goals.

Working together

Event agencies and corporates should work together to make the most of team building events. Nick Hamilton says: “We’re the event experts and our clients are experts in their people. Combing our knowledge will maximise the success of your team building event. This will have the biggest impact on achieving the maximum ROI.” Nick Hamilton adds that measuring a task in terms of ROI can be tricky: “Systems do exist for putting a pound sign on the return; however the more obvious measurements include employee productivity, punctuality and sick rates. We also say to our clients that they can define the ROI in the objectives they set.” He continues: “For example if your goal is to increase your staff’s understanding of your company’s commercial aims achieving this will provide you your ROI. An effective measurement would be through a post event survey with your staff to deem the team building events success.”

For every team building event you should start with a clear objective then you’ll have a clear outcome that can be measured. We work with you to define your objectives then provide a solution to ensure you achieve your aims and a quantifiable return on your investment.