INTRODUCTION
Team building event is organized as a form of exercise which helps in enhancing unity among team members, serves as a form of relaxation and to remind the team about corporate goals and objectives. Since team building is about bringing people together, food is an important part of team building. It is a general fact that food brings people together. Most people that attend ceremonies, events or functions want food when they get there.
This is just to show that meal/food is a logical part for team building exercises. Team-meals are necessary because team members feed, entertain, relax and forge team bond simultaneously. It is another known fact that people that sit together for meals stand up from there as friends.
Let us take a look at a company today where the employees nor the employers bond. Recession, high demand from employers and stockholders, competitive pressures have affected negatively the friendly side of most employees. The employees prefer to do things on their own to achieve their goals which have made them to be distant from their companies.
Companies have done a lot such as organizing training programmes, promotion and salary raise, internal publicity campaigns just to regain the loyalty of their employees but something important was noticed to be missing. They have not gathered together to eat. As I have said earlier, eating together provides opportunity for them to eat, share, entertain, connect and bond.
It is evident that happy employees in companies mostly have a meal together, talk about different kinds of food and recipes and even designate each person to cook. Meal together ensures family-feeling in your establishment.
Now let us discuss the top 5 dos and donts of organizing meal at a team building event.
Top 5 Dos
1.) Encourage communal eating: Team members should eat and dine with each other. Employers should lecture the employees on the benefits of communal eating and encourage them to always be a part of it.
2.) Celebrate each feat with food: During the event, there are some goals set aside to be achieved. For each feat, provide food to celebrate. This encourages the team members to bond together to achieve the goals set aside for the events.
3.) Encourage interdepartmental lunch: There are different departments in companies. Most times, the people in sales department won't know those in IT section. Set aside days where sales people will dine with the IT people or the HR department will dine with the cleaning staff. This is important for cross-office unity.
4.) Provide food at company meetings: Ensure food is served at company meetings. It should be food that everybody will be a part of.
5.) Set aside time for lunch-break: There should be a lunch-break during team building events. With so many activities put aside, the lunch break will make them relaxed while they eat. This promotes productivity among them.
Top 5 Donts
1.) Don't serve the same meal all through the event.
2.) The team members should not exceed the time designated for lunch-hour break.
3.) Avoid meals that will cause allergic reactions.
4.) Team members should avoid overfeeding. Overfeeding affect the other activities set aside for team building.
5.) Don't force everyone to participate, some people prefer to be alone. They tend to choke when they eat with people, which can be risky to the event.
Conclusion
Companies and organizations should insist on meals during team building events. It will build up the bond between team members and increase productivity. When team members complete a project or achieve a goal, there should be a reward in good meal. This encourages team bonding.