Arranging and carrying out a perfect corporate retreat is a massive task. What’s even sad is that almost all people internally at your company don’t completely understand how tedious and stressful the process can be. And if you’re thinking of organizing a retreat, you are probably aware that it will cost your company money and removes your staff away from their day-to-day roles. Of course, you wish a return on your investment, so you’re aiming to make the most of your time away.
The secrets to being triumphant here are a bit counter-intuitive, and with that, we’ve compiled some of the best tips we can from in order to get the most of your trip. So if you think you’re experiencing difficulty in planning your next company retreat then you need to read our step-by-step guide which will tackle even the tiniest bit of detail about arranging the ideal company retreat that you and employees are dreaming about.
What Are Your Goals and Objectives?
A lot of company retreats are unsuccessful to carry out the benefits which they should have completed because of one single reason, the lack of setting objectives or prearranged timetable. To address the company’s targeted issues or needs, you need to identify your goals and objectives since they are the basis for planning.
Splitting your goals into reachable objectives so that you can include them sooner while organizing and executing the retreat. For example, if your target is to boost team building then you have to prepare indoor, outdoor, extra-curricular activities, travel, and fun experience as your objectives. But if your goal is to discuss a particular problem or expand tangible/intangible product throughout your trip then you can do work sessions, meet-ups, strategy meetings, and conferences.
What’s Your Purpose?
Before planning anything, the first and biggest step of arranging a victorious retreat is to determine the purpose of your retreat. You need to clarify the enthusiasm behind your retreat, the issues you want to talk about, and the goals which you want to achieve at the end.
What do you want to happen after that retreat? Do you want an improved co-worker relationship, gain more creative work in a changing environment, or just have a fun party? Having a goal behind your retreat is the utmost part that will tell and manage the succeeding planning aspects so make sure that you are clear with it.
How Much Does a Company Retreat Cost?
Retreats usually don’t need to break the bank! All you need to do is to have a feasible budget, consider your company size, and where you want to go. You can start small if your company has never been on a retreat before. You can prevent wasting a lot of money if you travel in the off season, and getting a hotel accommodation or a nice hostel that’s close to a major airport.
If it’s the company’s first time, then you can rent a few houses and keep things simple yet memorable. After that, you may step it up a little and stay on a ranch. Then you can start staying at luxury hotel accommodations, or even to a beach retreat resorts providing weekend getaways if you really have the means. Wisely calculate flight costs, lodging, meals and incidentals, all the way down to AV costs, tips, airport transfers, and lastly, value.
However, if you’re a far-flung company and still worried about the price tag, keep in mind that it’s more affordable to fly everyone anywhere twice a year than to pay rent on an office space year-round.
How to Find the Perfect Retreat Location?
This is probably the hardest thing to do when planning for a company retreat because almost everyone wishes to go to his desired place. The greatest way to choose the ideal retreat location is to think about the following:
- Majority wins. Of course, this is the first thing you must consider. The most significant factor when picking a location is the number of responses, taken down by the employees. There is power in the majority and it’s the wisest decision to follow when it comes to selecting a location recommended by the majority of your team members.
- Budget and team size. Don’t continue selecting a location if your budget doesn’t allow it even if everyone wants to go there. Always think of all the limitations like the size of your team and the issued budget for it, prior to choosing the retreat location. A fewer team has more amount of freedom and can even go for other countries for having a retreat experience.
- Weather conditions. If everyone wants to engage in fun and exhilarating adventures then it is very likely one of the deciding factors for selecting a location. Pick a location with incompatible weather as of your current weather to encounter an inspiring change in life.
- Work limitations. When selecting a retreat location, you need to understand that it also relies upon work limitations. However, this only applies if it’s a work retreat planned for meeting executives of other companies or attending conferences etc.
How Long Should a Company Retreat Last?
We highly recommend that you schedule an entire workweek retreat (Monday-Friday). This will greatly place a designated travel day and three full days at your offsite, providing you with an ideal amount of time to finish work and allow enough time to get to know each other.
Author Bio: Ivandrea Ollero is a writer for Kims Romantic Getaways Sydney, one of Australia’s beach retreat places immersed in subtropical rainforest offering a cluster of lavish individual timber bungalows and spa villas on the beach. She is also a content crafter who researches and writes custom content about travel, fashion, finance, business, home improvements, health, and beauty in order to provide helpful information and tips for her readers. Ivandrea graduated from St. Scholastica’s College, Manila, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism in 2016.
