Alright, here’s the cold, hard truth—your workers may perceive team building inside the office as just another meeting. One so-much-familiar wall, another wall, another one, and one more. It’s nothing else than a four-wall conference room where you typically arrange your on-site team-building activities.
Why not leave your office to strengthen your employees’ bonds through more meaningful moments together?
In fact, 55% of companies are increasing the amount of off-site team-building events. But before looking at them and grabbing their ideas, let’s discuss why you need them in the first place. Further down the scroll, see how to plan your team-building event, outdoors or indoors, but out of the office space.
Why Organize Team Building Outside the Office?
Here are the topmost reasons to do just that. More importantly, do it regularly.
Change the Scenery, Reboot Your Minds, and Activate Your Bodies
Workday by workday, your employees get rooted into their office chairs, almost immobile (nope, Ping Pong doesn’t save the situation). Locked inside four walls, they see nothing else but the screens.
Isn’t it time for a scenery switch-up?
Unplug from technologies, go outside, press the mental reset button, and recharge emotionally for higher performance and creativity. Just look at the benefits of outdoor team building for mental health. A 30-minute walk in nature can improve employee productivity by 45%. Besides, 63% of workers report feeling much better after spending some time in the fresh air.
Moreover, exercises and active games outdoors are great for physical wellness alike.
For example:
Have you ever considered trading your office desks for canoes and paddling your way through an unforgettable team-bonding experience down the river?
Source: LinkedIn
Replace Routine Awkwardness with Natural Engagement
Ice-breakers? Please, not again!
Just like that (and most probably with an eye roll), your employees may be cringing at the prospect of mundane ice-breaking questions in the office.
But once you go out and run (sometimes, literally) team-building activities off-site, they will be less forced or labeled as “corporate cringe,” particularly by Generation Z, who reject traditional workplace activities.
It’s also easier to discard formalities and interact more naturally with each other outside the office. This way, you replace a professional with a more relaxed, friendly vibe.
For example:
The TopSource Worldwide India team left their Pune office for an informal lunch with the COO.
Source: Instagram
Enrich Your Team with Hidden Talents
What if your employees own “superpowers” but don’t have a clue about themselves?
Well, you never know until you test their limits during team-building events beyond the office.
These unknown or hidden skills can be as follows:
- Leadership and project management
- Problem-solving
- Creativity
- Crisis management
- Survival knowledge (orienteering or fire-starting)
- Humor
- Athleticism, etc.
For example:
One of your team members may turn into Sherlock Holmes, a masterful enigma-solver in the escape room. Then, during another team outing—let’s say, a camping adventure—your quietest co-worker can teach you how to survive in complete wilderness.
Expand Societal Bonds: Family and Community
When you step outside the office, you interact not only with your colleagues but also with the society overall. For that, you should connect more meaningfully with its members beyond the team level.
Family Level
These can be corporate family days or get-togethers outdoors to improve work-life balance and overall employee happiness.
For example:
Pix Transmissions united employees and their families amid joyful team-building activities on Worker’s Family Get-Together Day to create meaningful connections beyond the workplace.
Source: LinkedIn
Community Level
Think about philanthropic team-building activities in the local community to promote a sense of belonging and boost employee morale.
Let’s take volunteer days. Volunteering is a society-bonding activity per se. Yet, when you do it as a team, it unites you around a common purpose and brings meaning aside from work.
For example:
Pfizer’s workers from Canada volunteered nearly 2,900 hours in 2023.
Source: LinkedIn
Expert Tips on Organizing an Off-Site Team-Building Event
Set an Adequate Budget
Did you know?
Organizations typically allocate $2,100 per employee when organizing corporate retreats and off-sites. Generally, one such retreat may cost around $220,000.
Here’s what they include in their budgets:
- Venue and location fees
- Transportation (airplane/train/bus tickets)
- Food and drinks
- Activities
- Event facilitators
- Equipment
- A 10-15% buffer for emergencies (weather changes or last-minute cancellations)
The sum and the list may seem intimidating. But no worries, we’ve asked a financial expert on how to cut your expenses. Gary Hemming, Owner & Finance Director at ABC Finance, suggests several cost-saving strategies for inexpensive yet highly engaging team-building activities beyond the office. “First, look for free-entry venues and public spaces, such as local parks, coworking centers, or governmental/educational facilities. Alternatively, choose an off-peak or off-season period when booking a paid event venue. Also, DIY (do it yourself) whenever possible.”
If you want to DIY, it can be a potluck picnic or an employee-led workshop. But what if you can’t book another date for holiday team-building events?
You can still minimize expenses without sacrificing quality.
For example:
Instead of a million-dollar party, engage your employees in a Christmas donation drive (toys or winter clothes). It won’t cost you anything. Yet, it will be purposeful and bonding for your workers.
Source: LinkedIn
Turn to Event Planning and Management Tools
If done on paper (or via Excel tables at best), off-site event management can be tiresome and ineffective. And worse—you can leave something (or someone!) out of sight and, as a result, spoil your team-building experience outside the office.
Actually, 43% of companies use Microsoft Excel, and 18% choose Slack to plan, organize, and manage their team events.
