There are a lot of benefits of having a remote team for your company, such as dynamic schedules and work for any place. To put together these benefits with a company retreat can give your company an opportunity for good planning, great ideas and build a strong relationship with the team and on top of it: have some fun! In this blog post, you can find what you need to organize a perfect company retreat focus on a remote team environment.
First: find a goal for your company retreat!
Set goals and objectives for your company retreat is a fundamental task to address all the organization and schedule of the work activities. You can focus on problems that can be addressed, brainstorm objectives for the company and warn your team to these objectives. If you work for a company that did retreats before, try to check their objectives and activities to take good examples and reply. Do not forget to communicate to your team the goals and even ask for some key colleagues ideas for it.
Know your budget
Based on your goals, the next step is to decide the dates and check how many people can enjoy the retreat. Do not underestimate this phase! It is a big challenge to find a date that every one of the teams can participate in. Try to use some tools such as Google Calendar so the workers can send their availability to make it easier and faster. With this information, you can check the budget and decide about the length of the stay and the destination of the program. Usually, some retreats are from 3 up to 5 days in length. If this is the first time doing the retreat for your company, you can start small: small cities with more days or an unconventional destination can have the same results of the big retreats on a paradise island. This is an important idea that can fit into the company budget. Also, always remind yourself that your team needs to be excited about the destination even though it is not the top 10 destination on TripAdvisor. Consider taking a home (GoGoPlaces Website) they are better for events and BBQ than hotels and you can create an intimacy environment among the ones that are joining you trying to organize one main activity in a particular place where most of the team members are at the same location at the same time.
Prepare all events, activities, trips, food, and work calendar
For this phase, you need as much information as possible to organize everything you can for the whole program. You should have a clear agenda for the entire stay and what’s expected with all the activities, extra activities and even when the team has free time according to the goal of the retreat and the budget. Try to avoid cheesy games or ideas that can make your team feel uncomfortable participating. Some good ideas of activities can include cooking with the team, visiting a museum and taste some local food or drink that you can mix some fun and work with. You should also consider the integration and the needs of both the company and workers. Pay attention to the flights, transportation, local dynamics of your destination, visas-passports, Wi-fi quality, dietary restrictions, and the technology necessary for all the events and activities. There are many details and information for this phase so ask for help in case you need it. Another suggestion is to prepare the tools (voice call, presentations) to include the ones that were not possible to enjoy. Also, think about some seminars or presentations of remote people that can contribute from other companies or someone with a different background so it can inspire the team. Also, it is a good idea to bring an IT person so everyone’s computers and storages are well synced including getting organized.
The post Retreat
After the retreat, follow up with your team to check if all goals were achieved and feedback to improve to next year’s one. Maybe this is not the most comfortable moment but does not take it personally and see it as an advantage to improve the next edition.
About the Author
GoGoPlaces is a platform for renting amazing vacation homes which otherwise would just stay empty once the tourist season is over. What a waste right? By connecting people and places all over the world, we’re creating a community-driven platform and offering opportunities to experience local life at a much lower cost, while at the same time allowing homeowners to earn additional income.
