Politics and Business

6 Corporate Away Days Planning Mistakes To Avoid

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Planning an event is a tedious task, but planning corporate away days is much more difficult because even small mistakes can have a significant negative impact on the customers and the clients.

A corporate away day is considered the most preferred path to team building exercises because not only the employees are happy to ditch work for one day, but they also feel loved that the organization is thinking about them.

Read further to know the common mistakes that people make while organizing corporate away days:

  1. Not setting the right goals

If you are organizing an event just because it is about time, then think again because you need to set the right goals for the event. Only then, you will be able to achieve success. Not being clear about the purpose of the event will apart from wasting a work day, will also cost you a substantial amount of money unnecessarily. Set the goals for the event, i.e., you desire to build a healthy relationship between employees working in the same department, but different teams or the ones working in various departments.

  1. Not being punctual

For any event to be successful, punctuality is the key to master! Period.

Most organizations plan inadequately which delays the whole programme. This is a grave concern because it not only costs you more than required but also degrades the overall expected impact from the event. Some employees might leave early and miss out on the grand end of the event.

Always be punctual!

  1. Poor budgeting and spend tracking

Budgeting is a complex task which requires experience and the ability to understand expenses. Before any corporate away day, you need to allocate a fixed budget for the entire event. Once that is done, then you have to divide it for different purposes, like food and beverages, venue cost, seating arrangements, activities and transportation. Apart from defining where the money will go, you need to keep a check on your expenses to avoid going overboard with it. Yes, the chances are pretty high; so ensure efficient spend tracking at all times.

  1. Not choosing suitable dates

A corporate away day does not need to be planning on a public holiday or a weekend; it needs to be a work day to make them feel better, as already mentioned above. Your employees might have plans for the holiday with their families which will get hampered if you plan it then. You have to understand that their professional and personal lives are different, and they are trying their best to balance each of them perfectly, but if you hamper with their plans, the balance might be disrupted for good. If you want full attendance and 100% cooperation from your employees on your team building day, then you have to consider their opinions with the dates and come up with something that suits both of you alike.

  1. No contingency planning

Every plan needs to have a contingency plan to make sure you have solutions when things do go as planned. You need to consider the fact that everything will not be perfect on the day of the event or during the planning process, so it is always better to have a plan B for situations like these. You don’t have to think of two entirely different plans, but rather, consider activities which can go wrong during the execution stage and have a substitute for them whenever needed. Taking notes from previous corporate away days is also a great approach to understanding what can go wrong.

  1. Boring activities and games

The purpose of a corporate away day is to conduct team building games and activities that can help your employees get friendly with each other and understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, right? However, what will happen if all of them don’t enjoy your games or activities? You have to understand that trust falls and one-on-one QnA are traditional games which have been used to boredom, and your employees deserve new games to bond with each other. Look at old away days, make notes of the games they enjoy and the ones they hate, and accordingly, organize away day activities. You have to keep them entertained to ensure a successful event.

Missing out on a work day is only beneficial if you can achieve something much more significant than daily activities, i.e., an efficient and well-bonded team. So plan the away day precisely with a fixed budget and a bunch of entertaining team building activities.

All the best!

 

 

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