Two weeks ago, our firm had our annual Summer Fun Day, where we took the day off and went out to have a “friendly” competition to earn the right to be immortalized on our Summer Fun Day plaque, as well as have a firm lunch. This year our competition was archery tag (think Hunger Games but less death) and sadly I didn’t win.
Despite my failure to win, it was a nice break from the regular workday and left me bruised but refreshed for the following work week.
When I mentioned Summer Fun Day to people outside of the office I repeatedly got looks of confusion as the people I had brought it up to had never heard of a company doing a Summer Fun Day.
So, here’s my pitch as to why you should give Summer Fun Day a shot in your business.
- We have several new employees this year, myself included, and while our new hires have been here half a year it’s not always the easiest to get to know people while going about your regular work-day, with thoughts about your tasks and deadlines always in the back of your mind. Having an environment where your employees can interact without the noise of a regular workday is a great opportunity for longer chats that allow your employees to open up more.
- Burnout can happen to everyone, and some people are more susceptible to it than others. Personally, it’s something I struggle with as I do not like taking vacation days unless there is an event in my life that makes me feel like I can justify it. While I still had to wake up and be at the office for 8:30AM to catch the limo, Summer Fun Day acted as a pseudo vacation day for me and really helped reset my mind for the following work week.
- It’s no secret that one of the traits that employers search for today is teamwork/communication. While these traits are desirable, they’re not going to be everyone’s strength. Team competitions like the game of archery capture the flag we played gives an opportunity for people to improve their existing teamwork and communication through creating a game plan and communicating during the game when unexpected things occur.
If you are planning to run your own Summer Fun Day here’s a few tips when planning to make it a success.
- Buy in. When planning your Summer Fun Day talk to your employees and figure out what are some competitions that they would enjoy or are curious about. While this sounds obvious it’s really important to ensure that your employees are bought into the idea of Summer Fun Day, and not just being dragged into an activity that they do not want to do.
- When you think of competitions or events for your Summer Fun Day you may initially think large grand ideas that seem daunting or expensive to do. If it feels inaccessible to your business, think smaller, there’s a large range of competitions you can do from a city-wide Toronto Amazing Race to playing darts while eating lunch. The most important thing is that it will be fun for those participating.
- If you are a larger business and having your whole company taking a day off just isn’t feasible, stagger it in different groups. You can give each department a day, or have employees form groups, whatever idea works for you is the best one.
Overall, Summer Fun Day is just one way our firm builds its’ culture and if you haven’t tried it, I encourage you to give it a shot – you’ll likely wonder why you didn’t try this sooner!
Dylan Coffey, HR Manager