Leadership and corporate retreat season is in full swing. We are huge advocates for it. We love to plan retreats for our clients and love to hear about the impact they make on organizations. Leadership retreats provide necessary bonding experiences and allow an uninterrupted space to discuss strategy and opportunities for improvement at a high level, all with a little bit of fun mixed in. We strongly recommend to our clients that these retreats occur at least once a year, regardless if your team is remote or in-office.
Everyone knows the benefits of leadership strategy meetings and the positive aspects of these retreats but often, the negative side effects on the people left behind can be ignored. If you don’t know who the people being affected are, I’ll give you a clue: It’s the ones who are listed as who to contact in the Out of Office emails left by the leadership team on their mini corporate vacation.
On average, about 15% of a company’s employees are in a leadership role, meaning, when these retreats are put on, 85% of the company stays behind to continue working. This can be aspirational for employees, to someday reach a position with the company that will open the doors to these leadership perks, but can also lead to faster burnout and not feeling appreciated. In the midst of The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting trends, those are high numbers to gamble with. So, what can be done to share the excitement of leadership retreats with the entire firm? We’re glad you asked.
First things first: We are not suggesting an “everyone gets a trophy” philosophy. Our viewpoint is firmly based on appreciation and acknowledgement: Thanking employees for staying behind and holding down the fort while the leadership team is away. As we all know, a little appreciation goes a long way.
We know putting on a leadership retreat takes a lot of planning and there’s not a lot of time or bandwidth left to accommodate the employees who are not attending, so we recommend these two very simple to implement ideas:
Offer free lunch during the retreat days. If you’re in-office, schedule catering for everyone to join in and enjoy. Like the grown-up version of school pizza parties in the classroom. If you’re remote, utilize corporate meal ordering platforms like Corporate Grubhub or DoorDash for Work to provide a lunch stipend to employees.
Shorten the workday. Exercise Summer Friday schedules during the days of the retreat. As an unexpected bonus, research shows teams become more productive when their hours are shorter.
Simple and sweet, and in our experience, always highly appreciated.
Need help planning or organizing a leadership retreat? Let’s get in touch!