Source: TravelPerk
However, you can opt for more effective event-planning tools like these:
- Eventtia
- Whova
- SmartEventManager
- PlanningPod
- Event Mobi
Lev Peker, CEO at CARiD, says, “You can’t ignore the potential of AI tools to plan team building beyond the office: ChatGPT, Sweap.io, Cvent, or others. They can help you make it all smarter and faster, from budgeting and venue sourcing to post-event analytics.”
For example:
Just type your requirements in ChatGPT (or pick another generative AI tool).
Source: ChatGPT
Make It Inclusive
As Conrad Wang, Managing Director at EnableU, points out, “There are three major aspects around employee inclusion you should prioritize when planning off-site team-building activities.”
- Disability-inclusive (appropriate for employees with disabilities)
- Gender-responsive (suitable for all genders)
- Age-sensitive (for teams with high generational diversity)
For example:
Laurence Bonicalzi Bridier, CEO at ArtMajeur by YourArt, adds, “Suppose your older staffers can’t indulge in extreme physical exercises due to health conditions. In this case, a rope park adventure or mountain biking would be out of the question. Instead, consider age-inclusive team-building ideas like an art therapy session in nature or an outdoor movie night.”
Source: LinkedIn
Additionally, it’s also important to be mindful of employees’ personality types—introverts and extroverts—so that everyone feels included in your corporate events outside the office.
Mind: There are other diversity factors like ethnicity, religion, military/veteran status, etc.
From Indoor to Outdoor Team-Building Examples—All Beyond the Office
Participation in Industry-Relevant Events
When you set sail from the office to participate in various events in your business sphere, you actually reach several “ports” simultaneously: enhance team cohesion, network with industry professionals, and boost your brand awareness (or even sales if it’s a trade fair).
Join an industry event depending on your preferences and needs:
- Trade shows
- Expos
- Conferences
- Hackathons
- Networking meet-ups
- Panel discussions or roundtables
- Skill-boosting seminars
For example:
The Northern Trust team from Manila popped up at the Jobstreet Philippines Career Con. Their HR managers and recruiters collaborated and had fun while making exciting activities for booth visitors (job seekers).
Source: LinkedIn
VR Game Rooms
What can be more exciting and engaging than a team-building experience in virtual reality (VR)?!
Look for a VR game room in your location and play immersive team-building games in different virtual realities: shooters, horrors, sports (archery or tennis), etc.
For example:
See how the ALLSTARSIT team dove into VR games, shared laughs, and connected more authentically with their Polish colleagues.
Source: Instagram
Also enthusiastic about tapping into VR for team building, Stanislav Khilobochenko, VP of Customer Services at Clario, still highlights safety challenges and health risks in VR gaming. He recommends, “Make sure a VR game room is a safe environment with enough space for the whole team to avoid injuries. Then, you should be aware of side effects like dizziness or motion sickness because not everyone’s stomach is ready for virtual roller coasters.”
Sports Activities
Now, how about going in for sports together?
Copy and save this list of the best outdoor sports ideas for team building outside the office:
- Paintball
- Cycling
- Marathon running
- Basketball or volleyball
- Geocaching
- Rafting or kayaking
- Rock climbing
Note: Some of those sports can be indoors, too.
For example:
The Faurecia team dipped their toes in the sand, yet it wasn’t beach volleyball. It was a fun team-building activity on a covered sand court to boost teamwork skills and establish meaningful employee connections.
Source: Instagram
Workations Abroad
Picture this. Your team brainstorms new marketing strategies while bathing in sun rays on the Bali beach or strategizes next quarter’s OKRs after admiring the Pyramids of Giza or sailing down the Nile on a felucca in Egypt.
That’s a Workation formula = Working + Vacationing.
For Morgan Taylor, Co-Founder of Jolly SEO, a workation is by far one of the best off-site team-building solutions for teams with a strong wanderlust. He remarks, “Of course, you can’t hope for peak employee performance on a workation; and you shouldn’t—it is partly a vacation, after all. Yet, sometimes, the most brilliant ideas come to mind during workations because you collaborate in a more relaxed setting with your colleagues. Let alone when you experience cultural immersion as a team. It creates a deeper understanding not just of the culture itself but of each other in new environments.”
For example:
On their workation in Spain, Jolly SEO’s employees enjoyed an extraordinary mix of strategy development and adventure and immersed themselves in the Spanish culture together.
Eco-Challenges
Although “Save the Planet” missions are the last on this list, they rank first in many corporate social responsibility programs.
Eco-friendly team building outdoors (or indoors in non-profit hubs) can give your employees a shared sense of purpose and meaning beyond work, just like charitable initiatives. These can be:
- Tree planting
- River/lake/ocean or park cleaning
- Zero-waste picnic
- Wildlife habitat build-up
- “Green” volunteering on a dedicated holiday (Earth Day or World Environment Day)
- Eco-hiking with litter picking
For example:
Teradata employees collected 83 kg of litter from the river during such an outdoor team-building activity.
Source: LinkedIn
Connect Your Employees More Meaningfully Off-Site
But also→
Remember to be always on the same digital page with Nimble!
It’s an all-in-one work management platform that helps teams collaborate and curate projects more effectively. Replace the mess of emails and spreadsheets with more productive hours and humanize work with more meaningful team moments online, from streamlining project workflows to chatting and relaxing in Nimble Café.
Try it out today and see the magic of smooth team collaboration and communication via Nimble.
