Communication technology—whether it’s video calling or online chatting—makes it relatively easy for remote workers to keep in touch with each other and with teammates at the corporate office. But sometimes they all need to meet face-to-face.
It’s common practice to bring remote workers to headquarters for meetings and training once or twice a year, and sometimes managers travel to visit their remote team members. But a few companies are trying something a bit different to build and strengthen their teams.
In this trend, team members get together for a “workation,” or a mix of work and vacation. That may sound like a horrible idea at first—the kind of thing that robs people of fun and relaxation on their vacation days. But some businesses that have given it a try are finding that it has many benefits for both workers and their companies.
Before diving into those benefits, it makes sense to define the term.
In this instance, a workation is an event in which a company pays for a team or an even larger group of employees to travel together to a vacation spot. While there, the team spends several hours every day working together on projects or strategic planning, but they also take time for sightseeing, relaxing, and building personal connections.
According to an article from Glassdoor, workations are most effective when you set the right expectations before the trip. In other words, employees need to know that they will be required to work, and that their work will have some structure. It’s important to find good accommodations that are conducive to productivity, and to stay in one spot so you don’t waste time on unnecessary traveling, packing, and unpacking.
“From the day one, try to set yourself a schedule and stick to it throughout your workation,” the article says. “A routine—as much as we try to escape it during our daily lives—is needed for productivity. Having the same schedule every day, helps us stay organized, plan our time more effectively, and avoid pushing things off for later.
“During our workation, we used the Scrum methodology and worked in ‘sprints.’ Every morning we started with assigning everyone a task from our to-do list. Then, we spent four hours to get the most of the work done, and in the evening we had one extra hour to finish what we had started. What’s important: every sprint had a hard stop time, which helped us stick to the plan and schedule time for other things, like sightseeing and relaxing.”
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A well planned and efficiently executed working vacation can be a real boon to your team.
Here are six potential benefits you may see from working vacations:
1. Giving remote workers a chance to get to know each other.
It’s much easier to build strong connections when you’re living and working in close proximity for a few days. Your team members will better understand each other’s preferences and working styles, which should lead to better collaboration, even when the workation ends.
2. Building trust in unexpected ways.
With those stronger connections comes increasing trust. An Inc. article notes this important benefit: “Living together meant impromptu conversations and downtime encounters. It got people on the same page. It created a sense of trust born out of knowing what was going on, on a personal level.”
3. Breaking silos.
A change of scenery can help break those tendencies toward protecting one’s turf, according to the Inc. article. “When boundaries between vacation and work blurred, so did the boundaries between teams. Silos that hinder so much of innovation disappeared,” the article says. “There was a natural cross-pollination between teams and between disciplines. People contributed freely and without fear. This enabled a much richer exchange and faster ideation.”
4. Improving productivity.
Some companies that have tried workations report that participating employees accomplish more in four hours at a different location than they typically do in eight hours at the office. Since all of the relevant players are in one place and truly focused on meeting a goal, perhaps that’s not surprising.
5. Creating a unique culture.
If your company is looking for a way to show its commitment to remote work, flexibility, and fun, a workation may give that message, as long as it’s handled correctly. In other words, don’t forget the “vacation” part of the workation.
6. Boosting recruiting efforts.
Once you’ve built that culture, other potential employees will take notice and may decide they like what they see. This is especially true if your team members are posting about their workations on social media.
Even if a full-blown workation doesn’t fit your company’s culture—or budget—you should at least consider creating a corporate retreat or other team-building activity now and then, especially for your remote team members. You can gain some of the benefits described above, even if they come in smaller doses.
Occasional face-to-face communication can pay huge dividends in better collaboration and productivity, so the return on your investment should be relatively easy to see. And if you’re also making your team members happy, everyone wins.
Photo Credit: bigstockphoto.com
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