Many business owners understand the importance and advantages of team-building exercises. Some of the companies that prioritize these activities enjoy a wide range of benefits like higher productivity levels, better communication, and close-knit teams that work together.

However, some business owners don’t notice any returns and feel as though they’re wasting their money. Team-building exercises can be valuable, but you might not be seeing the desired results for some of the following reasons.

You Plan Them Yourself

As a business owner, you’re likely busy managing staff and handling everyday tasks. As a result, you might not have much spare time to plan a worthwhile team-building activity your employees will enjoy. Outsource your team-building challenges to a business like GGC, also known as the Great Gotham Challenge, and that might change.

When a business’s primary objective is to offer team-building activities, it can create some truly spectacular challenges designed to ensure business owners can reap the resultant rewards.

The Timing Isn’t Right

As crucial as team-building activities can be for welcoming new hires and bringing your employees together, the timing for them has to be right. Your team might not appreciate being dragged away from their desk when they have important deadlines or when they’re going to be meeting with clients. Give your employees plenty of notice that a team-building activity is coming up, and ensure it doesn’t coincide with any significant workplace projects starting or finishing.

You Haven’t Listened To Feedback

There’s always a chance that not all employees will appreciate participating in team-building exercises. Some employees just want to keep working hard and prefer not to have their workday interrupted.

Listen to feedback before organizing your latest activity to ensure you cater to as many employees as possible. For example, if you received feedback from your last event about it running for too long or being too physical, you might opt for shorter, less physical activities. You might even consider virtual events that in-person and remote teams can both enjoy.

You Haven’t Set Goals

Some business owners organize team-building exercises because they’ve read somewhere that they can be helpful. While that’s often true, their success can depend on business owners having a goal in mind.

If you’re a multi-department business struggling with communication, your goal might be to mix the departments and encourage the forging of new relationships. Activities can be planned with this goal in mind, which your team can work toward. However, if you plan activities without a goal, you might not notice any changes in your team once the event finishes.

You Lack Consistency

One team-building activity is an excellent start toward creating healthy work relationships, improving communication, and identifying possible leaders. However, there can be more value in making team-building challenges a regularly scheduled activity rather than a one-off event. Teams can build on their previous successes and continue making positive changes. Employees might even feel like you value them when you put in the effort.

You Make Team-Building Events Compulsory

In an ideal world, all employees would jump at the chance to attend workplace social events, especially when it means they can take a break from the office. However, not everyone feels comfortable or confident engaging in social activities with their colleagues outside of work. By making the events compulsory, you risk fun activities feeling like chores your employees can’t escape from.

Instead, strongly encourage attendance, but don’t make it compulsory. If you worry volunteer numbers will be low, have one-on-one discussions with employees to communicate the many associated benefits of trying something new.

Many businesses and companies experience great success with team-building activities, but there’s no denying that not all will. If you’ve been holding fun social events with your employees without much success, consider whether these factors above play a part in their failure.