Team bonding isn’t always easy; after all, you can’t force positive relationships between people or make a secure plan for how employees are going to act within the workplace.

What you can do, however, is make sure that you encourage team bonding as much as possible through the activities you offer and the way you run your workplace. It will make a huge difference if you can provide the groundwork for employees to build upon.

Set Fun Tasks

If you can set fun goals for employees to achieve as a team, this is a great way to provide an incentive for working together. You could have employees divide into specific separate teams and have them compete against each other for a prize, or have all employees work together as a team to achieve a big goal.

If there’s a reward involved, and if it’s fun, employees will be more likely to work well together — and bond while doing so.

Set Your Workplace Up to be Social

If employees are segregated too much, this isn’t good for communication or developing relationships. While, naturally, business hours aren’t for discussing people’s lives or chatting instead of working, how you organize the layout of your workspace will make a difference as the workday progresses. This could be a smile, a quick catch-up before leaving, passing comments, and more positive communication.

Simply having an open workplace, like an office with desks facing in a more sociable direction, can encourage a healthier bonding mindset.

Organize Team Building Events

Team bonding doesn’t have to occur through regular business practices or even during business working hours. You can encourage better team connections by attending events together or organizing events with bonding in mind.

There are so many great options when it comes to team-building events, and the best experiences won’t even feel like anything business-related. Some top ideas for this kind of event include concerts, virtual chocolate tasting, and outdoor sports experiences. If employees can enjoy an experience or day out together, then they’ll still be bonding over that shared time in a more relaxed environment.

Plan Out Breaks

It’s important to stagger employee breaks to benefit productivity and the hours you need work to be completed, but if you’re having employees take breaks one at a time, it’s no chance to have a conversation or develop a bond.

If you can manage to have more than one employee at a time take a break or lunch hour, this can help employees to spend more time with each other, which may create more positive relationships and benefit work.

Start from the Top

Team bonding includes those in charge, too. If you’re a business owner, runner, or manager, then you also need to get involved with your team and bond with them. When it comes to bonding, it should be the same rule for everyone, so being open and willing to share with your team can also help them to do the same in return — and with each other.

There are many different options for team bonding, but the more you get to know your team, the more you’ll better understand them and where they may need a helping hand to communicate.