As the end of the year approaches, you’ve likely heard a lot of talk about people spending time at company off-sites. While off-sites could be considered a “break” in some ways, they are a deeply valuable way to bring teams, leaders, and entire companies together to build a vision for their goals and growth. No matter where an off-site takes place, they are a critical investment for a company.

Here are four key reasons why you should invest in the value your next off-site.

Off-sites establish a dedicated time to get to know teammates better. 

As the hybrid-work industry is growing, it can be more difficult to connect with coworkers. Off-sites are a great opportunity to build trust and learn how to better work together. Fostering an environment of trust creates a safe space to grow and learn from each other. The more time we spend with the people we work with, the easier it is to unite, share perspectives, and build trust—and that is key to a successful team. 

To start, it never hurts to kick off with an ice breaker. We’ve also seen great success with competitive activities  as well as sessions focused on personality types and strategic ways to best work with your teams. 

One session to not be missed? An ‘Ask Me Anything’ chat with the CEO. Talk about fostering an environment of trust! If done well, this session can go a long way with positively affecting employee retention and trust. 

Teammates have the chance to get creative energy flowing.

At cred, we recently had our off-site at our office in San Francisco. As the off-site theme was Camp cred, we were split into a few different groups called “cabins” to brainstorm goals and changes we wanted to see at the company. It was so refreshing to bounce different ideas off of each other in an in-person setting.

We particularly love the exercise of Stop, Start, Continue—you share things we should stop doing, continue doing, and start doing as a company. Open forum exercises such as this are ways to let everyone feel seen/heard and establish the transparency that folks really crave these days. Setting time aside during off-sites is a great way to break down barriers and make everyone feel like they have a part to play in the greater company vision. 

Off-sites are an investment, not an expense.

A few articles shared that companies intentionally try to save money when it comes to budgeting for an off-site—a mistake made more often than not. The most important piece of any successful company is its people, so investments should be made accordingly. If employers show their teams how much they care, employees are more likely to work harder. As the new year approaches, make sure to add a little more to your off-site budget. It will pay off in the end! We are in a new working era, with more and more employees transitioning to a hybrid or remote work schedule. Employees need time to get together and build trust—now more than ever. 

It’s important to have some fun!

While we know the professional benefits of off-sites, one of the most important parts is having fun with coworkers. This is particularly important in today's world where a lot of companies have hybrid or fully remote employees. For some, this could be the first time they are meeting other coworkers in person!

We strongly encourage all company off-site planners to gamify their agenda in some way. You could do this by setting up special off-site teams—putting folks in different groups than just the people they work with every day—and doing daily challenges to earn points. At the end of the off-site, the team with the most points gets a free day off or a gift card or prize of some sort. Another way to gamify an off-site is to decide on a theme or costumes. This allows employees to share their personality and express themselves in a more creative way.  

Keeping positive energy in and out of the office is key to mitigating burn out. Off-sites can be used as time to re-strategize and recharge—encourage your teams to stay off their phones, Slack, email, etc. to be present in the moment since you are only together minimally throughout the year.  

We hope these pillars provide some guidelines to make your next off-site a success.