The importance of team building for RedBalloon

After recently being crowned the AHRI HR Practitioner of the Year, Megan Bromley, RedBalloon Employee Experience Manager shares with us why team events are important to a workplace, some her of favourites and some handy tips to make your next event memorable.

At RedBalloon, we work hard and play hard and while we are in the business of fun, we know the importance of team events for rewarding, motivating and bringing teams together.

Q.    Why are team building events so important to the success of the Employee Experience at RedBalloon?

At RedBalloon we love to reward and recognise our people, and team events provide the perfect opportunity.  Whether it is a team breakfast, lunch or dinner, companywide celebration, or our annual Christmas festivities – all our events are organised with one thing in mind, to create the opportunities for people to connect and engage with each other and it is these connections, the stories that they share and the memories that are created that build the success of our Employee Experience.

Q.    What are your top three tips for choosing a successful event?

  1. Always find out what your people like to do. There is no point organising an event if people won’t be engaged with it! If you know your team likes the outdoors – think lawn bowls, sailing, or abseiling. Or if they are more of an indoor crowd – think arts and crafts, dance classes or cooking classes. If you have a mixed bag of interests try an outdoor cooking class.
     
  2. Keep things fun, yet simple. Some of our best events at RedBalloon have been organised with this in mind. You can spend a lot of time and energy trying to do too many things in one day, and rather than an exciting day it can become an exhausting one! Our Christmas party aboard our Tall Ships sailing supplier is still talked about as one of our best – pirate theme (dress up of course!), an evening on Sydney Harbour, delicious food and drinks, and the opportunity to relax, unwind and connect with each other.
     
  3. Mix things up. Make sure you keep a list of all your past events – both of team building and celebration events. Once you know what people like to do make sure the next event always offers something different and unique. One thing that works for us is keeping elements of surprise!

(Ed) We've also done some research with our clients and you can see their top tips in this Team Building Whitepaper.

Q.    What has been your favourite RedBalloon event that you have offered so far?

My favourite event was our birthday week extravaganza we planned. We turned 10 last October and we wanted to make sure it was a memorable experience. We had a French themed birthday party complete with croquembouche, and what made it extra special was a surprise week of RedBalloon experiences to celebrate, where all team members got to choose which experience they wanted to do. It really was an amazing week. Check out the photos here>

If you need a hand with any type of event, group incentive or team building please don't hesitate to get in touch with our events team.

Date: 01/02/2012