Lunch breaks are an ideal way to unwind and breathe in a busy and grinding corporate environment. However, employees forego the opportunity to interact with others and just pursue individual tasks. Managers need to recognize the value of strengthening connections during the period. The following ideas can make your lunchtime significant and relevant for team building.
Schedule a Place to Meet
A way to develop camaraderie and trust among members of the team involves scheduling a place to meet. Using lunchtime as an opportunity to meet new staff. It is a good time for other members to interact and share their background and experience. You can dine in a restaurant or catering for corporate lunches if the team remains significant in number.
Boost Confidence
You can use the time for lunch as a way to boost the team’s confidence. You can create an activity where members participate in a game. Offering incentives increases their chance to become serious about the game. Another suggestion to boost confidence involves using the time to offer recognition and appreciation for one’s work. The activity makes people recognize that socializing creates positive results.
Share Experiences
Individual or group sharing during lunches bring about ways for members to feature their personality outside the scope of work. Managers can use time as a way to help others break misconceptions or labels about others. It is advisable to make the activity frequent and allow all members to participate. Constant engagement builds a culture of listening and recognition of diversity.
Create Opportunities to Teach
Lunch meetings can become a viable venue for teaching. Managers can ask their staff to participate and share useful skills and knowledge. Instead of focusing on work-related tasks, use the opportunity for others to learn something new about the person. The activity promotes camaraderie, allow participants to get to know others, and familiarize with one’s particular interests.
Solicit Feedback
Managers can make use of lunch meetings as an opportunity to reach out and connect with their staff. Often, the busy schedule of team members makes it challenging to communicate with each one. Eating outside gives the manager the chance to interact with the team and understand issues happening in the workplace. Beyond the work, it can also become a chance to resolve any disputes and clarify misconceptions.
Offer Constructive Criticism
A good way to use lunch meetings features making the venue a place for constructive criticism. You can have a closed area with catering for corporate lunches. Use the free time as an opportunity for each member to share experiences working for the group. One can also offer suggestions on areas to improve. By allowing each one to talk and share feedback, members begin to appreciate differences and find ways to work together.
The Bottom Line
Overall, the activities above are some examples to help you promote a strong and positive workplace culture. Allowing team members to share lunch and connect improves the potential to retain employees and strengthen connections. That is why managers should prioritize and explore simultaneous tasks that can boost one’s dedication to contribute to the betterment of the organization.
At Saint Germain Catering, we know catering for corporate lunches like the back of our hand. We know how these events are so important for brands and we always make sure we give it our 101%.