Team social events are rarely at the top of any company’s priority list. Sure, the team gets together for the yearly holiday party. Maybe there’s a summer BBQ if HR is on the ball and the budget allots for it, and attendance is mandatory, and everyone goes on their merry way until the next year.
But team social events SHOULD be prioritized, and where fascinating companies have these types of regular, effective gatherings, it makes a difference that discrepancies between teams make measurable results. Higher retention rates. Natural collaboration occurs easier than relative strangers forced together to work. Company culture that doesn’t require constant HR tinkering.
Social events are effective. That’s not the question. The only question is whether the time and budgetary allotment that most companies can spare is worth it in the long run.
What Happens When Teams Fail to Connect
Team members are little cubes filled with people; they share space but don’t know each other from Adam. They do their jobs and attend meetings and punch out. Unless they need something in the cross-department, they won’t know more than faces and names on cubicle doors. When collaboration or cross-department work is needed, it’s a jarring halt because these people are mere strangers in a company to which they both belong.
It’s a cost to this connection that almost has no value until someone professionally investigates it. Projects take longer because people waste time trying to figure out who they might know who can help them with questions or issues. Great employees quit because they make salaries elsewhere just as easily as they’ve done in their previous jobs but never connected deeply enough with anyone as they trudged through their days. New hires fail to assimilate on teams because everyone has their heads down busy, and no organic bonding can occur.
This is where forced team-building attempts usually stem from dysfunction. You know what I’m talking about – trust falls, escape rooms rented out for working hours, icebreaker games that make your skin crawl as an adult. Employees are forced to spend a day in a situation and immediately forget it as they move back into their humdrum operations. But these types of expansions do NOT encourage the kind of organic connection that is needed to change how people work.
The Statistics Behind Social Investment
Statistics prove that those who consider each other friends at work outperform those who have no connection beyond being paid and present the same hour’s time three or four times a week at least. These aren’t professional acquaintances; they’re real friends. Gallup even points out that people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be engaged.
And that engagement costs. Real dollars. Employee turnover costs between 50%-200% of employee salaries thanks to recruitment fees, retraining, lost productivity, etc. If social events can retain even one additional employee (or dissuade them from attempting to hire elsewhere) per year per department, the return on investment is palpable.
In addition, team members who know each other operate better than strangers – it’s basic psychology. The person who possesses the answer you seek is more likely to share it because they sat with you over beers last Tuesday than resenting personality conflicts that exist because these people are only strangers here. The person who desperately needs assistance before their deadline will find help in someone who’s shared fries with them in the break room.
How to Make Events Feel Real (Not Corporate)
The realness of the event provides one that gets well-received; employee morale can smell through the facade of checking off another box of “Things We Could Do To Be a Better Company.” For example, a happy hour at Blue Martini Phoenix provides just enough separation from teamwork and leadership breathing down everyone’s necks to march through a predetermined agenda to get through it. Mandated fun activities during the workday do NOT lend well to establishing good relationships.
Good venue options for team events boast several characteristics. They’re separate enough from work that people aren’t talking about it – otherwise, they might as well have stayed in the office. They boast enough activity internal (or external) so conversation can develop organically – but not enough distraction that meaningful connections can’t occur unexpectedly. And let’s be real – the food and beverage options have to be up to par enough for someone to choose to be there rather than tolerating themselves enough.
In addition, timing is critical; during business hours takes away from career improvement opportunities; after-hours events respect personal lives (optional/not too late) give employees time to engage because they want to – not because they’re forced to by upper management.
Frequency Changes Everything
Where most companies go wrong is annual events do NOT create true connectivity; they aren’t enough touchpoints for anything more substantial than small talk that is easily forgotten. But if events occur monthly or quarterly – even minutely – a process develops over time and more often than not, people will get to know one another better.
Think about real friendships – when was the last time we had one major all-about-us hangout and never saw our friends again? It developed over time with repeated casual interactions (not always with good intentions). The same goes within workplace relationships; smaller recurring events give employees plenty of opportunities to bridge gaps of common interests, explore appropriate questions, and build information that’s necessary for appropriate collaboration when projects roll around.
Sure, budgetary concerns come into play – but smaller quarterly expenditures typically outweigh one enormous aggregate in one annual sitting. A happy hour every three months could come in less than one rented venue of 200 guests plus catering. Plus smaller ones create better outcomes since attendees actually remember one another for the next event!
Where Leadership Goes Wrong
When it comes to team social events, where they go wrong most often when leadership sets them up too frequently/with an agenda that’s forced on networking possibilities or overwhelming speeches, it becomes a “work” event instead of socialization by its purest form. People need unstructured time just to talk, just to be human.
Another downfall relates to attendance; when leadership plays Big Brother and watches who attends what, team events become networking opportunities for socializing endeavors as optional connective opportunities. Employees must feel comfortable not attending (without FOMO) should they want to skip but not have attendance reflect their reputational standing – or status – or status most importantly!
The team leader should facilitate the event but not control 100% over it – with help establishing a solid reason to bring it all together – to make it appealing – and step back so employees can take ownership; let team members facilitate engagement; let middle managers and employees push possible discussion – instead of executives running all efforts – and giving speeches about company values.
How to Measure What Matters
Measuring ROI isn’t necessarily quarterly reports – this process doesn’t happen like that – but it’s very much informal metrics that many companies already implement. Retention rates per department before and after social connection investments exist; employee engagement scores exist; how rapidly do interdepartmental projects move from initial meetings to drafted solutions?
Informal assessments can help gauge effectiveness: Are people coming in early? Staying later? Are they talking about the last one during lunch? Employees never connected before – and now – they are – why? Real connections occur – or else people go through the motions.
Often HR wants immediate feedback from employees immediately after an event – which is useless unless months pass after real connections occur when interactions change both positively – and professionally – for that’s when they’re needed.
How to Instill It Into Company Culture
Once team social events become less of a sometimes surprise-but-more often-than-not-expected occurrence throughout the year (this is subjective based on corporate budget), it’ll become part of company culture seamlessly. New hires will see the company values relationship-building; maybe they’ll cultivate their special events/groups because the company normalizes it; newly found interest in workplace camaraderie emerges thanks to facilitated opportunities where none existed before.
It’s all about consistency even if once every quarter makes sense as a part of a normalized aspect of any company in one location; once monthly feels excessive unless it’s on the smaller side or more casual events were planned. Still, one mega-annual event cannot become part even if appealing to employees sounds good but unnecessary logistical endeavors aren’t worth it unless it’s appropriate for everyone already invested rather than getting hyphenated since efforts waxed once a year therefore it’s expected per undesired effort.
Budgeting determines potential team participation at the first sign of financial strain – in many ways signal leadership does not care about connection for its own sake by any means necessary – as it should be part of the infrastructure – as instead of an ancillary item. It’s an investment in how teams operate – it is NOT a benefit for employment.
Companies That Get It Right DO NOT REWARD morale-repairing social events for goal-completion – but they don’t treat them as major milestones either – they treat them as an integral facet of an office where those who work together actually want to engage collaboratively When this perception changes how all events projected get executed better – and appreciated – as within a culture where such appreciation doesn’t have to be extra special or rarely facilitated for it to work or appreciated better than any subsequent meeting would ever receive anyway.
