Company off-sites or retreats are a mainstay of the business landscape, but a new breed of companies is giving them a serious facelift.
The aim is building connections between employees and teams, and these businesses are thinking outside of the conference room box.
We’re not talking about sitting in a stuffy room all day, eating individually wrapped Mentos and filling a notebook with ‘key takeaways’ that will be forgotten by the following Monday.
Instead, think of exploring the wonders of nature, jetsetting to Bali, throwing axes, and talking strategy at a country pub.
Keep reading for a healthy dose of inspiration for your next team or company event.
When it comes to off-sites, the team at biodiversity tech startup Xylo Systems “believe in immersing ourselves in the nature we strive to protect”, says co-founder and CEO Camille Goldstone-Henry. And this has led to “some incredible off-sites that have truly reconnected us with our mission”.
“We’ve snorkelled at Shelly Beach, explored the wonders of Freycinet National Park in Tasmania, and hiked the majestic trails of the Blue Mountains,” Goldstone-Henry shared with me on LinkedIn.
“In August, we’ll be jumping on a boat to (hopefully!) catch some breaching humpbacks on their migration along the east coast.
“The best part of these experiences is witnessing first-hand the diverse plants and animals that we often see only as data points in our daily work. These outings not only rejuvenate our connection to nature but also significantly boost our team’s creativity and productivity.”
When HR expert Deepak Singh was working at GBG, he led a company off-site that to this day stays front of mind.
Five years ago, Singh helped bring together the company’s global people team of 15 and together they did a one-day “renovation rescue” for their charity partner Mind.
The Block-style event saw the charity agree to allow the GBG team to refurbish their local office, with materials donated from local furniture and hardware stores.
“We then surprised our team on the day, only telling them to wear items they don’t mind getting dirty,” recalls Singh.
Bali appears to be at the top of the destination wish list for Australian companies looking to transport their teams to a different (and beautiful) environment.
This includes Startmate, which recently returned from a company-wide trip to Bali. You can read more about why CEO Michael Batko takes his team away together here.
Legal tech startup Josef took its team to Bali in 2022 and more recently, ventured to Hoi An in Vietnam for a company retreat.
The Vietnam retreat involved the Josef team gathering from around the globe to spend quality time together and hear from customers and partners (“including some churned ones — we’re here for the good and the bad”, said the company on LinkedIn).
How would your team go herding sheep?
That’s the task Justin Angsuwat, chief people officer at Culture Amp, recently gave 30 members of the leadership team at the employee engagement startup to “push people out of their comfort zone, and not have a usual classroom lecture”.
“So instead of opening a workbook, they walked into a sheep pen where teams were tasked with herding sheep into different corners,” Angsuwat tells me about the event in San Francisco in May this year.
“Everyone strategised the perfect plan, but failed the first time. With a few unlocks, the teams got it.”
What was the key lesson learned?
“It’s different being on the balcony versus the dance floor,” says Angsuwat.
“It’s easy to create the perfect plan on the outside of the pen, and critique those in the pen, but once you’re in the chaos yourself, it feels very different.
“It’s a story we’ve told executives and board members of our customer businesses when we talk about innovation, learning and leadership.”
Health app Kic, founded by Steph Claire Smith and Laura Henshaw, is all about wellness. So it’s not surprising that at least half of the company’s off-site last month was dedicated to the Kic team’s own wellness.
The first half of the day involved strategy and reflection sessions, including time to celebrate recent company wins and to hear from Kic community members.
Then, the afternoon was spent at EQ Wellbeing in Melbourne, where for two-and-a-half hours, the team took part in meditation, breathwork, cold plunges, saunas, spas and bliss. The experience was lovingly dubbed “communal bathing” by the team.
Writing on LinkedIn, Kic general manager Emily Robinson said off-sites like this one “provide the space to dream big and align as a team”.
If sparking creativity is your goal, why not consider holding your team off-site in a venue usually reserved for circus tricks and cabarets?
