Team Building and Employee Engagement: Why In-Person Still Works

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In-person team building lifts employee engagement because it gives people what a video call can’t: unscheduled time together, and something they did as a group. It works best when the activity is one people would choose, the agenda leaves room to talk, and everyone knows why the team is in the same place.

What is team building?

Team building is any shared experience designed to help people trust each other and work better together. It can be a half-day activity during an offsite, a dinner with a purpose, or a trip that brings a distributed team into one place.

How team building affects employee engagement

Engagement grows when people feel connected to their colleagues and to the reason the company exists. A well-designed team experience builds both. People who have cooked together, raced together or solved a problem in an unfamiliar place carry that back to their Monday meetings. The effect fades fast if the day feels compulsory, so start from what this team would enjoy.

Benefits of in-person team building

  • Trust. People who have met in person give each other the benefit of the doubt.
  • Communication. Cross-team relationships formed in a room make the next email shorter.
  • Belonging. Especially for hybrid and remote teams, a shared experience is often the moment people feel part of the company.
  • Retention. People are slower to leave a team they feel part of.
  • Energy. A break from routine, built with care, says the company invests in its people.

Team building ideas that build engagement

  • Cook with a chef. A private class where the team makes dinner together.
  • A challenge with a stake. A race day, a sailing regatta or a scavenger hunt through a city they don’t know.
  • Give back together. A half-day with a local cause, chosen by the team.
  • A learning experience. A session with an athlete, artist or expert, followed by a conversation.
  • The dinner that ends the offsite. After the breakouts, one evening that is about the team and nothing else.

How to plan team building people want to attend

  1. Ask the team. What would they enjoy, and what would they dread?
  2. Tie it to a purpose. A new team, a hard year, a big launch. Say why you are bringing people together.
  3. Keep the agenda light. The value is in the time between activities.
  4. Make it inclusive. Activities everyone can join, whatever their fitness, diet or schedule.
  5. Hand off the details. Give travel and timing to one owner, and let the leaders be guests for the day.

Questions

Is in-person team building better than virtual?
Virtual activities keep teams connected between meetups. In-person experiences build the trust that makes the virtual ones work. Most teams need some of both.

How often should teams meet in person?
For distributed teams, at least once or twice a year, usually tied to planning or a milestone.

Who should plan it?
Someone who knows the team well, with help on the logistics so they can enjoy it too.

Planning a bigger offsite? Read how to plan a corporate retreat.

Tell us about your team. See corporate retreats and offsites, or employee engagement experiences.

Sales Incentive Trips: Do Travel Rewards Work for Sales Teams?

Yes, when the trip is built around what your sellers actually want. Travel works as a sales reward because the whole team sees who earned it, and the people who went are still talking about it years later. Cash works too, but it lands in the same account as the paycheck and is gone in a month. The trips that move the number are announced early, with rules a seller can explain in one sentence.

Is travel a good sales performance reward?

For most sales teams, yes. A trip gives your top performers time with leadership and a moment in front of their peers, which a bonus never quite does. It also does its work months before anyone packs, because a destination people can picture keeps the contest alive all year.

Travel works less well when the trip is the same every year, when the qualifying bar feels out of reach, or when the people who earned it would rather be at home. Ask your sellers before you choose.

How recognition and travel rewards work in direct sales

In direct sales and channel programs, the reward has two jobs. It thanks the people who hit their number, and it shows everyone else what is possible. Recognition does the second job: naming qualifiers early, sharing the destination, and letting the people who went tell the story when they’re back.

Group trips vs. individual travel rewards

A group trip, such as a President’s Club, builds belonging. Your best people meet each other and your executives, and that network keeps them close to the company. An individual reward fits people whose ideal trip doesn’t match the group’s: a parent who wants a long weekend with family, or a top seller who has always wanted to see one particular race. Many programs use both, with a group trip for the top tier and individualized rewards for the next.

Sales incentive trip ideas

  • A destination your team hasn’t done. A fourth year at the same resort is a reward people stop picturing.
  • A sporting weekend they couldn’t book. Paddock passes, centre court seats or a round on a championship course.
  • A trip with partners invited. The person at home supported the hours that earned it.
  • A small-group adventure. A safari, a glacier or a vineyard, for a team of ten instead of a ballroom of two hundred.
  • A choice of trips. Let qualifiers pick from two or three, so the reward fits the person.

How to set up travel incentive programs for sales teams

  1. Set clear qualifying rules. Sellers should know exactly what earns the trip, and how they are tracking, every month.
  2. Announce early and show the destination. The pictures, the dates and one or two highlights. That is what people work toward.
  3. Tier the reward. A top tier and a second tier keep the middle of the team motivated, not just the leaders.
  4. Design it around the people who will go. Ask what last year’s qualifiers liked and what they skipped.
  5. Hand off the logistics. Flights, rooms and visas are a full-time job, and your sales leaders have a team to look after on the trip.

Example: Plymouth Rock in London

Plymouth Rock wanted more commitments from independent insurance agents without paying more in cash incentives. Imagine designed a London program for selected agents: a private tour from a retired Royal Guardsman, lunch and etiquette training with Prince Charles’ former butler, Centre Court seats at Wimbledon, behind-the-plate seats at Major League Baseball’s first games in London, and dinners with Bucky Dent, Richard Krajicek and Colin Montgomerie.

  • Nearly $20 million in top-line revenue and commitments over 24 months.
  • About $1 million saved compared with cash payments.

Read the Plymouth Rock case study.

Questions

How long should a sales incentive trip be?
Three to five days is common. Long enough to feel like a reward, short enough that top sellers don’t worry about their pipeline.

Who should qualify?
Set the bar so it is a stretch for most and reachable for many. A trip only a handful can earn stops motivating everyone else.

What does a sales incentive trip cost?
It depends on the destination, the group size and the access. Imagine designs the trip first and then prices it line by line, so you can see what each choice costs.

Tell us about your top performers. See corporate incentive travel.