A corporate retreat is like that ice-cold can of sprite after a 3 hour wait in the hot and stuffy cabin of an old car moving at a painfully slow pace in Kampala traffic.
In case you didn’t get the point, corporate retreats are incredibly refreshing to every business and corporation. They quench that thirst within employees to relax and form connections with each other.
These group retreats give your employees a chance to lay back and catch-up with each other, strengthening bonds, building out team chemistry, and boosting morale that always comes in handy when back in the office.
I don’t think I need to explain why your business needs a retreat-every business does. But I’ll walk you step by step on how to plan a corporate retreat.
Take out your notebook and pencil and come along!
What We’ll Cover
In this 6 step guide, we’ll cover setting a retreat objective, planning who attends, picking a location, sorting out an agenda, managing logistics, and catering for your attendees.
Ready? Let’s get right into it!
1. Objective
Just like anything else in the corporate world, success matters. Retreats are like investments. Every investment either yields profit or doesn’t.
To make your retreat a profitable investment, you first have to understand what profit means to you. Start by defining a clear goal or objective of the retreat that you can evaluate later on to understand how effective the retreat was in accomplishing the goal.
This objective will also help you when making decisions later on.
Got it done? Let’s move on!
2. Choose Your Attendees
It is finally that time where you can completely exclude the unproductive-in-office ones from the rest. I’m only joking. Everyone in the business should be invited. Seriously. Everyone.
When hosting a corporate retreat, almost all objectives can be linked to reinforcing employee relations. You want to go to the retreat with more relationship problems than you return with. Not the other way around.
Make sure everyone directly connected to the business or brand is invited.
It is also important that you hand pick a few leaders for the retreat that can keep everything on track and in order as you set off into whatever excursion you have in mind.
3. Where Are We Going?
No, not every business should plan a beach day. For some of you it just won’t work. But if management at Tellit Events is reading this, *wink wink*, I’m just saying it’s a pretty cool idea.
When picking a location for a corporate retreat start by considering your objective and then perform research on where it would be most fulfilled.
You also want to consider ease of access to the location. It shouldn’t be too far unless plane tickets are in your budget. Drives of 8 hours or more are just not it when planning a corporate retreat.
At the same time, you don’t want it so close to home that employees can almost hear the paperwork from the office calling them back in.
4. Agenda: What and When
Planning an agenda for anything can seem overwhelming and daunting, but it’s actually quite simple when preparing for a corporate retreat.
Start by writing down what kinds of activities will be supportive of the objective. Then spread out these activities over the multiple days of the retreat.
Make sure you leave some spots free in the agenda for general relaxation and bonding to allow your crew to take a break and connect with each other before jumping on to the next activity.
5. Manage Logistics
I know, I know, this is the boring part, but it is really important. You need to ensure that everything is set for your retreat from the catering, transport, location, etc..
Understand all the equipment that you will require to accomplish the event objective and find a supplier to sort you out.
Make sure you also sort out and understand the plan for food and drink. Let’s not have anyone starving at the retreat.
6. Make Them Comfortable
Last but not least. You really have to put in effort to make every single person that is coming comfortable.
If you know certain employees don’t drink alcohol, have an option for non alcoholic beverages that are NOT water. But still always have water available.
Ensure that you find out any dietary restrictions or activities that certain persons can’t take part in to ensure that you completely cater for and include everyone at the retreat.
Let’s make it the most fun and enjoyable experience for everyone!
Go Smash That Objective!
So now that I’ve helped you plan your corporate retreat, I think I deserve to be a part of the treat too.
The day before you set off, give me a call at 07…..I’m joking.
But now you know, so off you go!
Goodluck on your upcoming corporate retreat. Remember to evaluate and get feedback from employees after the retreat. Just to make sure everyone is still alive and to check that you absolutely smashed your objective.
If you want to ensure that you get the best of the best, you might want to think about getting the best of the best corporate event planners to set it out for you.
Tellit events does just that, making sure that your corporate retreat is an enjoyable experience for both you and your employees.
You 100% deserve it, so find out more below!
Find out more below.
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