How to organize integration in an easy and inexpensive way

Satisfied employees motivate each other to work better, are more willing to help someone in emergencies and share their knowledge with each other. Because of that an integration budget, which some may consider an unnecessary expense, should be considered when you are planning corporate spendings. However, integration of employees and taking care of their well-being doesn't have to entail high costs. Using the example of Merixstudio I'll try to show you how to easily and inexpensively ensure that every employee is able to enjoy the fact that they are a part of the company they work at.

Team Building

We know that the integration of employees is needed, but we still have to answer the question of how to organize it. The first activity that probably comes to mind is team building. It is one of the most popular forms of strengthening relationships within the team, during which participants find out what are their strengths and work on their shortcomings. Team building helps in increasing mutual trust, shows techniques of good cooperation and teaches how to make the best use of participant’s hidden talents. Those trainings develop many different skills and therefore take various forms. One of the great examples is paintball, which not only allows to spend time out of the office in an interesting way but also shows employees how to (among other things) properly work in a group. Participants, while having fun, can easily distinguish among themselves who works best as a leader or tactician and who is well suited to making a decision in stressful situations. All of this is hidden behind the thing that is necessary for any integration - having a good time with your employees.

Using sport in integration

Sport undoubtedly brings many benefits both in private and professional life. Healthy endorphins help in maintaining concentration, creativity and, of course, the overall well-being of employees. Using sport as a part of integration also gives an additional advantage - because of the active form of relaxation it’s impossible for people to gather in small, isolated groups, which often proves to be quite an impediment when organizing a gathering of a lot of people. Common physical activity undeniably influences relationships between people (what those endorphins can’t do!) and helps employees to get to know those coworkers, with whom they don’t work on a day-to-day basis. We had the opportunity to test the salutary effect of exercise during integration when we visited the trampoline park. Up until now, Jump Arena was one of the most successful outings when it comes to integration at Merixstudio - we had the opportunity to experience something new together and spent time away from our responsibilities. Additionally, the next day we felt as a unity because of common problems with sore muscles. :)

Another great example of using sport in integration is organizing joint training or creating an official team. Achieving success and winning matches improves the quality of communication within the company, which of course can easily be transferred to better cooperation. Right now it’s also quite popular to combine sport with charity, such as attending Poland Business Run.

Simplicity can get you anywhere

It’s worth to remember that integration doesn’t necessary mean going somewhere far or dedicating a lot of time to it. Sometimes spending an afternoon or Friday evening together can cause a lot of enthusiasm, because employees will be able to integrate with their colleagues without sacrificing time dedicated to their families, friends or hobbies. It’s also quite a common problem of larger companies that people know each other only within their project teams. Big offices with few floors and occasional contact when it comes to joint work may be the reason why sometimes people hardly know the names of all of their colleagues. A classic solution in this situation is to organize a corporate event after working hours.

Bowling, karaoke or barbecue are as simple as reliable - you’ll just need to book a venue and organize an open bar to allow employees to enjoy each other’s company and to talk about things unrelated to deadlines or work. Some may consider this solution to be too simple or unoriginal, but in my opinion often the simplest ideas are the most effective. The lack of typical team building tasks will show employees that all they need to do is have a good time with their colleagues. Such non-binding meetings work as an excellent foundation for conversations about common interests and who knows, maybe people will uncover some hidden talents that will increase the quality of everyone’s work.

Integration during work hours

Keep in mind that integration can also take place during work. Such events as organizing an office lunch may show that employers care about the well-being of employees. Those events also don’t take a lot of time nor require long-term planning. In Merixstudio we try to occasionally spend some time together away from our desks and allow ourselves a moment of rest with pizza or donuts. Such mini-events allow us to de-stress, play games or simply chat with each other. The popularity of such interludes within our office can be seen as a proof of how much can be achieved by introducing the simplest ideas to action.

An interesting form of integration, which is very liked in our office, are various kinds of tournaments. However, they do not rely on difficult tasks but instead are focused on providing a moment of relaxation and taking a break to spend few minutes on something fun. All participants have the opportunity to come together and play FIFA or Mortal Kombat; there are also various (usually not very serious) tournaments. An example of such shenanigans is, for instance, our Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament. Sounds like something completely trivial, right? It turned out, however, that even such short fights can cause a lot of excitement in both players and an audience. I can’t see any downsides to this game - it wasn’t time-consuming (everyone was capable of spending a few minutes away from their desks), didn’t require lengthy preparation and "forced" employees to integrate with people that they might not know very well.

Many advantages of gamification

Since we are talking about internal games, it’s impossible to avoid discussing gamification. When it comes to integration, it’s nothing else than using game’s mechanics to provide entertainment and involve employees in company’s life. In Merixstudio undisputed specialist in this area is Bartek, who on our blog explained in detail what gamification is and on which mechanisms it’s based - check out what he has to say about it. But what activities can be used as an integration?

English Challenge

Seeing the growing popularity of various tournaments and competitions in our office, we obviously had to implement gamification at Merixstudio by creating our application, Apocalypternet. Our official gamification adventure started with an English Challenge, which was based on gathering points by participating in various activities associated with speaking English. Employees had the opportunity to test themselves during an all-day (or even week-long!) challenges of speaking only this language. People also could earn experience points for participating in weekly lessons with native speakers. This not only brings a clear advantage in the form of employees being more fluent when it comes to English but also inspires a sense of comradeship because of joint challenges.

Baby Boom

However, the important thing in gamification is to avoid boredom - as in the case of computer games, after some time players can get bored and might need new impetuses. For this reason, we also included our Baby Boom competition in the gamification. This game lasted for about two months, during which once a week everyone received an email with childhood photos of participants. The task was to as fast as possible guess who is who. Points were awarded for speed and accuracy of response, and the results were announced at the end the whole game. Photographs were also displayed in our dining room. This game “forced” the entire company to pay attention to every person in the office - only by knowing everyone participants were able to win.

Office Olympics

One of the biggest games when it comes to gamification was Office Olympics, during which our coworkers had the opportunity to compete against each other in 6 events (which were far from being sport-orientated). We tested, among other things, how long people can hula hoop (turns out they can spin it for a surprisingly long time!), provenwhat is their aim when it comes to throwing paper balls to the basket or are their fingers nimble enough to create a long chain of paper clips. This event was held at the same time as the Olympic Games in Rio, which further encouraged our employees to join the fun.

Participants won medals and gamification points in each of the six categories, while three players who outperformed everyone received extra points and special prizes. The organization of this project was one of the most time-consuming tasks of mine, but at the same time it proved to be the most popular. The shown not only by a good feedback but also by winner’s desks, which are now proudly decorated with medals (some people even promise to build shelves for their future prizes!).

Team gamification

But that’s not the end of our gamification. Right now we are introducing another level, during which employees are going to create their own teams, gather badges and earn points for writing articles on our blog. It’s not hard to guess that all of those mechanisms are intended to encourage employees to take part in tasks that (although important) are treated as a low priority.

Apocalypternet became a common link between all the internal competitions, which are now called boosters. No matter what’s the theme of the contest, gamification points are always one of the prizes. But you have to ask yourself: What are those points for? Well, they can be exchanged for free lunches, t-shirts or gadgets. Soon (due to the next level of the game), this list will be extended by additional proposals of our employees.

Responsibilities of a Chief Fun Officer

Organization of corporate integration is undeniably rewarding, but overall it sometimes can take quite some time. The best solution is to appoint a specific person to look after such an endless project. It is the role of the so-called Chief Fun Officer, who not only take care of all organizational matters but also makes sure what type of integration is needed in the company. As such a person can assure you that the obligations of the organizer do not end at contacting some external companies - if you are planning to introduce integration in your team, you must prepare yourself to be flooded with many questions of your coworkers. :) My work doesn’t end when an event is finished - it is worthwhile to gather feedback from satisfied (and less happy) participants to know what can be repeated or what should never happen again. Establishing an unchanging budget and keeping everyone apprised of its status turned out to be a great addition to organizing integration in our company. As a result, employees have a knowledge of how the money dedicated to their integration is spent. Duties of Chief Fun Officer are undeniably one of the most enjoyable parts of my work, despite the fact that they sometimes can be quite stressful. I assure you, there is nothing more pleasant than 50 satisfied people after a well-organized event.

What can you do besides integration?

Do you want your employees to be proud and happy because they are part of your company? Give them a reason - register your business to take part in reputable contests and create the place of work that's worthy of attention and cares about its employees. Ask people what they need from the company, what they like and what they believe needs to be improved or discarded. Recurring surveys and evaluation may prove useful in such a case because they will allow everyone to work in clear conditions, what creates a sense of being heard and valued.

An icing on the cake is the presentation of a good atmosphere in social media. Show the day-to-day life of the company throughout the use of for instance Instagram. Not only you will attract new employees, but will also create a kind of diary of the company, where employees could see that they are an important part of a tight-knit, friendly group.

However, creating an attractive image is not the only thing you can do with the use of social media - a lot of you are probably a member of a secret group on Facebook. If you don’t already have one dedicated to communication between your co-workers (either on Facebook or for instance on Slack), I highly recommend to set up one. In our software house, it works not only as a great place for sending messages that might get lost in full inboxes but also as a place for joking around or sharing photos from office parties that are not supposed to be seen by outsiders (if you know what I mean;)). The additional advantage of such a group is the fact, that it allows new employees to get to know people and integrate with them during the assimilation period.

Summary

Suggestions listed in this article are just a drop in the ocean of possibilities. You should always think what your employees want from an integration and try to find out what aspects of their cooperation might need some help. Maybe for your company, it will be the most useful you organize classic team building exercises to deal with the problem of poor communication. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage is the lack of strong relationships between employees, what can be fixed with a simple office party. There are plenty of solutions - you only need to keep your eyes and ears open to the needs of your company. I guarantee that the satisfaction of employees after the successful integration will be your biggest motivation to work harder and better during your next project.