Identifying your company’s culture and sticking to it is vital to both the development and success of your business. In the 2018 Job Seeker Nation Study, Jobvite reports that “46% of job seekers cite company culture as very important when choosing to apply to a company,” whereas 88% believe that company culture is of relative importance. After the hiring process concludes, company culture continues to impact your business as it affects employee retention and productivity.
One of the best ways to foster positive company culture is to have corporate events that provide positive distractions, healthy competition, and opportunities for creative collaboration.
While corporate events often occur in convention centers and banquet rooms, those options often leave a lot to be desired. Instead, try boosting your team’s morale, creativity, and collaboration skills by booking a venue that gets them back in touch with nature. The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has determined that “increasing nature contact at work may offer a simple population-based approach to enhance workplace health promotion efforts.”
To help make your corporate event planning a little easier, Port Farms takes a look at the concept of corporate culture, highlights the importance of team-building activities, and identifies why it’s valuable to host corporate events in an outdoor setting.
What Is Corporate Culture, and Why Is It Important?
Corporate culture, synonymous with both company culture and organizational culture, is the combination of shared values, attitudes, and practices that define a business. Furthermore, corporate culture determines the way that the employer and employees interact with one another. According to Robert E. Quinn and Kim S. Cameron, faculty at the University of Michigan, there are four main divisions of corporate culture, such as:
- Clan Culture: friendly, collaborative working environment that promotes participation, consensus, and teamwork; similar to a family
- Adhocracy Culture: dynamic and creative working environment composed of innovators and risk-takers; individual freedom and initiative
- Market Culture: competitive with a heavy focus on reaching goals; the organization is results-based; emphasis on “winning”
- Hierarchy Culture: adherence to tried and known ways of doing business while keeping costs and mistakes low; conservative and cautious
Understanding corporate culture is an integral part of corporate event planning. Before you begin planning your next event, make sure you—as the employer or events planner—have an idea of what beliefs and behaviors characterize the company as a whole. From there, you can then decide what services to include.
In either case, organizing a corporate event outside of the office is a great way to demonstrate to your employees that you have their well-being in mind. Going outside is good for your health, and for anyone who regularly works inside of an office, a change of scenery and daily routines can make all the difference.
The Benefits of Team-Building
There are a number of reasons why team-building activities are crucial to a healthy and productive working environment. A study conducted by the Kenexa® Research Institute claims that “organizations with highly engaged employees achieve twice the annual net income of organizations whose employees lag behind on engagement.”
Team-building activities also encourage stronger bonds between employees. Not only do such activities engage employees that may be accustomed to working independently, but they also bring fun to the workplace!
What’s more, Harvard Business Review (HBR) has stated that “35% of the variation in a team’s performance can be accounted for simply by the number of face-to-face exchanges among team members.” HBR’s findings indicate that face-to-face interactions facilitate better communication between employees; the same can be said for eliminating the division between employer and employer. Employees may get the opportunity to get to know their bosses better in addition to getting to know their coworkers outside of an office environment.
Team-building can also lift an employee’s spirits. Hppy, an employee engagement insights platform, has listed several keys ways in which outdoor events build employee morale given that they:
- Provide a change of scenery
- Instill drive and determination
- Allow time for relaxation
- Facilitate better communication
- Rely on activity-based events
- Allow time for conversations between peers and bosses
- Foster the development of original ideas
- Provide an opportunity for casual picnics
- Reduce pressure and eliminate the fear of rejection
Corporate Event Activities at Port Farms
Corporate events are typically held at Port Farms from the months of May to October. Our spacious heated/air-conditioned events barn allows for speakers and presentations or a relaxed environment to enjoy a successful work season. And, after providing a farm-fresh meal, we offer a great number of team-building activities for you and your coworkers to try, such as:
- Apple Cannon Target Hits (additional purchase of tokens required for this event $)
- Cannon Station (Available in September)
- Cattle Chute Maze Dress Up Relay Race (Customer would provide the clothes for dress-up)
- Complete all 9 stations of the 8 Acre Corn Maze – a timed event
- Corn Hole Tournament
- Corn Maze (Available in September)
- Giant Jenga
- Giant Slide Races
- Hippity Hop Ball Relay Race
- Jumping Pillow Ping Pong Ball Spoon Race (requires socks to be worn)
- No Left Turn Maze (Customer makes this a timed event to complete)
- Pedal Cart Relay Race
- Tug-O-War
When choosing Port Farms as your next corporate event location, outline the goals and purpose of your event and we’ll do the rest!
Team-Building with Port Farms
Whether you’re planning a corporate work function or corporate company picnic, Port Farms has you covered! To find out more about having Port Farms host your next company event please email emily@portfarms.com, or call us today at 814-796-4500.