Whether your small business has four employees or 20, working as a tight-knit team makes all the difference from the day-to-day work environment to the quality of services you provide.
Team building activities can bring your business closer together and enhance productivity — but there’s a challenge: over 30% of workers have a negative perception of team building exercises.
Here are five that will not only improve workplace motivation and efficiency, but that your employees will love, too!
- Enjoy Meals with Your Small Business
It could be lunch during the workday or even a planned dinner. Eating as a group can bring a small business together in important ways. Best of all, this informal setting allows for natural cohesiveness to develop, and your team can “gel” without clunky or artificial activities.
- Video Games for Smaller Groups
For companies with 4-8 employees, bringing in a game system can be a fun, informal, and an effective bonding experience. Fire up games like Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros for a change of pace. Alternatively, a low-tech option could be a few hours of board games or card games, as long as employees are having fun and growing closer as a team.
- Take on a Community Service Project
This technique is an amazing opportunity to multi-task: your employees will spend informal time 
together performing a common task, you’ll increase the visibility of your business at the community level, and your company will build a positive relationship with its customers.
- Provide Opportunities for Informal Interaction
One of the biggest complaints about team building exercises is that they feel forced. Obligatory team building can feel awkward and best (and infuriating at worst).
A small business owner can, however, subtly encourage a primary driver of team building without clunky meetings or awkward games simply by providing employees with the opportunity to interact informally with one another.
A great way to do this without leaving the office is to schedule groups on break at the same time and let their personalities take it from there.
- Take the Team on an Excursion
Even if it seems pricey, these activities are often well worth the investment. Business owners are 
constantly rediscovering the power of even a one-time investment like zip-lining, a concert, or other special occasions for their employees.
During these outings, staff get to organically engage and have fun with one another (and you as their boss!), which will make all the difference in business operations and your bottom line.
At the Dwyer Group, you’ll discover that teamwork is part of the very fabric of every franchise. From each franchisee all the way to the company executives, team building is at the core of the company’s long history of success. To learn more about opportunities with The Dwyer Group, contact a franchise developer today.