In 2017, when Sarah Moran was “Girl Geek in Residence” for NAB’s Connecting Women in Technology program, she participated in a unique off-site inside the Wonderland Spiegeltent, led by technology executive Dayle Stevens.
“With its dark wood, mirrored interiors, and intimate, circular setting, it’s definitely a place that demands you leave your preconceptions at the door,” she writes in SmartCompany.
The location for their workshop in design thinking had been a last-minute choice, but Moran says it “led us to a solution more aligned with our goals than any traditional space could have offered”.
Read more here.
When I asked for examples of quirky company off-sites on LinkedIn, another common response was activities that involve throwing or breaking things.
The team at 3 Phase Marketing recently tried their hands at axe throwing at Maniax during one of their monthly off-site work events.
According to co-founder Sonia Majkic, these regular events “are the perfect place to blow off steam, bond as a team and just have a great time”.
“On our recent axe throwing trip, we learned the importance of always striving to hit the target, but not forgetting to have fun along the way, with performance being mixed in the accuracy department but outstanding in terms of laughs!” she says.
“Over the years we have done sip and paint, bowling, arcade games, a panic room, [and] high rope courses, but we would have to say the axe throwing took the cake.”
The crew at Pure Public Relations is a team that knows the value of jumping at an opportunity when it comes its way. And that’s exactly what happened at one of their company get-togethers.
As founder and managing director Phoebe Netto shared, her team were enjoying a river cruise in sunny Kingscliff in Sydney when one of them spotted that Aussie rock band Wolfmother was set to perform a last-minute, low-key show at a local pub.
“So we skipped dinner — we were full of charcuterie board goodies anyway — and had a spontaneous late-night free concert, metres away from the stage.”
Pure Public Relations has a team of 13 and five of them went along to the spontaneous gig.
In the world of hybrid and geographically dispersed teams, sometimes an off-site can in fact be something you do from home.
This was the case two years ago for branding agency Kady Creative, which gathered its global team together for a virtual cooking class with Italian chef Massimilano Luca.
The class was booked through Airbnb experiences and the team cooked gnocchi and ravioli.
While Kady Creative founder and director Kady O’Connell aims to strike a balance between virtual and in-person activities for her team, she says virtual events can help foster inclusiveness.
“As a leader, I believe it’s essential to involve the whole team in teambuilding events and incentives, especially when working in a hybrid setting,” she tells SmartCompany.
“We organise virtual activities like team book clubs or cooking classes to ensure everyone feels included.”
Another important consideration for O’Connell is to organise team events that don’t centre around alcohol, as “relying solely on drinks or dinners can be exclusionary, especially since many people prefer not to drink”.
“We explore a variety of ways to bond as a team, from fitness sessions and Pilates classes to lunches, breathwork activities, and even group nail appointments. These diverse experiences not only bring us closer but also create a fun and inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome.”
At Taurus Marketing, company off-sites are something that happens each quarter, in a different location and with a different theme.
Previous off-sites have taken the team to the Hunter Valley, The Star and most recently, Manly Pacific for an overnight stay where they “collaborated and strategised ways to continue the company’s success and growth”.
Managing director Samantha Sakr says the recent off-site gave the team a chance to celebrate their wins, as well as get new staff members.
“Off-sites are a rewarding and engaging experience for our whole team and each person goes away with new skills and insights to better manage and deliver for our clients and help achieve our own company’s business development goals,” she told SmartCompany.
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Editor
Eloise is an experienced business journalist and editor, who has held senior editorial roles at SmartCompany since 2014. Prior to joining SmartCompany, Eloise was news editor at Books+Publishing, the trade press for the Australian book industry. Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management, and political science. You can follow her on LinkedIn, and Twitter at @ellykeating.
Akin Agency managing director Kate Lord describes one of her company’s off-sites as “pretty great for a bunch of city kids”.
“We went to our colleague’s cattle farm on the beautiful Clyde River [in New South Wales],” she told me on LinkedIn.
“Strategy session at the country pub, did yoga on the riverbank, fed chickens, drove ATVs and met a calf.”
What more could you ask for?