How to Plan a Local Offsite?

 

Company offsites and retreats boost morale and foster creativity. They are the key to building employee productivity and collaboration. They effectively help break out of the daily grind by encouraging team building exercises and can do much more if organized efficiently. So, here are the most significant ways to carefully plan local offsites that can promote team development and consequently help the business grow: 

Sometimes a change of scenery can be the catalyst to innovation and new ideas in the team. Fun team activities and offsites can offer a much-needed break from in-office meetings, enabling employees to get to know each other better, fostering more collaboration. This is why offsite activities are organized to cultivate the team's morale and contribute to the business's success.

However, if these team building activities for employees are not planned and executed strategically, they won’t reap the most effective benefits. Hence, careful planning of such MICE events is essential to achieve the company's objectives. Let us learn more about organizing successful local offsites below:

What is a Corporate Offsite?

 

The offsite meaning pertains to all the company gatherings that allow the decision-makers to tackle business challenges and brainstorm innovative ideas to tackle those issues in a new environment. Such team outings involve all the company employees starting, from directors to managers and even executives of every department. 

 

So, let us understand the benefits of organizing such corporate events:

 

Benefits of Team Off Site:

 

Executing such business events ensures that the employees can collectively achieve the desired objectives by breaking free from the monotony of the office. Here are some prominent benefits that can be achieved by effectively organizing team development events like offsites and retreats:

 

• Location change triggers an influx of creativity and enables employees to develop new ideas.
• It fosters inter-departmental collaboration from employees across teams who get to spend time together.
• It is known to boost the employees' morale, contributing to increased productivity.
• It helps the character development of employees by encouraging team members who usually shy away from sharing their ideas to participate and speak what is on their minds.

 

Offsites Reflect the Company Culture:

The decisions and the interactions between the employees of an organisation form the company’s culture. Having a clear vision regarding your company is important, it takes constant efforts to bring the team together in order to achieve your goals.

Team building activities for employees are a good way to get employees together and help them connect with the company’s leadership. With such regular efforts, the team is better able to align themselves with the leaders’ vison, initiating the first step towards employee recognition from the company.

Building an Employee Offsite Strategy:

 

Before a company initiates the planning for team activities on offsite, it is more important to have a clear vision of the company's Mission, Vision, and Values, as it'll help achieve the objective of the business event more efficiently. These three facets of any organization influence every aspect; therefore, they are equally crucial while planning an offsite meeting. Defining these is the first step towards solving operational issues and making your company an employee-friendly workspace.

 

Mission: What is the primary reason you established your business?

 

Vision: What is the primary goal your business hopes to achieve?

 

Values: How are you going to achieve the two goals listed above?

 

How to Plan an Off Site?

 

Offsite meaning easily conveys that it must be organized in a location that is away from the office. However, planning a successful team outing is more challenging than hosting a meeting. There has to be a focus on creating a unique experience that encourages team cohesion. Taking the help of experts like the MakeMyTrip MICE team can make this process more straightforward, as they already have the tools that promote innovation. However, here are the primary steps that can ensure you have all the basics of offsite planning at your disposal:

 

This has to be the primary step in planning an offsite or even for virtual team building activities. Additionally, it is essential to communicate the desired outcome of such events with the employees and their impact on the business. Hence, this planning should align with the business objectives. There can, however, be some common goals like-

• Launching a new product/ feature.
• Taking a strategic plan to fruition.
• Immersing new hires into the company culture.
• Bringing teams that are situated geographically apart together.
• Celebrating milestones.

 

 

Planning an employee group tour can only begin with deciding the company's budget. This will determine exactly how much can be spent, the kind of locations that can be booked and the activities that can be planned. Ascertaining the budget requires paying attention to the following aspects:

• Transportation 
• Hotel accommodation
• Catering
• Fun team activities expenditure

among other miscellaneous expenses.

