Perfect for: companies wanting to do a quick culture audit, with practical ways to build culture in the day-to-day life of your company.
How someone’s first few days are shapes their whole experience at the company. It can be scary, with reminders of that first-day-of-school nerves. Here are some ways to make your new team member integrate quickly into the team…
BEFORE DAY ONE
- Post your new team member a card to say you’re looking forward to them joining the team! You could make it into a package by posting them a book too.
- Arrange to send a taxi to collect them from home on their first day. …
Perfect for: companies wanting to do a quick culture audit, with practical ways to build culture in the day-to-day life of your company.
Life can easily pass without us taking a step back. Stop that from happening, by finding excuses to celebrate, and then create moments around them. You’ll see that a little goes a long way with celebrating milestone moments.
BIRTHDAYS
Gather the company together with a cake, better still if it’s a cake with some sort of fun link to them (…randomly Asda have a great selection of fun cakes!) and get the team to all sign a card. …
Perfect for: companies wanting to do a quick culture audit, with practical ways to build culture in the day-to-day life of your company.
It’s not just about jumping on the start up bandwagon and buying a ping pong table, filling any available fridge space with beer, and buying an office dog.
When people walk into your office, they experience your company. How is the experience that they are getting? You should be house proud of your office!
ENTERING THE OFFICE
Is it a nice experience walking in? Who sits at the desk nearest the office…are they the right person to be greeting people and helping them work out where to go? …
Perfect for: a team lunch with a twist
It helps to be on a jetty (!), but any location is great.
Buy a few disposable BBQs, and some meat / veg option. Then get an array of sides — salad, caramelised onions, fries, bread rolls, cheese. Not forgetting ketchup and mayo.
Get the tunes on, and get the team enjoying some food together.
For? 15 people
Cost: £50
Perfect for: treating the team
Everyone loves a mid afternoon pick-me-up, so why not circulate with a tray of goodies!
Perfect for: bringing the team together.
Why not make canapés for your next team drinks? They take a bit of time to prepare, and require some plates / boards to present them on, but I promise your team will really appreciate the attention to detail!
There are loads of recipes online, that will get the creative juices flowing. Why not start with a session on Pinterest…?!
And if you’re not feeling adventurous enough to make your own canapés, why not buy some ready made ones, and present them nicely on some boards?
For? 45 people
Cost: £40 (all vegetarian)
Perfect for: when one of your team is moving on
These cookies were for Tom, who was leaving for Australia (hence the G’Day Mate, and the Aus shaped map with suitcase decorated cookie). The whole team signed his card. We then presented him with it on his last morning, and everyone had a quick cookie break.
For? The whole team!
Cost? £1.25 for big cookies + £1.50 for small cookies + £3 for icing
Perfect for: bringing the team together, and learning in an informal setting
Theme the lunch around the lunchtime talk. Split the lunch into two sections:
1pm — gather the team to have lunch at the table
1:20pm — entice the team with coffee and mini brownies for pudding for the talk. Keep it interactive and keep it engaging!
2pm — back to work tummy full and inspired!
Our speaker this week was the author of a cookery book, so I made lunch based on one of his recipes.
For? 35
Cost? £50
Perfect for: providing Learning +Development opportunities for your team.
Off the back of the success of Business Dinner I, we kept the format the same for Business Dinner II. When something works, don’t change anything for the sake of it!
This topic? Starting a business: how, what, why.
It was led by Tom, one of the co-founders of CharlieHR.
We split the three parts of the evening into the different courses: starter — the how of starting a business; the main — the what; pudding — the why. (See last blog for timings)
These Business Dinners are for the individual and equipping them for future roles starting a business or being in the leadership of a company. It helps set the tone to let the team know that conversations that happen within these contexts won’t be fed back to their Team Lead, so that people don’t feel they have to justify their job, and that they’re not about to hand their notice in to start their own business. …
Perfect for: Shrove Tuesday
Needless to say everyone loves pancakes, so why not start the celebrations in the office on the morning of Shrove Tuesday.
It is really easy to put on.
Buy scotch pancakes. Toast them. Put them on a slate board.
Toppings — yogurt, berries, banana wheels, peanut butter; lemon and sugar; chocolate spread; maple syrup.
Lay everything out in bowls, and let the team get stuck in (fuelled by a cafetiere on the table too).
Then all that waits is getting that classic Jack Johnson song Banana Pancakes as your soundtrack…!
For? 30 people
Cost: £30
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