Motivation: Away Days
Company away days may seem like an excuse to get out of the office for staff: but actually what they offer is an environment where motivational messages can be delivered more effectively.
Kathryn Hulse, communications consultant at the events and communications management division of Grass Roots, notes that “out-of-office events and away days are back on the agenda. Companies have missed the engagement that live events create.”
Outside the office, employee are away from their day-to-day activities and “can be 100% focused on listening and absorbing the key corporate messages,” she adds. What the messages and the company’s objectives are can determine the type of away day used.
As Graham James, director of sales and marketing at AYMTM, says: “look at the content of the message that needs to be delivered – whether it’s to get across the company’s values, realign after recession or cut backs or launch new directional objectives.” The imperative must be to “understand the audience profile, look at how the content will be delivered and find an appropriate way for messages to be delivered.”
Scott Lenik, client partner at Pulse, lists three different approaches: the formal presentation followed by a relevant activity; incentive based events linked to achieving financial targets; and achieving behavioural change which is about “mixing it up and getting staff to meet new people and interact.”
Lenik adds that sometimes, particularly when there are behavioural change issues which need to be addressed, “it’s better to get messages across through a practical environment rather than telling them and then discussing objectives after.”
Motivational events can also be used to build team spirit. Simon Fookes, sales director at MotivAction, suggests the use of “interaction through voting pads and Q&A forums, combined with experiential learning events.”
Such learning events can be fun: for example, MotivAction runs ‘Dragon’s Apprentice’ sessions, where participants can create products or come up with ideas and learning that can be taken back to the work place. This kind of challenge “can make the individual and team feel they are having a direct impact on the business,” Fookes claims.
This kind of team building activity works better away from the office, where, as Pulse’s Lenik observes, “people lose the work mask and you see how staff behave without the hierarchal constraints of the day to day office environment. Staff open up and learn more about themselves and how can they can work better as a team.”
But while fun and breaking down barriers may be useful, they are tools, not the purpose of an away-day. There will be serious messages to get across.
As Simon Fookes at MotivAction argues, in the current business environment, events have to be “both relevant and clearly linked back to the business. ROI remains the key focus, although experience tells us that to engage staff, fun is a critical element in the process.”
Kathryn Hulse at Grass Roots agrees that the ‘fun factor’ should always depend on the message itself: but, she adds, “we are strong advocates of experiential activity in delivering almost all corporate messages. The ‘tell’ method may tick the box in delivering a message, but generally fails to imbue an actual understanding of the message itself.”
Case Study: MSB Executive devised an activity day that saw 30 members of the marketing agency Pulse Group meeting offsite in Islington pub, The Old Queen’s Head.
Surrounded by the faded grandeur of the Victorian Living Room, the Pulse team were taken through a series of team-working exercises which reinforced the message that a great team is created in the same way as a great cocktail.
Staff were then treated to a cocktail training session by celebrated bartender consultant Kevin Armstrong of Soulshakers. The group then split into sub teams who were challenged to create two new cocktails, one alcoholic and one non.
Teams had to create, name and present their work, which culminated in a judging session by Kevin and the MSB Executive team. The wrap up highlighted the learning from the session and gave practical advice to take back to daily working life.