 

 

Once the budget and agenda of the business outing have been decided, it is time to ascertain the logistics of the offsite meeting. This is important even for virtual team building activities. This primarily involves looking for answers to- Where? When? And How? You must use these to determine the venue of the offsite, the modes of transportation and the catering arrangements for food and beverages. Here are some factors to keep in mind while finalising these aspects-

Determining Venue:

• Narrow down on a location that is accessible to all.
• Look for spacious venues.
• Ensure they come with all the amenities, especially tech support like WiFi, presentation tools, and more.
• Ensure that the venue offers ample parking space.

Determining the Mode of Transportation:

• Decide the transfer arrangements on the basis of the number of attendees.
• Prioritize comfort.
• Consider the distance and parking options before finalising the mode of transportation.

Determining the Catering Options:

• Take the dietary and allergy restrictions of all the attendees.
• Finalise the menu on the basis of the above-mention factor.
• Ensure easy availability of snacks and water at all times.

Determining the Logistics for Team building Activities Virtual:

• If there are time differences between the attendees, communicate it in advance.
• Organise activities in smaller groups to encourage better interaction among members.
• Make sure that all the participants have access to necessary technology- like WiFi, software, etc.
• Ask everyone to keep their webcams on for better interactions.

There are many different aspects to be taken care of while organizing employee engagement fun activities in the office/virtually as well as a successful team offsite. However, it can be made easy by taking the help of the dedicated MakeMyTrip MICE team, which is well-versed in efficiently executing all these aspects of a corporate event in a way that meets all the company objectives. 

 

How structured you wish to make the group tours depends on the following factors:

• Objective
• Number of employees
• Duration of the retreat/ offsite

Based on these factors, assigning a task to each team and scheduling activities for team reflection and collaboration is best. Planning out each day roughly can offer a structure to each day, making sure that the team engagement activities are fruitful and manageable. Each offsite can be divided into four primary areas-

• Team building
• Envisioning the company's goal
• Downtime for the employees

Plan different activities with the aspects mentioned above in mind and ensure that every team prepares in advance for the activities organized. At the same time, even though having a plan is important, maintain flexibility and therefore make sure to have a contingency plan. Partnering with MakeMyTrip MICE experts can take care of any unforeseeable event while ensuring that everything is in order with the end-to-end execution of such corporate events.

 

 

Team offsites are part of a company's incentive plan for their employees. The purpose of organizing such non-work activities is to foster creativity and enable employees to get to know each other better. They can act as an effective ice breaker when employees participate in fun group activities and collaborate. Therefore, it is imperative to carefully plan team activities while ensuring that all the employees have enough time to relax and rejuvenate. So, make sure to give them time for reflection. Furthermore, these activities can also be aligned with employee recognition, strengthening peer relationships and encouraging the employees to keep the momentum going. 

 

 

Organizing small fun activities for employees is easy and can be managed without any roadblocks. But to organize corporate events for a large number of employees, like in the case of group trips, it is best to take the help of experts who can plan, manage, and execute such events with ease. MakeMyTrip MICE specialists are competent in offering a seamless experience thanks to our extensive list of venues and expert logistics team that guarantees a stress-free organization of corporate events, physical or virtual. 

 

So, explore more about the MakeMyTrip MICE team for your next offsite here!

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

Q1. How to decide who to invite to an offsite meeting?

Ans. Based on the objective of the event, strategically decide whom to invite to the offsite. For instance, if you are organizing a strategy planning event, inviting the management makes more sense while if the objective is employee engagement, inviting the entire team can help encourage team bonding.

 

Q2. What kind of activities should be planned for offsites?

Ans. It is best to include ice-breaking exercises along with some fun activities that encourage creative thinking on a company offsite.

 

Q3. What preparation should be expected from the employees going on a corporate offsite?

Ans. Based on the objectives of the corporate event, share some reading material like related case studies that introduce the context of the meeting to the employees and allows them to brainstorm.

 

Q4. Is it important to assign a facilitator in an off site? 

Ans. You can assign a facilitator to help communicate the agendas and resolve issues during offsites. Organized MICE players like MMT MICE team provides facilitation services related to any on-ground logistics issue.

Follow us on: