Improving your company culture is one of the best ways to position your organization for long-term success. Leadership and key executives in your business play a crucial role in crafting the culture, because workers look to them as an example. When your leadership becomes more engaged, collaborative and motivated, your other employees will follow suit.
One of the most effective ways to spark engagement in executives is to give them opportunities to travel, especially through corporate retreats.
- A Quantum Workplace study found that 91% of employees who attended corporate retreats felt more motivated, and 85% felt more satisfied at work. (1)
- Around 40% of GenX and millennial participants would turn down a job if it did not include travel. (2)
- Two-thirds of corporate travelers find it challenging to build professional connections virtually. (2)
- 73% of corporate travelers feel that face-to-face meetings are more effective than online communications. (2)
Executive retreats offer benefits for your company culture that make them well worth the investment.
3 WAYS THAT EXECUTIVE RETREATS BENEFIT CULTURE
The main tenets of a positive culture include highly motivated and engaged employees, strong and enduring bonds between teammates, and a universal feeling of inclusion for all. As it turns out, executive retreats are quite effective at instilling and retaining these traits.
- Higher Levels of Engagement and Motivation
When leadership demonstrates that it values its people, the appreciation employees feel fosters higher levels of engagement and motivation. Think about how valued executives who you invite to their very own retreat might feel.
The money and time investment involved in planning and hosting an event of this nature speaks for itself, especially if it is well done. Executives will see that the organization is willing to take action to build a culture that the executives benefit from along with their coworkers.
If a modest budget poses a challenge, rest assured the retreat does not have to luxurious to produce desired outcomes. Keeping the event local (but somewhere other than the office), partnering with vendors who offer group discounts and putting in some sweat equity for set-up and takedown goes a long way in keeping the budget under control.
- Sustained Collaboration and Teamwork
Executives do not work in a vacuum, so forging professional bonds is important. They lead the charge for junior employees on working well together and as part of a well-oiled machine. If senior employees do not feel a sense of camaraderie, neither will their reports.
Retreats offer an ideal setting for executives to complete team building exercises – and, of equal importance, to have a little fun together! Ice breaker activities and mealtimes present a golden opportunity for attendees to get to know each other better and to laugh together.
All of these moments contribute to a shared feeling of unity among executives that has the potential to last well beyond the retreat.
- A Sense of Belonging Felt by Everyone
Inclusion for everyone is a quality that no positive company culture is complete without. While the main purpose of the workplace is not to socialize, you are still dealing with people. As emotional creatures who naturally crave a sense of community, it is critical to portray the message that everyone is welcomed and respected as a member of the workforce.
When planned well, executive retreats are a great way to promote and practice inclusion to the senior leaders who set the precedent for the rest of your organization. The team building exercises and social opportunities mentioned above encourage an open-minded outlook along with stronger professional relationships.
3 TIPS TO ORGANIZE A SUCCESSFUL EXECUTIVE RETREAT
As you can see, executive retreats offer significant benefits for your company culture. That said, they must be planned strategically and carefully, to ensure they make the desired impact on attendees.
- Make the Format Interactive
Few things are duller than hour after hour of presentations. One of the fastest ways to lose your audience is to drone on endlessly about the subject at hand, without giving them a chance to participate. Yet far too many meetings of all kinds force feed attendees this recipe for boredom.
Instead, get attendees actively involved in every single educational session, not just the team building and icebreaker exercises. Good ways to do this include:
- Quizzing the audience after short educational segments
- Breaking up the educational sessions by asking attendees for feedback about what they just learned; do they agree? Disagree? Do they have any ideas?
- Working group exercises into the educational sessions
These are just a few examples, but the idea is to give attendees plenty of breaks from sitting and listening passively. Ideally, there should be more interactive segments and fewer times when they are passively listening.
- Express Support for Candid Feedback
Your senior employees have a vast store of knowledge that you would be remiss not to access. After all, they are in leadership roles; they observe and deal with their employees on a daily basis. They, of all people at the company, understand what culture-related issues are present and how they are affecting your workforce.
Ask them to provide feedback on the points meeting presenters/leaders make. Encourage them to be candid, as long as they are respectful about it. You might ask questions like:
- How do the employees who report to you feel about our company culture?
- Based on these observations, in what ways do you feel our culture should be improved?
- What kind of solutions do you think could repair these issues?
- How do you feel about the points made about company culture just now? Are they valid? If not, why do you disagree?
- Prepare Meaningful Topics for Discussion
One of the best ways to capture and keep the interest of executives during a retreat is to talk about meaningful culture-related topics. Diving deep and getting to the heart of the matter is immensely more engaging than skimming the surface. For example:
- Where your culture ranks in terms of making every single employee feel welcomed
- The types of behavior exhibited by the biggest troublemakers (keep it anonymous) and possible solutions
- Points of conflict attendees have observed between coworkers (again, do not name names), how these conflicts affect the culture as a whole and healthy ways of resolving them
- The strengths and weaknesses of your company culture
It is crucial to come prepared with these topics in advance, to ensure they get addressed. Encouraging attendees to bring up their own meaningful topics as related to the culture is equally important.
HOW TO PROVE EXECUTIVE RETREAT ROI
The process of calculating and measuring the return on investment (ROI) your organization gets from an executive retreat is similar to the one you would follow for, say, purchasing a new type of software. It is the details that differ.
For example, the ROI of an executive retreat focused on company culture might include reduced employee turnover, improved employee engagement and improved employee performance.
Follow this process to accurately determine each retreat’s ROI:
- Estimate the potential ROI in advance of the event – in other words, how the retreat might benefit your company culture.
- Once the retreat is over, use the following equation: Multiply the total impact (advantages and benefits gained) by the long-term effect the event made. Divide this number by the cost of the event.
- The number you get after completing from this equation is the measurable ROI the retreat generated for your company culture.
Numbers are the most powerful way of proving ROI, which is why coming up with solid numbers is essential.
GETTING AWAY TO GET COMPANY CULTURE IN ORDER
Offsite executive retreats are a valuable tool for improving company culture that you should add to your organization’s arsenal. By giving senior employees a blueprint for a positive culture, as well as inspiring them and strengthening their professional relationships, you will position your company for long term success.
For more information about planning a successful executive retreat, contact Gavel International to learn more about how our expertise can help ensure the event achieves desired outcomes.
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SOURCE(S):
1 https://www.quantumworkplace.com/future-of-work/importance-of-employee-recognition
2 https://www.travelperk.com/en-ca/blog/stats-that-prove-corporate-retreats-are-still-a-good-idea/
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