Would you like to boost your team’s productivity? Although it may seem contradictory, one of the best ways to achieve this is to get everyone away from the office and take them somewhere nice where the whole team can get together for a few days of work and leisure activities.
A work retreat allows you to:
- strengthen the bonds between colleagues;
- reduce stress among employees;
- find solutions to problems that are impacting the company’s performance;
- discuss new business opportunities.
Of course, a retreat also gives employees the chance to rest, have a good time together, and enjoy themselves. According to a study carried out by the University of Oxford, a happy employee can increase their productivity by 13% on average.
But that’s not all. Read on to find out what you can achieve by going on a company retreat.
Strengthen and Consolidate Your Team
In recent years, many teams have moved from working in the office to working from home, either partly remotely (i.e., being in the workplace some days of the week) or fully remotely, and not going back to the office at all.
Clearly, this new way of working has yielded considerable benefits:
- It has accelerated digital transformation
- Hundreds of unnecessary trips have been avoided
- People’s work/life balance has improved
However, there are also some negative aspects to this change: people don’t get as much human interaction, and they feel more isolated and less part of a team.
That is why a company retreat can be the perfect opportunity to interact face-to-face again, to meet and make decisions together, and, ultimately, to strengthen and consolidate team spirit.
Avoid Burnout and Retain Talent
A company retreat is not just about working – it is also, as the name suggests, a time to rest and have a break from the daily grind.
Actually, the work done at a retreat tends to have a playful or creative component; it might even be born of a team-building activity, brainstorming session, or whiteboard exercises with Post-its.
The most important aim of a company retreat is to prevent team members from becoming stressed and burnt out. These are the main causes of most common modern illnesses and the chief enemy of productivity at work.
In this way, a retreat could also be considered a vacation paid for by the company – a getaway during which the employee has time to enjoy a barbecue with colleagues, have a coffee at a beach café, or take a walk through nature.
This will be highly appreciated by the employee, who is more likely to feel more motivated, identify better with the company’s values, and be willing to go beyond the call of duty when necessary.
Solve Underlying Problems and Identify New Business Opportunities
Research has shown that creativity is best developed when certain conditions are met, for example, when there are no prejudices, when mistakes are allowed, when trust is encouraged, and when people find themselves in a calm environment.
In fact, the stressful environment at the office, with its tight deadlines and demanding requests from clients that have to be addressed without mistakes, differs vastly from the relaxed nature of an informal meeting in a beautiful setting.
A certain degree of creativity might be involved in an office environment, if employees need to address urgent matters or inevitable conflicts, but a retreat provides the perfect conditions to think long term, solve underlying problems, redirect the company’s course, and even identify new business opportunities.
And this is where a team can bring a lot to the table. A retreat is the perfect opportunity to reflect on questions such as:
→ Why are we stressed?
- Too many clients?
- Staff shortages?
- Ill-suited procedures?
→ How can we organize ourselves better?
- What good habits can we develop?
- Which redundant tasks can we get rid of?
- What could help improve communication?
But that’s not all. A retreat also offers the opportunity to run new business ideas by employees if we combine the retreat with a hackathon:
- What about extending our business activities to other areas of the market?
- What about developing a new app?
- What about recording some TikTok reels?
- What about creating an online course to generate additional income?
All of these are questions that might be impossible to answer in the day-to-day course of business, but there can be room for them during a retreat.
In Conclusion
A retreat can lay the foundations for creating a work culture based on employee happiness and well-being. In addition, your team members will be better prepared to respond to any challenge as a true team, will be better rested, and, above all, will be more committed to business projects because they will have actively participated in the decision-making process.
All these factors will increase productivity in the short, medium, and long term.
So, why not organize a retreat with Repeople? Repeople manages several co-living spaces in Gran Canaria where you and your team members can have a rewarding experience in an idyllic environment. With an average temperature of 25°C throughout the year, Gran Canaria has a dream climate and is less than three hours away from many European capitals. The island has hundreds of activities and attractions on offer, and a European standard of living at more affordable prices.
What’s more, all our co-living spaces have been specifically created to host company retreats; they aren’t tourist hotels or holiday apartments, and are equipped with everything you and your team might need.
If you would like to find out more, email us at we@repeople.co . We look forward to helping you organize your next retreat.
