Please can you help me with Team Building/Morale Boosting ideas for our office?

[Kara198]

Long story short, our team at work has grown from approx 40 to over 100 since the first lockdown.
We do a mix of home and office working and half of the staff still don't know each other.
Morale is low, we were such a close knit team before always out for big lunches, nights out etc.
Too big to do this now.
I've been tasked with trying to fix this but I have no idea where to start! Especially as not everyone is in the office on the same days.
What works well in your companies to bring back that "team spirit"?
Thanks!

Say thank you and give praise, Use the traditional "Good Morning","Good Night","Have a good weekend" niceties. It's amazing how many managers forget this. It doesn't cost anything. Short weekly ( 15 minute maximum) informal,bring your tea/coffee,face to face briefings to groups of staff,updating with business /office information. Keep it informative and dwell on the positive.Both these things make people feel connected. Longer term, one that always made me laugh was the business that facilitated staff badminton ladders ,netball teams and other sporty activities. The majority of the staff would never take any part. BUT, when friends/family asked them if they liked working at XXX their staff would always look happy ,say yes and trot out details of the badminton/netball etc. It was something harmless and positive they could say. Everyone wants to be at a workplace they can say something good about. Getting someone to arrange these activities cost nothing. The most the business ever had to spring for was a cheap trophy and five minutes of the boss's time to award it.

First stop would be a hugely open but confidential feedback session to identify if and why morale is low. Your whole team has expanded and yet many will be feeling incredibly isolated and excluded. Throwing money blindly will not help.

The mere idea of team building exercises and the like are enough to turn me off such events - to the extent I’ve gone off sick rather than attend. If done during working hours, someone has to cover the workplace during the day or people are expected to give up their free time if done outside the normal ‘working day’.
If it’s somewhere that has a mixture of working hours (my DH company has 9 hour shifts covering 8am-8pm 7 days a week all year round), then some poor soul doesn’t get invited and ends up doing extra work to cover the unsocial hours with fewer staff available because the others are off on a jolly!

I would look at things that might make the workplace a more inviting environment

• do you have a comfortable space for people to go to on their breaks; are the kitchen facilities appropriately stocked with cups, cutlery, crockery for people to prepare lunch; is there enough fridge space for food to be stored?
• do people get time to go on their breaks, are they able to nip to the toilet without facing the 3rd degree for being away from their desk? Do people actually get out of the office on time without being made to feel like they’re not being a team player?
• how effective is communication amongst the department? Do people find stuff out in good time or is it often 2nd hand and through the office gossip instead of via official channels?
• are requests for annual leave, early finish/late start for an appointment or meeting type thing, responded to responsively or are they left to the last minute? There’s nothing worse than not knowing if you have to rearrange something or having to chase a manager to authorise things weeks after putting in a request.

Some of these things are easy enough to implement/manage while others might need some goodwill on behalf of senior staff but none of it should cost much to put in place!!

Arrange a team building exercise.
Put it in everyone's diary.
Cancel it the day before.

There you go - the minute the cancellation hits the inboxes morale will have improved

Do you have a budget?

The first company I worked for after school had a 'social club' for the big branches it was a physical club but for the smaller branches it was an amount of money and the branch decided on how to spend it.

There was a weekend at the coast most years, you had to pay for partners but the company paid for the hotel, you went to a dinner dance on the Saturday night and then stayed for breakfast and lunch on the Sunday.

It also paid for things for individuals so I got a 21st birthday present and another person got a retirement party.

What age group is the team? Older people? younger? If you have a budget you could do a wish list for each person and then every quarter or annually everyone gets something from their list.

If you have employees with families then a BBQ in a park with plays equipment might be more acceptable than an evening out.

One of the things I most appetited was a call from a manger telling me I was doing a good job.

