Time to revamp your training?

It’s about that time of the year again, the summer heat is cooling off and kids are checking off their school supply lists before the new school year starts.

It’s also a great time for businesses to start checking off their lists to see what areas of employee training and development need a boost.

Here are some tips for reinvigorating your organization’s training programs:

Survey employees. What do they want out of the company’s training programs? What topics would they like to see? What would get them more involved?

Take a look at your budget. Where are you spending too much? Where could you be spending more? Which programs could use some financial tweaking?

Get creative. Try training naked or take advantage of the sunshine and enjoy a team building exercise outside. Find creative ways to get employees excited about training.

Refresh your training materials. PowerPoint looking a little dated? Books and training CDs getting a little worn out? Shop around for some new, fresh training materials.

Have fun. Find new ways to have fun within your training programs. Are there any new training games you’ve wanted to try? Or new, challenging team building activities you think would work?

Train the trainer. Turn existing employees into in-house trainers who can share their expertise with their coworkers. Not only will it save the company some money, but it can also help build teamwork.

Summer fun at the HR Carnival

The HR Carnival is back, full of cotton candy, funnel cakes, kettle corn and a list of fantastic posts from some of the best bloggers in town.

The friendly folks at Effortless HR put together a wide variety of topics to browse through this time around, but keep a look out for these stand-out training-related entries:


Erik Samdahl of i4cp would like us to think about How High-Performers Support Employee Engagement

Drew Tarvin shows us how to Team-Build Through 3 Pictures

Chris Young posts a Book Review on Three Laws of Performance

Dan McCarthy wants us to Beware of Cult-like Leadership Development Programs

From the G.Neil HR Forum, some insight on Employees putting your data security at risk

And don’t forget to take a look at our very own posts on whether “lunch and learns” are bad for business and when cookie-cutter sexual harassment training just won’t cut it.


Just remember the number one rule of carnivals: Eat your funnel cake after you ride the Gravitron. Please.

Corporate team building hot from the oven

Company picnics step aside, there’s a new player heating up the corporate team building scene taking companies out of the office and into the kitchen to create unforgettable company events.

Parties That Cook uses hands-on team building cooking classes to encourage teamwork, boost morale, build culinary confidence and foster camaraderie.

From MSNBC:

“Food is a universal language and it just brings people together. It’s a great thing to do for corporate team building”, said Bibby Gignilliat, founder of Parties that Cook, which is feeding the need for corporate team building.

Gignilliat says bringing colleagues together and having them prepare a meal together spices up competition between co-workers. The result? Dinner garnished with camaraderie, served with a side of competitive edge.

“Building consensus, communicating is really important, goal setting, meeting deadlines," said Gignilliat. "All that can go back to the office."

Whether teams are creating delicious appetizers, four-course sit-down dinners, or battling each other in Iron Chef inspired cooking competitions, the events encourage teamwork in an exciting, creative atmosphere.

Parties That Cook proves that with some creativity, corporate team building can be exciting and fun. While Parties That Cook is currently limited to San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles, you could look into private cooking classes in your area or find a local chef to host an event at a coworkers house.

Look for the top qualities of a great team building event:

• Goal oriented. The event is organized and structured in such a way that you will achieve your team building goals.
• Cost effective. Can you reach your team building goals while staying within your budget?
• Practical. The activities during the event should directly relate to the objectives you set out with.
• Fun. Make sure every participant is able to enjoy themselves during the event.
• Cross-generational. Ensure that employees from every age group can participate and have fun at the event.
• Memorable. Choose an event where employees will remember the great time they had and bring the lessons they learned back to the office.

Corporate team building events don’t have to be expensive or outlandish. With some imagination and a little bit of fun, you can create a company team building event that strengthens bonds and encourages teamwork.

Have you ever been a part of an “out of the box” corporate team building event like Parties That Cook? Do you think it was more effective than more traditional events?

Top qualities of great team building exercises

Great team building exercises can strengthen group ties and encourage teamwork, at the same time employees learn something new. We all know a great training activity or team building activity when we see one, but what are the essential qualities of effective team building exercises?

According to Michael VanDervort at HumanRaceHorses:

Trainers are often looking for new team building exercises that they can offer to their business clients. Typically, such exercises should provide the following qualities so as to enhance the team-building experience:

• A challenging task, to focus the participants on creativity or problem-solving
• An element of competition to encourage both rivalry and cooperativeness
• An activity that is both difficult and achievable, to generate interest and the desire to bond with your teammates
• An element of rivalry, to create the desired “us vs. them” mentality needed for team-building activities when working with different groups.

Adding one more to the list, activities should also be fun. Creating fun team building activities gives people a break from their day-to-day work and facilitates learning in an informal atmosphere.

It’s always enjoyable to watch people learn something new about themselves and coworkers while they think they’re just having fun at work. It’s like getting a workout by playing with your kids and not realizing the calories you burned until your biceps hurt the next day. Everybody wins!

What other qualities do you think great team building exercises should possess? Please share any examples of training activities you’ve created or been a part of that you think encompass VanDervor’s qualities of a great team building activity.