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Team-building retreats find a balance between working toward company goals and bonding. This type of retreat typically brings part of the company or the whole group offsite, often to a rural location. Removing yourself from the hustle of the workday allows for greater bonding. There, the team can work together through a whole range of team-building activities, games, icebreakers, and exercises.
The goal of the team-building retreat can be as simple as getting to know others on the team with whom you work. Team-building retreats also develop communication inside the teams, as well as across teams in different departments. These retreats can be a good way to resolve any tension between team members. Take this opportunity to align employees on the company culture, or to motivate your teams to improve sales.
Typically, a team-building retreat involves the whole company. It’s organized twice a year and lasts for two to three days each time. Some companies go offsite for the whole week. It depends largely on your budget and work schedule. Other companies add in a half-day work session, during which the management team presents the strategic vision and results from the year.
There are many things that can be accomplished over a team-building offsite retreat. Here are some areas where your company might focus on:
- Team communication and collaboration
- Innovation and optimization
- Bonding within teams
- Resolving tensions between team members
- Identifying what’s not working in the company and fixing it
Danche, our in-house retreat planning expert, says the best-team building retreats start small. “You shouldn’t organize a big team-building activity as the first activity, especially for a remote team,” says Danche. How can you structure your team-building retreat to achieve one or more of these goals?
Talent.io brought their team to Lisbon for a 3-day team-building retreat focused on collaboration, team bonding, and shared experiences. Here's what their agenda looked like.
Day 1: Arrival & Planning
Day 2: Team Building & Connection
Day 3: Reflection & Departure
There are tons of non-cheesy retreat activities to bring your group together. Leave corporate trust falls back in the 90s. Here are a few better ideas your group can utilize depending on where you go:
Enigma’s workation strengthens culture and collaboration
Enigma is a Switzerland-based remote-first digital agency. For their company retreat, the team of 32 spent six days in Ericeira, Portugal, combining productive work sessions with team-building activities.
Through workshops, brainstorming sessions, and activities like a group surf lesson, the team strengthened collaboration and company culture. As a result, Enigma’s company retreat generated fresh ideas, boosted morale, and brought the team closer together.
Mynd retreat resulted in 12 new product features
Mynd is a property management company based in California. For their corporate retreat, Mynd’s team of 32 people relocated for 10 days to Surf Office Barcelona. The team spent the first three days running a hackathon. The team developed 12 new product features in a quick sprint of innovation.
Mynd’s approach to their company retreat was to prepare beforehand; key design elements were already in place when they arrive in Spain. As a result, the team could move quickly and work without designers.
Amun’s retreat sparks innovation and team bonding
Amun is a leading cryptocurrency issuer helping make digital assets more accessible to investors. For their company retreat, the team of 45 spent six days in Mallorca focused on innovation and company culture.
At the heart of the retreat was a 48-hour hackathon, where employees worked in small groups to develop and present new ideas. The result was a productive week that generated creative concepts, strengthened relationships, and brought the team closer together.
Invision’s team comes together for beach meetings
Finally, InVision is a product design tool and 100% remote company. The team met in Ericeira for a company retreat with Surf Office.
They split their time between team bonding – stand-up paddle, surfing, and eating incredible seafood – and a hackathon. During their one-day hackathon, InVision built new product features and internal communication tools.
A team-building retreat is an offsite event designed to strengthen relationships between employees, improve communication, and build a stronger company culture. Team-building retreats combine activities, workshops, and shared experiences that help colleagues connect outside of their daily work environment.
Companies organize team-building retreats to improve collaboration, strengthen trust, boost morale, and create stronger relationships between employees. These gatherings help teams align around shared goals and reinforce company culture.
Team-building retreats can improve communication, increase employee engagement, strengthen workplace relationships, reduce tension between team members, and create a more connected and collaborative team.
Popular team-building retreat activities include scavenger hunts, cooking classes, surf lessons, escape rooms, hiking, sailing trips, city tours, and collaborative workshops. The best activities encourage interaction and help employees build stronger relationships.
Many successful team-building retreats include a mix of work and social activities. Company presentations, workshops, or strategy discussions can be combined with team-building experiences to create a balanced retreat agenda.
Most team-building retreats last between 2 and 4 days. This provides enough time for meaningful activities, team bonding, and discussions without requiring employees to spend too much time away from their regular responsibilities.
Many companies organize team-building offsites once or twice per year. Fast-growing teams, remote companies, and organizations undergoing significant change may benefit from more frequent gatherings.
The best team-building retreat locations offer a combination of comfortable accommodation, engaging activities, convenient travel connections, and opportunities for employees to spend quality time together. Popular destinations include Lisbon, Barcelona, Mallorca, Ericeira, and Porto.
Yes. Team-building retreats can strengthen company culture, improve collaboration, increase employee satisfaction, and help employees build stronger personal and professional relationships. Many companies view retreats as an investment in long-term team performance.
Start by defining your goals and choosing a venue that supports the type of experience you want to create. The right venue can have a major impact on collaboration and team bonding. Once you've selected a venue and destination, build an agenda that balances team-building activities with free time, and plan the logistics. Many companies work with retreat planners to organize accommodation, transportation, activities, and meeting spaces.
Are you planning a strategy meeting, design sprint, hackathon, kickoff meeting of a new project or “just” regular work time?
Whatever it is, we’ve got your back.
Expect a professional working environment with:
And of course, very fast internet.
Each team has a bit of a different expectation when it comes to their retreat experience and that’s why you have the flexibility to choose different types of accommodation ranging from premium ensuite rooms to shared accommodation.
All of our accommodation options are located in central areas within walking distance from the restaurants and grocery stores. You don’t need to rent a car or use public transportation to move around. We want to make your stay as easy as possible.
You have 100% security that your booking won’t be canceled (anyone with experience of last-minute group booking cancellation can relate).
We understand that your team might be growing and you might need to add additional rooms over time, you’ll have this flexibility too.
We’ve built a system that makes retreat planning easy and fast.
We’ll plan every detail of your retreat from start to finish, so that you don’t have to. This includes:
You will get a personalized schedule and online dashboard with all of your retreat information before your retreat starts. Our onsite support will show you everything you need to know upon your arrival and make sure everything goes smoothly for you and your team.
“Thanks for a great offsite venue @surfoffice – we had a blast!”
James Allgrove, Head of Growth at Stripe UK
1. Confirm Details
You will confirm with us the number of people, location (we can also recommend the best location based on where your team is located and prices of flights), dates and your desired setup for accommodation.
2. Invoice & Payment
After confirming details, we will send you an invoice. You can pay by wire transfer, credit/debit card or PayPal.
3. Team Retreat Planning
This process is super easy. With our playbook you will quickly create a personalized schedule. We’ll make sure you get all the information well before your retreat time and you will have our support person available throughout the whole process.
4. Retreat Time
Expect an introductory tour after your arrival. Our onsite support is available in case you need anything. We will give you local tips and remind you about your planned activities throughout the retreat.
Choose from hundreds of retreat locations in Europe, America, Asia-Pacific, and North Africa.
