What Is the HR Role In Team Building?

 

HR is most commonly associated with team building because it plays an active role in employee recruitment and policy setting. They're the ones who onboard new team members and ensure that everyone has ongoing support. In other words, keep staffers satisfied so that they stay with the organization and keep contributing their expertise. Here are 4 crucial reasons why your HR employees play a pivotal part in team building. (Pappas, 2021)

Why Is Team Building Important for Your Team?

Employee engagement and team building are integral elements of any successful business. Disengaged employees have no attachment to their job or their employer. They feel underappreciated and withhold their energy and creativity from the team. At their worst, a disengaged employee may be disruptive to the team and undermine the team’s functionality. As an HR professional, it is your job to find ways to address the lack of engagement in an employee and, in some cases, entire teams or departments. 

Team building is important for your team because it can increase engagement in employees who have ‘checked out’. Team building activities embed key drivers of employee engagement in your company culture. For each of these drivers below, there are team-building activities that address them.

The importance of team building

Here are reasons that convey the importance of team-building activities in an organization and how you can implement them:

 Builds trust

Trust is an essential element of an effective team. For employees to collaborate, knowing and earning trust from each other is crucial. Team building is an engaging activity involving diverse teams who interact through different activities away from office work to improve their teamwork. When an organization builds trust in the workplace, it allows employees to complete their tasks and make their own decisions.

Fosters better communication

When employees work together, they strategize the best way to handle tasks and deliver excellent results. They can divide tasks to work in small groups, share ideas, and complete the work efficiently. With proper communication, employees understand their roles and what their colleagues are doing. This enhances involvement in how others are performing, improves collaboration, and encourages people to assist each other in achieving their goals

Improves performance

Team building involves doing activities that help foster the importance of sharing tasks in the workplace. If an employee has less work to do, they can help other teams to complete their work. This enhances the realization of project objectives, which increases the overall productivity of an organization. Through team building activities, employees learn new skills, which they incorporate into their existing skill set. It enhances the performance of a team, makes them more efficient, and eventually completes tasks on time.

Encourages collaboration

One of the most significant benefits of team building is the improvement of interpersonal skills among employees. When people work together, they share their good and bad experiences. This brings them closer to each other and enhances trust. It also creates a friendly working environment where employees are free to request help or willingly assist others.

Connects remote teams

Organizations that have some of their teams working remotely use team-building activities as an effective way of uniting all team members working from different locations. Even though remote teams also contribute to the production of a company, coming together helps them understand each other better. It's through these connections that people build new networks and create a more positive remote working environment.

Embrace diversity among working teams

Team building also promotes diversity. Most companies have employees who come from different countries, backgrounds, and cultures, and speak different languages. The importance of team building is to foster an inclusive environment, where people celebrate their differences, learn from each other, and open new opportunities for communication.

(team, 2023)

Signs that Signal a Need for Team Building

• Reduced productivity.
• Conflicts among employees.
• Misunderstanding about assignments and duties.
• Decisions not carried through properly.
• Apathy and lack of involvement.
• Lack of initiation, imagination, innovation.
• Complaints about employees.
• Unproductive staff meetings.
• Negative reactions to the manager.

 Steps to Building an Effective Team

 The first rule of team building is an obvious one: to lead a team effectively, managers must first establish their leadership with each team member. Remember that the most effective team leaders build their relationships of trust and loyalty, rather than fear or the power of their positions.

• Consider all ideas as important and valuable.
• Be aware of employees’ feelings.
• Act as a harmonizing influence.
• Be clear when communicating.
• Promote trust and cooperation among employees.
• Encourage the sharing of ideas and information.
• Entrust problem-solving tasks to the team.
• Facilitate communication.
• Create team values and goals; evaluate team performance.
• Have clear ideas of what you need to accomplish.
• Use consensus.
• Establish rules for the team.
• Establish a method for arriving at a consensus.
• Promote listening and brainstorming.

(Swan, 2012)

Team Building Process & Strategy

Depending upon the goals, resources available, time at disposal, budget, etc. team building is done. It is similar in principle but varies from company to situation to other requirements. The important steps and strategies in the team-building process are as follows:

1. Define Objectives: The first step in the team-building process is to identify the final objective or goal that needs to be achieved. Based on this, other criteria like team members, tasks, budget, etc. are decided.

2. Evaluate Current Output: The second step in the team building process is to understand the current output and the gap that is there in meeting the final objectives. This shows the extra effort needed to achieve the final goal.

3. Design Activities & Tasks: The next step involves designing tasks and activities that would help in reaching the final goals.

4. Identify Individuals: The fourth step in the team-building process is to identify individuals or employees based on their skills, experience, education, etc. who would be able to execute these tasks.

5. Training of Members: Once the individuals are identified, training and development of these people are done with a clear understanding of each one’s roles and responsibilities.

6. Monitor Team Effort: The next step in the team building process is to closely monitor the team effort, their behavior, etc.

7. Evaluate Team Output: The final step in the team building process is to evaluate and see the overall output of the team and compare it with the original objective that was set.

Team building is a reiterative and continuous process that requires time, patience, resources, efforts, etc. until an effective team is created or built.  (Team, 2019)

Types of Teams Building Activities

Different types of team-building exercises or activities can help build a bond between members. A few activities are team-building games, complex tasks, and innovative & simple social activities that are designed to encourage the members to spend more time together and address the specific needs of all the team members, and work on the task at hand in a collaborative manner.

(Team, 2023)

 

Conclusion              

The issue of employee collaboration bothers many organizations, but far from all paying attention to the performance, these employees demonstrate when working in teams. And it’s a huge mistake because effective teamwork is super critical when it comes to business results. The ways employees work together can boost productivity and influence performance. Properly organized work processes, a healthy company culture, clear goals, open communication, and a fair reward system all motivate teams to create and deliver great things to their organization. And the first step to creating such high-performing teams is, of course, finding and hiring the right people. The role of HR is evident here, also considering that human resource departments actively participate in further nurturing and managing those people to grow a human capital that would help their organization flourish. That’s what HR specialists do to influence employee performance and teamwork effectiveness. (Vos, 2021)

References

Pappas, C., 2021. HR Team Building Guide: Secrets To Improve Your Team Dynamics And Boost Employee Morale. [Online]
Available at: https://elearningindustry.com/hr-team-building-guide-secrets-to-improve-team-dynamics-and-boost-employee-morale
[Accessed 24 Nov 2023].

Swan, M. K., 2012. Managing Human Resources – Team Building. [Online]
Available at: https://porkgateway.org/resource/managing-human-resources-team-building/
[Accessed 24 Nov 2023].

Team, H., 2019. Workplace Team Building: Why It’s Important and How You Can Do More of It. [Online]
Available at: https://www.thehrteam.com/blog/workplace-team-building-why-its-important-and-how-you-can-do-more-of-it/
[Accessed 24 Nov 2023].

team, I., 2023. Importance of Team Building in an Organization (With Tips). [Online]
Available at: https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/importance-of-team-building
[Accessed 24 Nov 2023].

Team, M. S., 2023. Team Building - Definition, Importance, Types & Process. [Online]
Available at: https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/human-resources-hr-terms/8858-team-building.html#google_vignette
[Accessed 24 Nov 2023].

Vos, L., 2021. HR’s Role in the Development of a High-Performance Work Team. [Online]
Available at: https://www.jobsoid.com/role-of-hr-in-developing-team/
[Accessed 24 Nov 2023].