A company picnic is an ideal opportunity for all kinds of businesses to strengthen the bond between their team members while shaking the boring office routine that can dampen the morale of workers. From relatively adventurous and wild gatherings to low-key outings, a company picnic should be a memorable event that gives you an opportunity to explore exciting features, try out new things, think of novel ideas to increase the satisfaction of your employees and bring them closer for a more engaging and collaborative office atmosphere.
There are tons of great company picnic ideas out there. However, often times you must sift through several bad ones before hitting the perfect plan. Your task of planning a company picnic isn’t simple and if you don’t plan everything right, your company picnic can result in a disaster and affect the satisfaction of your employees. So, where should you start with planning?
In order to help you, we’ve compiled a list of do’s and don’ts of planning a company picnic that all your employees will love. This list will assist you in planning all the important details of a company picnic.
Do Keep the Company Picnic Seasonal
Although it is quite obvious, but it is still important that we mention the need to keep the company picnic seasonal. By keeping the company picnic seasonal, we mean that you must choose the venue and plan the activities in a company picnic according to the season.
For example, if you are planning a company picnic during summer months (which is often the case) consider choosing an outdoor venue with different activities like scavenger hunt, sports competition, watermelon eating contest and water games. However, if you are holding a company picnic in the winter months, opt for an indoor space and plan activities like casino games, laser tag or a Karaoke contest.
By considering the important aspect of keeping the company picnic seasonal, you can provide activities to your employees that they would love to participate in and ensure that they have a great time at your company picnic.
Do Cultivate the Ambience
Thinking about your company picnic’s ambience is absolutely essential as it allows you to differentiate your picnic from all other corporate events. While you can take advantage of the seasonal elements, loud music playing system can give your team all the favorite tunes to bring a new life to your picnic. For bigger events, hiring a professional band can also give your company picnic a major boost to enhance the overall experience.
Cultivating the ambience also gives you a chance to get valuable input from your team and engage them in the planning phase. You can pass out a questionnaire to inquire about themes or musical tastes to improve the engagement of your team while also increasing excitement for the company picnic.
Do Enjoy Local Favorites
You might be familiar with all the exquisite local favorites near your venue, but that does not mean all your employees have experienced the local favorites too. Surprise your employees with live-cooking, specialized ice cream or takeout from a nearby restaurant or another popular local activity to bolster team enthusiasm and make the company summer picnic more memorable. Many caterers offer introductory or group rates, which gives you a chance to get great food at a low price.
Do Find out about Local Policies and Check for Other Events
If you are planning to utilize an open public space for your company picnic, it is crucial that you check local regulations to ensure that your company picnic event doesn’t experience any unnecessary problems.
For example, if you are holding a company picnic at a public park and your picnic includes adult beverages, you must know the alcohol policy of the park and see if a permit is required for consuming alcohol. Permits that can be given out are limited by some police departments which means that you should apply for a permit as early as possible to make sure that you don’t face any issue on the day of your company picnic.
You should also check out the events calendar of the city to see if there’s anything going on that can affect your company picnic. With races, benefit walks and other events happening especially during the summer months, it is important for you to check out activities taking place near your company picnic venue. This way you can plan your company picnic on a day when there is no other event that can affect your company picnic.
Do Plan Activities That Encourage Teamwork
Fun group activities are great for encouraging teamwork. Whether it is an activity that encourages team strategy and tactics like laser tag or a game that creates healthy competition like go karts or bowling, your team will thank you for setting up exciting activities for them. By working together, your employees will learn more about each other and they will be able to collaborate better in completing group projects in the office.
Don’t Forget the Important Ground Rules
Every event must have its own ground rules. For example, you cannot just allow your employees to go wild and consume as much alcohol as they possibly can; there should be a limit on alcohol consumption. If you don’t declare such rules, your employees will go wild partying and it may affect their performance when they return to work the next day. This doesn’t mean that you should be overly strict and destroy the positive ambience you worked so hard to create, but a few common rules that make sense to everyone will make sure that your company picnic stays on track.
Don’t Make the Picnic About Just Food and Drinks
No one likes a picnic that’s all about food and drinks. You’re taking your employees out in the open to enjoy, right? For that, food isn’t enough. You need to think of ways that will allow your employees to have the best time of their lives at your company picnic. We’ve already mentioned the activities you can incorporate in your company picnic, so focus on those activities instead of just paying attention to food and drinks.
Don’t Do the Same Thing Every Time
One common mistake that many companies make with their company picnic is that they keep repeating the same idea of a company picnic every year. They don’t think out of the box when planning a company picnic and believe that their employees will keep enjoying the same activities, same food and same ambience every year.
No matter how much fun your employees had last year at a corporate company picnic at a park with water games, you can’t expect them to enjoy the same picnic the next year too. They won’t appreciate your efforts if you just repeated everything you did last year and many won’t attend your company picnic. Therefore, always come up with something new for your company picnic. For example, if you organized company picnic with water games last year, this year you could plan a scavenger hunt for your employees. There are many other great activities that you can incorporate in your company picnic. For more interesting ideas, check out this post that features some terrific activities for a company picnic.
Don’t Try to Micromanage Your Company Picnic
It is important to create a balance between planning and coordination and letting yourself breathe during a company picnic. It is vital that you pull back from planning mode and take some time out to enjoy the company picnic yourself. You cannot focus on all the important details of the event yourself; if you try to do that, there’ll be more chances of you missing a critical detail that can potentially ruin your company picnic.
To plan a company picnic, take help from event planners who can take care of the company picnic setup and all the other details of the event so that you can mingle with your team. With the help of a professional event planner, you can have a company picnic planned out without any hassle and at the day of the picnic, you can enjoy with your team while leaving the important planning tasks to the event planner.
At Bay Area Picnic Planners, we understand how hard it can be for people to successfully plan and organize a company picnic with all the work and social pressure. Therefore, we are here to help you plan a company picnic that your employees will love. As the only fully accredited Award Winning Event Planning Company serving all of the Greater Bay Area, we take pride in highest customer satisfaction and loyalty. By working with Bay Area Picnic Planners for your company picnic, you will gain access to over 28 years of experience.
We offer all-inclusive picnic packages for 100-150 guests, 151-250 guests, 251-350 guests and 351-2000+ guests. Check out our picnic packages and see what we can offer you.
If you have any special requirements, give us a call today at 1-408-298-3001. We’re standing by to make your company picnic just right.
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