What would YOU like as a group/team reward for you + your colleagues?

I'm working on a reward policy for my workplace and I could use some input. The company already has and keep doing a lot of positive changes and this is another genuine attempt to keep building a positive workplace. The policy is divided into rewards for individual employees and for teams, such as project teams or departments. I have the individual employee section dialed, no problems.

But, when it comes to the team/group section, I could use some input from all you happy extrovert berkeleyers. You see, as an ADHD-man who is also a tad "on the spectrum", I consider sitting still and socializing with a large group of people while doing absolutely nothing useful only slightly more pleasant than water boarding. Especially if the team dinner is a 3 hour thing and the waterboarding can be wrapped up in 30min or so. I have therefore successfully avoided all forms of non-mandatory team building and after work bullE36 M3 for the last 15years. 

The policy has 3 tiers and what I come up with so far is:  

Tier 1: Cake served at work, Lunch served at work, etc.

Tier 2: Team lunch at a restaurant, or similar.

Tier 3: Team dinner at fancy restaurant, cooking class, wine/beer tasting event, tickets to a game/sporting event.

Some input would be much appreciated - what would be a fu thing for YOU to do together with your colleagues? 

Take 2 hours and go out and grab a decent lunch.  Once in Denver we ran over and rode an Alpine slide - that was nice to break it up. 

In sales we used to do a lot of dinners with customers but most people don't have time and don't want to make time.  Everyone is stretched - don't add to it.

Dinners are a no go. People have after work requirements and will place an after work event as a chore unless it's something the REALLY want to do. Then they feel like they have to do it.

Keep it doing the work day. Get out of the office. Make it something that gives them a break from the normal day. 

bmw88rider said:

...unless it's something the REALLY want to do... 

So, what would be something YOU really would like to do? 

I understand what you are saying regarding evening time, but things like going to a concerts or a hockey game isn't possible to do during working hours. But surely SOME people like that stuff?

Adult GoKart leagues?

This morning we had a team breakfast. We prefer that because it's the beginning of the day and no one misses it because they get caught up in something. We had it during work hours because as said above we all have a home life.  

I have some affiliation with the folks at Xtreme Xperience as I instruct for them (or at least I did pre-COVID) so this isn't an entirely un-biased recommendation but their corporate events seem to be really popular even among the non-car people.  As others have said, I highly recommend trying to do stuff within normal work hours. 

Xtreme Experience group/corporoate events

Money. 

We do lunches at restaurants and grill at the office fairly regularly as a team-building event. A chance to get together and just shoot the breeze. 

But at the end of the day, the most appreciation is shown with money. That's why they are there, that's why I am there, and they appreciate it when the profits are shared around. And to be honest, I enjoy sharing it. 

1/2 day off. 

Torkel said:

So, what would be something YOU really would like to do? 

I would like to receive a paycheck for the work I have done.  :)  Food at work sounds fine. 

I say this as a person who likes his colleagues and goes to random lunches, parties, what-have-you when I have time but creating a mandatory-feeling (even if not strictly mandatory) 'event' takes the bloom right off the rose.  At my company, most rewards have money included.  That makes people happy.

Slippery said:

1/2 day off. 

This. Cash or time off.

I go to work for money, not to hang out. That's not to say that I don't like some of the people here but at the end of the day I'm only here as long as the checks clear. Money. Breakfast and lunch make being here, instead of elsewhere, more tolerable but money is my reason for showing up. 

Money.

At some point, the recognition via other ways becomes an excuse to not pay a fair wage for work done.  Let alone, many times it comes off totally fake and pointless.  Money is why people work, give them that.

Extra PTO is also money as long as the worker takes the their time off.

As for off hour team events, including lunch- if they don't hang out together outside of work, why would you force them to hang out just for reasons?  I went to a handful of award dinners over my career, and in the end, I would rather have money than dinner that I really don't like + some kind of trophy or framed thing that I'll never use.  As a matter of fact, I've got two boxes of awards that I plan on just throwing away.  If people want them, that's fine- if they don't- it's a waste of resources and just fills up landfills.

I know that doesn't apply to everyone, so at least give the option of not participating if they don't want to.  Pretending to be actual friends with your co-workers is not all that fun.

Toyman! said:

Money. 

We do lunches at restaurants and grill at the office fairly regularly as a team-building event. A chance to get together and just shoot the breeze. 

But at the end of the day, the most appreciation is shown with money. That's why they are there, that's why I am there, and they appreciate it when the profits are shared around. And to be honest, I enjoy sharing it. 

