Why company-wide group holidays are the career trend you didn’t know you needed

Published on January 8, 2020

Imagine this scenario: your boss announces to the office that she’s paying for the entire team to go on holiday. No work, no board meetings. Just a holiday with your team mates, all paid for out of company coffers.

Sounds like your idea of a dream company? Well, for some — including mine — it’s not just a dream, but reality. And while some leaders — and their accountants — would run for the hills at the very mention of the idea, the idea of the company-wide group holiday is actually taking hold in businesses around the world.

Stop working so damn much

Why? Well, according to a 2018 study by The Conference Board, only 51% of the US workforce is satisfied in their job. Most people tend to be unhappy when they don’t know where the company is going, what it is trying to achieve, and how they contribute to that plan.

The places that have the highest satisfaction and the most engaged teams are those where the team is constantly rallying together, agreeing on a strategy and trying to make things happen.

The biggest determinant of productivity is a team member’s emotional state. If you don’t foster an environment that creates a good emotional experience and support network, it affects the quality of their work.

And funnily enough, taking the entire team on an all-expenses paid holiday for a week is one of the best ways to boost morale, strengthen team bonds and increase your employee’s love for their workplace, all in one shot.

It’s massively important to celebrate the big wins — and it doesn’t even have to come from big gestures like a team holiday. We can feel happy at work from the small things, too. For example, in our office, we have a Chinese gong in our office and when a new client comes on board, we hit it. We also have a cowbell we ring when a client gets a new lead or a first sale – we celebrate our clients’ wins, because they’re ours too. Hearing something like a gong or bell brings us together. We all stand up and recognise the win.

A team holiday is a level up on this idea. Yes, it’s “expensive” – both the travel costs and the loss of revenue from closing the business for a week – but it is a great opportunity for everyone to relax and celebrate the wins together. On top of all that, it serves as motivation for the next goal.

Holidays aside, staff support starts with long-term investment in careers, whether that’s through “up-skilling” or offering more responsibility. This not only helps the business to ensure it has the skills it needs to succeed, but it also shows each team member that they have a future in the company. Showing a path towards the future leads to better retention rates.

So it’s time businesses stopped focusing totally on customer satisfaction and put some emphasis on employee satisfaction, happiness and progress. If a company can do that right, the employees will naturally take great care of the customer. A happy team will impact how many client referrals you get, which will impact how fast you can grow. And if your business can afford to take the team to Thailand, do it.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in May 2019.

Sabri Suby is a Columnist at Grit Daily. He is the founder and CEO of King Kong, Australia’s fastest growing full-service digital marketing agency. Launched in 2014 out of Sabri’s home, Australian Financial Review named King Kong twice to its Fast Starters List, and once to its Smart50 list.

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