How Well-Planned Offsites Lead To Increased Employee Engagement, Retention, and Alignment At Your Company
Are you sending pre and post-offsite feedback forms to your team? If not, you're missing out on the chance to learn how to plan future offsites with more intention and higher ROI.
Offsites are becoming a “must” for remote and hybrid teams.
Without offsites, knowledge workers at remote and hybrid companies are less connected to their colleagues, the company’s mission, and leadership’s vision.
If you plan offsites poorly, you also run the risk of spending too much money, damaging your reputation as an employer, or inviting HR issues akin to a toxic office environment. And so…
If and when you choose to plan offsites (which I’d argue is inevitable if you run a remote or hybrid team), you should aspire for your company’s offsites to be well-planned and high ROI.
One of the many tools for getting more intentional about offsite planning over time is the use of pre and post-offsite feedback forms.
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Send A Pre-Offsite Feedback Form To Attendees
How can you engage your team months before an offsite and ensure their experience both during and after the offsite will be valuable?
Use pre-offsite feedback forms to take care of logistics like dietary preferences, travel sensitivities, and even swag sizes.
Examples of logistics-based questions include:
Do you have any dietary sensitivities?
Do you require any accessibility or special needs? (consider Mothers' Rooms, ADA needs, ASL interpreters, service animals, etc)
Are there any blackout dates for which you can't travel to our offsite?
Those things are important, but as a CEO...I personally find value in some of the employee engagement metrics we're able to track through pre and post-offsite feedback forms as well.
Here are a few examples of pre and post-offsite feedback form prompts to consider when planning your next team retreat:
"connected to colleagues" questions
On a scale of 1-10, how connected do you feel to your direct team members?
On a scale of 1-10, how connected do you feel to your direct supervisor?
On a scale of 1-10, how connected do you feel to your executive team?
"company outlook" questions
On a scale of 1-10, how excited are you by your company’s future?
On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend your company as a great place to work to others?
On a scale of 1-10 how do you feel about your company's commitment to its core values?
"career development" questions
On a scale of 1-10 how do you feel about your future at your company?
On a scale of 1-10 how dedicated to you feel your company is to your development?
On a scale of 1-10, do you feel you have opportunities for advancement at your company?
You might also prompt your team (pre-offsite) on sessions they'd like to cover during the offsite, such as:
pressing problems in the company,
learning and development (and/or professional skill development) items there'd be interest in, and of course...
what kinds of fun activities they may want to plan ("do you prefer more active and outdoorsy experiences or relaxing activities?").
In your post-offsite feedback forms, you can ask for reviews (1-10 or open-ended prompts) on the sessions you organized and apply that feedback to future retreats.
If you use tools like 15Five, Lattice, or Culture Amp, you can even incorporate these prompts into your normal reporting motion.
Repeat Questions In A Post-Offsite Feedback Form (And Review The Data)
After your offsite, send a follow-up survey to gather more data about where your team stands after you’ve made an investment in gathering everyone in-person.
I’d recommend sending pre-offsite feedback forms about one month before the offsite, and your post-offsite feedback forms 2-4 weeks after the offsite as well.
Below, we’ve anonymized data from one of our clients who used Offsite for an All-Hands Meeting earlier this year.
With almost 160 attendees, this company had to justify its investment of capital as well as collective team time. During the offsite itself though, the CEO remarked that planning this offsite was likely one of the highest ROI activities the company would do all year, and the data below shows why.
Improved Working Relationships
Two of the prompts this company chose to implement scored connectedness of colleagues to their direct team as well as other employees they interacted with often. As you can see below, scores increased dramatically, which will lead to increased retention, more innovation, higher productivity, increased trust, and more.
Alignment Around Company Values
Offsites are great for reminding team members about company values. Additionally, they provide a forum for explaining why your company has chosen such values and educating your team on ways to apply those values in their day-to-day work.
This company saw improvement in connectedness to company values and use of those values day-to-day in the weeks following the offsite.
Trust In Leadership and Company Vision
One of the most important reasons to plan offsites is to generate alignment and buy-in around strategic planning initiatives like OKRs, while also creating a positive vision for the company’s future.
As you can see, most attendees felt excited about the company’s future before and after the offsite, but their feelings of connectedness to leadership increased dramatically after the All-Hands Meeting.
You could imagine this may come in handy if tough decisions are made in the future, when strategic plans for 2024 and beyond are rolled out company-wide, and more.
Generally, employees need job security and psychological safety in order to perform most effectively. Offsites can be a great tool for company investment into both of these employee retention and engagement requirements.
As you can see below, not only did this client’s team feel excited by the company’s future after the offsite, but they saw their individual future at the company in a more positive light after the All-Hands Meeting.
Plan Better Team Retreats With Offsite
To save the most time, money, and stress possible, continue gathering data from one offsite to the next.
As you develop a Cadence for offsites at your company, you can strategically poll your team before and after offsites to improve your agendas, venue selection, and execution of offsites over time, leading to higher ROI.
After planning hundreds of team retreats for VC-backed startups, Inc 5000s, and other organizations, Offsite has become the trusted choice for numerous esteemed organizations like Webflow, Buffer, Linear, Hampton, YPO, 15Five, LinkSquares, and mParticle when it comes to team-building and offsite planning.
Once you make a free account with Offsite, you get access to hundreds of venues that are perfect for Austin offsites, where you’ll receive discounts of 20%+ on room blocks, meeting space, food and beverage, AV, and more.
Signing up is quick, free, and doesn't require a credit card. Within minutes, you can submit requests to various curated and vetted team retreat venues around the world.
Plus, with our end-to-end offsite planning services, you can get team-building support from offsite experts who will be there with you every step of the way in planning your next offsite.