 

Count me in the money camp. While I am not against it, I don't work to be friends with people. I want to be as uninvolved with my job as possible when I'm not on the clock. Going to a work event or a team building event is the equivalent of torture to me. Invariably those conversations drift back to work E36 M3, and suddenly you're doing work E36 M3 while not at work. For people that are into the culture, that's great. But I am not about it at all. 

In general, the last thing I want is after work events. That is just more time away from doing things I actually want to be doing.

Food for lunch is nice. Money or extra time off is better. My company frequently does early dismissals on long weekends (like 1 or 2PM) and that is way better then something after work.

Anything outside of work hours should be rare, not too long, and ideally on weekends. The company I work for now has events like that a few times per year.

The lunch options look good, as for what I would enjoy, my suggestions would probably be as weird as yours...I would enjoy that karting league, paintball, maybe a LAN game?

Edit: Of course money is always good, but clearly the point of this is to find alternatives to rewarding employees with money (silly workers, money is for execs! )

Money or time off. Like bmw88rider said, something after hours is almost always a no-go for me. 

I actually think after-hours/weekend team building events are part of the reason I was laid off from a previous job. At the time, my now ex-wife traveled for work Mon-Thurs, or Mon-Fri, so I wasn't about spend 4 hours on a Sunday afternoon going to a minor league baseball game vs spending time with her. 

They weren't "mandatory" but "strongly encouraged." I was vocal about how I thought it was BS that they were essentially trying to force us in to team building activities on weekends or after hours. 

In reply to Torkel :

What I like to do with my buddies vs what I like to do with work folks are 2 different things. I've done sales for ages and have basically done just about everything possible with customers. The only things I really liked was nurburgring lap and hi-speed karting.  I can guarantee that my current team would HATE those. 

It's just so tough to find something that the group enjoys. Like taking a group to top golf was 50/50 like vs not like.

So if you want to recognize me, look at linked in and what they do internally. They have a half day a quarter and a budget where their employees can do something that enriches them. It can be so many things. Shoot, a friend got a tattoo during it. The employees love it. 

Money or Time off

I get the point about money and/or time off, and for the individual rewards I think that's perfect.  But the OP said he's already got individual recognition awards put together.

Group rewards should be done as a group and should emphasize teambuilding and camaraderie.  Otherwise you're just giving the same individual recognition to every team member.

ABSOLUTELY do whatever it is during regular company business hours.  If you don't, you are just further imposing on the employee's personal / family time, UNLESS you make it a family event.  Those can be fun, but they ramp up the costs considerably.  Plus not everybody has a family, or at least kids, so you need to consider that.  When we had about 5 people in the office, our bosses would take everybody and their spouse / partner out for a really really nice evening.  A few years they even put us all up in a nice hotel for a night in one of the nearby major cities.  It was really a great time but I am also sure it cost a LOT of money and took a lot of effort to plan and execute.  I know when they stopped doing that our yearly bonuses got a lot bigger. 

Basically, the easiest common denominator is going to be a nice lunch, with the level of nice determined by how big the reward is intended to be.  Plus, then you can send everybody home early after lunch is over.

Activities can be great but it can be very difficult to find an activity that would be enjoyed by a diverse group of people.  Everybody eats.  Not everybody is going to enjoy karting or axe throwing or whatever.

Of course, that can vary by the group.  If you think everybody might like to try something, there are low-impact options:  maybe axe throwing is the thing.  Cooking classes or painting classes or guided wine tastings could be fun if appropriate.

It's kind of interesting to see so many people talk about not being with co-workers outside of work hours.  I used to think I was a rare person at work who hated the though of that, but it seems more common than not.  Makes me wonder how many people went because they felt forced to.

yupididit said:

Money or Time off

I would take more time off over a raise right now.

Yep, free to use 1/2 day or full day off. Depending on which job of mine, a specified day off may work or not. Sometimes deadlines means that those "take Friday off" made Monday hell. Being able to just take whatever day off that works best for me would have been preferred. 

Of course, bonus check would have been top teir. 

GameboyRMH said:

yupididit said:

Money or Time off

I would take more time off over a raise right now.

This is very person specific. I would definitely do the other way. 

Duke said:

 

Basically, the easiest common denominator is going to be a nice lunch, with the level of nice determined by how big the reward is intended to be.  Plus, then you can send everybody home early after lunch is over.

 

 

Technically, lunch is not work hours.  And since the conversation always goes back to work, then your time off to eat just becomes more work.  But sending people home early is PTO, so that's cool.