14 September 2022

Tips For Hosting A Memorable Team Off-Site

As I have spoken about before, there is a definite upsurge in people wanting to host off-site experiences for their teams, whether that be a strategy day, a team building day, an activity day or a mixture of all.

I have been charged with organising a number of these in the past year and I have to say the hybrid mix of work, activities and R&R are definitely the winners. I wanted to share my top tips for hosting a team off-site, if you are thinking about it.

What’s the point?

Before you start planning the nitty gritty, do spend some time thinking about why you are hosting the off-site in the first place. Is it a reward to your team or is to educate, review or plan, or is it a bit of everything? Knowing your why and the objectives of the experience will lead the shaping of it.

Set a budget

As we all know, events can escalate quickly in terms of financial commitment, so ensure you set a budget early-doors and commit to how much you want to invest in this. Perhaps you could think about cost per attendee and work it out that way.

How do you want people to feel?

This is always a question I ask my clients as it is important to know their perceived outcome and want for their attendees. Are they wanting them to be wowed, inspired, educated, thanked, treated, or a bit of everything? A lot of the people I work with are very much wanting to reward their teams for all their hard work during difficult times.

What’s your desired ratio of experience?

As you start planning, do have a think about how much time you want your attendees to spend on the learning part or the adventure part or the relaxing part, if you are having a mix. For example, would you host sessions in the day and then reward with an activity and dinner in the evening, or perhaps you would pare down the business stuff and focus more on the activities in the day in terms of team building? This is very much a business-by-business decision in terms of objectives for the event.

Go deep with the detail

As the saying goes, the devil is in the detail and this is so true for off-sites. What would make your team members really feel treated – is there something personal to them that you could include? Could you incorporate a surprise or something to give them a memorable wow factor perhaps? Ideas include awards, gifts, special guests or a surprise activity / experience.

Be mindful of mixing

If you are thinking of doing a team off-site overnight then do me mindful of people’s space – always give them their own rooms (you’d be surprised how many brands bunk people up together!), allow them free time to spend as they wish and where you can, make things optional. There is nothing worse than being made to feel you need to take part when you really don’t want to.  Your team will so appreciate this extra layer of care.

Pic: Charingworth Manor