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Get the gang together and spend some time getting creative with these fun corporate team building activities in Melbourne. With the rise of hybrid working, there’s less time being spent with teams in person, so why not encourage a get-together by signing up for a unique experience that will leave your team feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! Not only is it a great way to break the ice and encourage socialising and networking amongst employees, it's a fun little break from work. With work-life balance and mental health in the workplace being more important than ever in 2024, giving employees the opportunity to rest and reset is an important component of team culture.
Whether it’s promoting wellness through making DIY terrariums or getting creative in the kitchen at a cooking class - check out these relaxing yet creative experiences!
Why are team bonding events important?
The relationship between employees is a massive driver of satisfaction and happiness within a company. Considering your staff spend their nine-to-five, five days a week with their coworkers, an office without positive employee relationships can have a negative impact on a company. Enter, team building activities! The benefits of team building extend well beyond employee relationships and satisfaction. Well-planned team bonding activities have the ability to improve productivity, motivation, collaboration, communication, and creativity among coworkers. All of these qualities make up awesome employees – ones that will ensure your business will thrive.
Team building activities promote corporate wellness
While you’re investing time and effort into team building events, you can choose activities that also promote corporate wellness and employee wellbeing. These concepts are all about optimising the health of employees, including physical health, happiness and job satisfaction, and creating an environment that fosters healthy behaviour in the workplace. Team building and corporate wellness actually fuse together nicely, which means you and your employees are getting a really beneficial two-for-one deal if you pick the right team bonding activities.
In order to combine the two, you need to choose activities that not only prioritise teamwork but also promote a healthy lifestyle. Some other good tips to remember when planning team building activities are to establish goals for the event, provide motivation to employees and most importantly, don’t make it a one-time thing. Team building and corporate wellness can’t be one and done but are something that needs to be maintained throughout the year.
So when you are next planning teamwork activities or are looking for team bonding ideas, remember the importance of corporate wellness and try and infiltrate the aspect of wellbeing into these events. To make it even easier, check out these five fun corporate team building activities in Melbourne which also promote employee wellbeing!
Practice mindfulness with a Tai-chi class
Tai chi is a Chinese martial arts practice that has long been used for its health benefits and as a form of meditation. It clearly demonstrates effective techniques for relaxation and mindfulness, bringing awareness to the mind and consequently improving resiliency and reducing stress. This physical and mental activity is a great way to encourage employees to prioritise their health and even teaches them ways to overcome challenging situations at work.
Beyond corporate wellness, a tai chi class brings plenty of time and space to allow for team bonding. It gives employees something interesting to chat about in a relaxing environment. These classes are mobile, so they work well if you’re looking for office team building activities that can seamlessly fit into the workday.
Lower stress with clay hand building
A pottery or clay building workshop may not be the first thought that comes to mind when you’re thinking of team bonding ideas, but this alternate activity ticks all the right boxes. It’s ideal for smaller teams and allows workers to step away from technology and improve their focus, all while getting to know one another outside of the work environment.
Beyond team building, pottery has massive therapeutic potential and will encourage your own employees to take their mental wellbeing seriously. In fact, it only takes 45 minutes of clay play to reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone in the body.
Improve corporate wellness with plant-based workshops
Need to revitalise your team? Working with plants, a symbol of energy and life, is the perfect way to do so. You can reap so many benefits from these little green beauties, and they’ve been proven to make us feel good both physically and mentally.
Terrariums are low-maintenance and long-lasting, making them ideal for all sorts of plant lovers. A beginners terrarium workshop is a great corporate team building activity for small and large teams and is packed with employee wellbeing suggestions too. You could even encourage everyone to keep their terrarium in their workspace so the office is easily filled with greenery.
A kokedama workshop is another alternative class for corporate teams to try, great for both team building and employee wellness. These Japanese style hanging string gardens are super trendy and really easy for busy workers to care for.
If you already know most of your employees are avid plant lovers or you have some indoor plants in the office that need to be shown some love, an indoor plant workshop that teaches you how to best care for these plants is another unique option.
Collaborate at team cooking classes
Cooking classes are always a hit with corporate teams because it’s a skill that everyone can benefit from. Many of these classes will require coworkers to team up and make their creation together, which is perfect for team building as it requires the delegation of roles within a team and good collaboration. Plus, most classes involve sitting down and enjoying your meal together at the end of the class. There's nothing like sharing a meal made with teamwork for fostering connection.
OTAO Kitchen even runs a cooking class for team building, a private workshop specifically designed for corporate teams. Since you can pick your cuisine for these classes, you could allow employees to vote for their favourite, which might make your team more excited about the activity. These teachers are also available to travel to a space of your choosing, bringing all of the necessary equipment to run the class, making it an easy fit into any sort of work schedule.
Alternatively, a Japanese cooking class or Thai cooking class are some popular cuisines to try out. They emphasise the importance of healthy eating and may even encourage employees to cook more of their own food as opposed to relying on less nutritious take-out options, a great initiative for employee wellbeing.
Spend some time bonding outside of the workplace with your team at one of these fun cooking workshops in Melbourne. Not only will you get to mix, mash, slice and spice your own delicious meal, but you and your team will also get the chance to bond over learning new skills and recipes and make memories that will strengthen relationships and boost overall morale!
Stimulate the senses with a perfume making workshop
A fragrance making workshop is particularly fun for corporate teams as you learn all of the principles of perfumery and aromatherapy! It also gives corporate teams plenty of time and space for team bonding as they learn about different essential oils and what combinations work well together.
Many of these workshops can travel to your corporate office or another space, making it an easy activity to slip into a workday. Perfect for teams of all sizes, this unique workshop will allow corporate teams to reconnect with their senses and one another.
Make sweet memories at a baking class
Keen to help your crew switch off and spend some time away from their devices? Whether you're making macarons or whipping up a batch of buttery croissants, learning to bake is one of the best ways to connect with your colleagues in 2021. You and your team will learn impressive new skills that you can use at home in the kitchen while also enjoying the meditative nature of baking. Stir, sift and shape dough as you discover how to make easy desserts and time-honoured classics. With an experienced baker there to guide you, you’ll learn some of the best basic baking techniques and pick up some amazing recipes that you and your team can replicate at home for your friends, family or flatmates.
