Leadership

How Can Team Building and Employee Development Boost Profitability?

team-buildingRegardless of the business you own or its core purpose, profitability is likely to remain your single most important goal. Conversely, achieving this goal just happens to be the most difficult aspect of commercial leadership, especially in a global economy that continues to fluctuate wildly.

While some businesses may content themselves with a high turnover, this ultimately means little unless it can be transferred into bottom line profit. There are several ways through which this can be achieved, as long as you are able to strike the delicate balance between effective cost cutting and developing the key components of your business.

Team Building and Employee Development: Using it to Boost Performance and Profitability

One exercise that can boost profitability is team building, especially if it is undertaken with the goal of empowering staff and maximising their performance. By optimising the dynamics of a team and the individuals within it, it is possible to drive your business forward and achieve sustainable success. With this in mind, how can you use team building as a way of improving employee performance and increasing profit? Consider the following:

1. Make Consultation your Friend not your Master

Whenever you begin to plan a potential team building exercise, it is crucial to consult your staff and gain their input. While this key to empowering them and creating a purposeful and engaging event experience, however, you must retain control as a manager and strive to take the final decision. After all, the nature of your team building exercise will depend on what you hope to achieve from it, and you must therefore keep your vision in mind at all times when looking to attain greater profitability. While this can be a difficult balance to strike, it can be achieved by holding open brainstorms to generate ideas and selecting the most viable option yourself.

2. Challenge your Staff Members

A stagnant economy tends to trigger intensified market competition, which in turn creates and establishes anxious and pressurized work places. This creates a daily challenge for your staff, and you must be sure that they are able to handle such a difficult scenario. For a team building exercise to boost profitability it must challenge your employees and more specifically their ability to lead, collaborate and problem solve. This will entail them working independently and in teams, and apply critical thinking to ensure that they can operate outside of their comfort zone. Once they have begun to integrate problem solving into their core set of skills, they will emerge as far more rounded employees.

3. Embrace Creative Thinking

The event and team building industry has evolved considerably in recent times, thanks largely to an increasing emphasis on creative thinking. You must embrace this when planning your event, as it will allow you to create a unique and challenging experience for everyone involved. With modern industry trends prioritising real time experience and the attainment of tangible skills, there is ample opportunity for you to stimulate your employees competitive nature while also rewarding through the attainment of predetermined goals. Culinary courses and digital treasure hunts are particularly effective, as they ensure that participants are able to work towards a clear and tangible aim.

4. The Last Word for Ambitious Business Owners

While some may consider the cost of team building too much to bear in the current economic climate, it is an investment that has the potential to boost the profitability of your business. By engaging your staff members and challenging them to optimise their performance both as individuals and teams, you are laying the foundations for long term commercial growth and improved working processes.

This article was written by J.P Lansdale, who recommends Watt Works Consulting Ltd as being a market leader in staff development and innovative customized training ideas.

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