I work in a team of about 100. What works to keep us connected is being well paid, being appreciated, understanding our common purpose and having opportunities to see what the other people do, shadowing, transfer opportunities, and how it connects with our jobs. Then we get talking and friendship naturally follows. We also have a social committee that arranges strictly optional nights out, charity rafgles, charity bingo, meals or whatever. Forced team building, enforced jollity situations are hideous and a waste of money.

Work out why morale is low.

HR policies on flexible working that are consistent, eg all to work a minimum of X days a week in the office, and incentivise or require people working closely together to attend the office on the same days of the week.

This is one you can't solve alone.

We have an employee council with a rep from every team - they steer the social programme (thank goodness) but also have been invaluable in raising other changes that matter to people, like career development clarity, access to training, etc.

We've kicked off a weekly thank you (anonymous survey) which is incredibly well-used and the thanks are then posted in a whole co notice each week.

One thing I would say is share what you do in a "you asked for...so we've now set up..." way, so that there's visibility people are being heard.

Specifically addressing the rapid growth issue - get the very top involved. Can directors do regular all-staff briefings (live or virtual) so that everyone gets the same messages, even if the message is just "we're so happy to have you here, this is how the company's doing"? Then line managers can follow up in team meetings, and it softens the old guard / new hires divide

[quote Hawkins001]@ChristmasPlanning
It was in-house, plans based on inspiration from shows such as spooks, the unit, alias, covert affairs ect, stories that were in the episode that then could be tweaked and ran in our groups.[/quote]
@Hawkins001 sounds amazing!

@DivingBoardInGuernsey the weekly thank you is such a lovely, & sadly under used, idea

Give them more money.

My morale would be low BECAUSE of team building games 😰😱

The best team building exercises I heard was a company my friend worked for. The company would pay up to £100 per month for any activities the employees attended together. I think it was a minimum of 4 employees.

Purely optional. So people organised curry nights, escape room days etc. Some people went on practically everything and some went on nothing. No pressure and a nice way for the employees to find out who else like horror films or latest display at the local museum.

Enforced team building is hell. Having a choice makes all the difference.

@GenialHarryGr0ut

Arrange a team building exercise. Put it in everyone's diary. Cancel it the day before.

There you go - the minute the cancellation hits the inboxes morale will have improved

Very true

I agree with the survey. As long as you then take action and don't ignore its findings.

I don't know, but after the last year I can give you plenty of ideas how to lower it if you like.

The best team building task I've been a part of was based off of Taskmaster. We were split into small groups and had to present to our small group the "most pleasing" thing. Then we picked the best one and then presented to the larger group and the designated Taskmaster.
Was fun and got people talking.

You could do any thing - the best yellow thing or most beautiful thing that fits in one hand.

I agree with everyone who’s saying the company should investigate why morale is low, understand what people are saying and do something about it. At one place I worked, the management noted that workforce morale was low (and seemed to decide it was our fault). They sent us all on numerous (compulsory) team building exercises, psychological insight sessions, “working together” sessions and the like. Most of these were a full day.

The real reason for low morale, the elephant in the room, was bullying by a couple of very senior managers. The same managers who were sending us on team building exercises. When we came back from these sessions, we always had a backlog of work because of all of us being away for a day, and would get bullied even more because we were behind.

Ask people what they want, and give them choices. There is nothing better for morale then having some control over your working life. Conversely there is nothing worse for morale then being told what’s good for you and given no choices.

There is nothing better for morale then having some control over your working life

This ^

@NeverDropYourMooncup

Good Lord, talk about how to bring morale down even further! For the record, my husband is gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant and does n't drink alcohol. The work provided a prepaid link for the pizza/beer kits and staff ordered the kits themselves. And you'll never guess what but they actually had gluten free kits (as most companies are quite savvy these days and recognise dietary requirements). And he could request no cheese if he wanted (he didn't because the kids had his share). They even had alcohol free beer!! And, soft drinks!!

Unfortunately you did need to have your own frying pan though and I suppose that there would always be the risk of someone being discriminated because they didn't have one!