When it comes to company retreats, visions of trust falls and motivational speakers quickly come to mind.
But the company-wide events are much more than those groan-worthy, eye-roll inducing exercises. As companies are placing greater focus on employees at an individual level, these retreats and meetings serve to bolster morale while reminding employees why their work is essential to the company’s success.
In an Entrepreneur.com article, guest writer and co-founder of Influence & Co. Kelsey Meyer says there are four positive results from a company retreat: helping people overcome their fears, getting employees to work together toward a common goal, exposing employees’ hidden talents and creating a stronger-knit team — results most CEOs seek at their workplace.
Datamax President Barry Simon says the company’s annual management retreat is a valuable tool for communication, reviewing the company philosophy and ensuring all employees know the company’s mission.
“Getting away from the office environment is extremely advantageous in that quality time can be spent concentrating on planning for the future of our company,” he says. “We are able to focus on what we can do to improve personally and professionally.”
Venue, food and audiovisual support all matter, and company retreats can often come with a hefty price tag, but it’s easier to think of a retreat as an investment rather than a one-time expense.
“While closing our clinics for a day is a very expensive endeavor for us, we know that the investment we make in our team during our annual meeting will return to us many times over,” says Rock Dental Brands CEO Merritt Dake. “To get feedback and collaboration between our team members who might be separated by 400 miles is an essential tool for us in continuing to innovate as a company that can’t always be replicated on a conference call or a webinar.”
What They’re Doing
Ghidotti Communications hosted its first company-wide retreat in 2017, renting a large house in Branson, Missouri, to accommodate its staff of nine.
“It was a perfect fit in that the space had individual rooms for team members plus two large open spaces for our meetings,” CEO Natalie Ghidotti says. “We planned engaging team member activities, while some dedicated time to talk about our agency’s vision and mission.”
Ghidotti gave each team member homework in advance, requiring them to plan a 2-minute “ignite” presentation with no more than 10 slides on a topic the employee cares about. Ghidotti says presentations ranged from brunch and how to use Bumble, to the year’s top memes and the best motorcycle rides in Arkansas.
Rock Dental Brands prioritizes finding a location big enough for its large staff at its two-day event. At its most recent event the company booked three complete hotels and had its sessions at the renovated Robinson Center.
“As a young, but fast-growing company it is essential for every one of our team members to be connected to the overall vision and strategy of Rock Dental Brands,” Dake says. “This can be accomplished when we have our most valuable asset — our people — all in the same room providing insight, solutions and opportunities to improve the experience and outcome of our patients.”
Simon says Datamax has been hosting company retreats for the past 25 years. The Little Rock-based company hosts a minimum of three meetings annually, including a company-wide meeting in the first quarter and a two- to three-day, end-of-year management retreat for around 12-15 employees.
“For our company-wide meeting in the first quarter, it’s a time where we can introduce our employees to where we’ve been the past year and our goals for the future,” he says. “We close our offices early and we also provide a nice dinner at the conclusion of the meeting.”
Tangible Outcomes
After the fun of a retreat or meeting wears off, it’s easy to lose that sense of camaraderie established during the event.
Ghidotti combats the brain drain by making sure the retreat is focused on learning something new and building relationships. She maintains engagement with her team by carrying on fun, team-building activities throughout the year.
“Last year we started what we call Fireside Fridays,” she says. “Every Friday morning, we take time to talk about our big wins for the week and we each share an article on something we find interesting. We actually encourage those articles to not always be about marketing. We want to share items of pop culture or things we should be reading or just interesting thoughts from interesting people.
“We end Fireside Friday on choosing the GC Rockstar of the Week, which is always a great reminder of the awesome team we have here. Also, random donut days and ice cream outings during the week really help keep everyone happy.”
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