There has been a lot of conversation lately about quality of work life and how that affects a company's ability to attract and retain good quality employees. We have been describing team building as an easy-to-implement [tag-tec]workplace enhancement[/tag-tec] that can enhance the stickiness of a workplace.  HR experts Hodes Qtrac share their results of a new-hire survey that clearly show the importance of personal relationships and other workplace factors as an important factor in employee satisfaction and retention. Check it out.

Yesterday I was interviewed by Scott Andrews, CEO of Arriive Business Solutions.  Scott asked me about the top workplace challenges that employers will face in upcoming years as well as ideas on how to stay competitive in a tightening market for talent.  We talked about how team building is becoming an essential workplace enhancement that needs to be planned strategically and executed professionally.  We talked about the different expectations that the new generations of workers bring to the workplace.  We talked about the Enlightened Team. We even talked a bit about [tag-tec]web 2.0[/tag-tec] and [tag-ice]social networking[/tag-ice]. The interview is now available for instant, free download at the following site: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=37798&cmd=tc Look in "Past Episodes" to find the episode from December 5, 2007 and click on either "download" or "listen".  You can also download other talkcasts on other subjects. In the interview I made reference to an article called "Keeping them Around" in which I list 101 ways to enhance a workplace to improve a company's ability to attract and retain good quality employees.  Click to download: Employee attraction and retention article One thing that we meant to talk about, but ran out of time, was some of the common mistakes that managers or planners make when planning a team building activity.  So here they are:

·         Unclear objectives:  The team building provider must know what you want to accomplish.  So take the time to identify your team building objectives.

·         Overly high expectations:  You can’t fix every problem with team building.  Example: sales people won't collaborate if you are paying them to be competitive.  So don't expect a 3 hour team building activity to get them to work together more.

·         Low budget:  Good team building costs money.  So you’ll need more than $10-15 per person.  Employees have low tolerance and patience for activities that are disorganized or campy.

·         Provider working illegally:  If your provider is from out-of-country, ensure that they have the proper immigration status to work in your country.  One client called us at the last minute to save them from a situation in which their team building provider wasn't able to work outside their home country.