If you’re looking for a way to bring your team together and help them rally around some important shared ideas and company values, a corporate retreat is a great option. And while it certainly requires some effort, planning, and investment, the benefits far outweigh the upfront costs.
The Benefits of Corporate Retreats
A corporate retreat is basically an off-site gathering where employees from your company gather at a third-party location to spend time together. Corporate retreats usually consist of a combination of training/equipping and personal bonding/relaxing.
“A company retreat provides employees a chance to decompress and bond in a social setting, away from the stresses of everyday deliverables,” explains Jill Rudnicki, who plans retreats for her employer, Bevi. “Retreats are the perfect way to boost employee morale, increase communication and collaboration across departments and ultimately create better working relationships with increased productivity.”
Corporate retreats are especially powerful in today’s remote world where you might have important team members who have never met or interacted face-to-face. It’s also great when you have multiple branches or locations. Bringing people under one roof for a day or two can help cultivate some fresh energy and establish important personal and cultural alignment.
How to Plan the Best Corporate Retreat
No two corporate retreats are the same. If you try to copy another company’s exact itinerary, you’ll end up creating something that isn’t true or authentic to your company. You can certainly study what others are doing and draw inspiration from it, but at the end of the day, it’s your retreat – own it!
Here are several suggestions for planning a successful retreat:
- Plan With a Purpose
Meet with your company’s leadership team ahead of time to plan the corporate retreat with a purpose. Determine what your major priorities are and let them serve as the guiding forces for planning and executing.
For some companies, the primary purpose is team bonding. If that’s the case, most of your energy and planning will go into creating environments and situations where people are forced to engage and trust one another.
For other companies, the primary goal is training around a particular skill set or topic. If this is the purpose of your retreat, make sure you’re creating fun and engaging opportunities for learning.
In most situations, retreats are a combination of team bonding and training. Still, make sure you’re smart about creating a balanced itinerary that flexes between the two.
- Get the Details Right
Sometimes it’s the small details that make the biggest difference. Do everything you can to make a strong first impression by getting the details right.
For example, if most employees are coming from a single location – like a corporate office – schedule a charter bus service to transport everyone. This reduces the stress of having to drive to the event and gives people the freedom to bond on the road. (If the drive is longer than two or three hours, you’re better off flying. A chartered airplane might not fit in the budget, but you can try to get everyone scheduled on the same flight.)
When choosing accommodations, make sure you’re selecting a nice hotel or conference facility that pays attention to details. Having top-notch accommodations will really set the tone for the entire retreat – raising morale and encouraging people to show up engaged.
- Leave Room for Downtime
Don’t pack every minute or every day with events. While there are certainly mandatory events, you can make other activities and gatherings optional. This gives people a chance to rest and enjoy a little downtime (which is especially important for introverts).
A good rule of thumb is to have at least one hour of downtime for every five hours of events or engagements. This usually amounts to two or three hours of unstructured time per day.
- Plan for a Buffer on the Back End
Always plan a corporate retreat so that it ends on a Thursday or Friday. You want to give people time to recoup, rest, and spend time with family before they have to return to work the following week. Having a couple of “buffer” days on the back end helps.
Winning With Corporate Retreats
Corporate retreats are designed to bring your team together, establish camaraderie, and strengthen bonds. However, it’s also a great time for equipping and training. Make sure there’s a balance between fun and productivity. When you account for both sides of the equation, the results last much longer.
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