Eighty percent of 2,200 chief financial officers queried across 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas report their firms do not offer an annual corporate outing to employees, according to a 1-year-old study from Robert Half Management Resources, a staffing agency based in Menlo Park, Calif. that manages offices across the globe.
As summer 2018 kicks into high gear, the traditional season in which corporations reward employees with outings and retreats, both Robert Half administrators and Rhode Island business professionals believe that trend will not hold true much longer.
Joyce Lancellotti, division director of the Providence Robert Half office, said she was not surprised by the lack of corporate outings in 2017 and years prior. She believes the trend was the result of companies not wanting to push their bottom line given the economic instability of the past decade.
“It was more than likely the cost in conjunction with … a hesitation linked to the end [of the Great Recession],” she said.
Those firms most likely not to host corporate outings, per the study, were financial-services companies. Calling the finance industry “conservative,” Lancellotti said these types of firms, which include banks, “might even have guidelines that prohibit things like that.”
On the opposite end of the Robert Half findings locally is Smithfield-based Navigant Credit Union. Gary E. Furtado, the institution’s president and CEO, has hosted a food-truck-catered cookout for his roughly 300 employees every September for the past decade-plus.
Calling it a “family-style atmosphere,” employees receive corporate gifts, play games and interact with colleagues up and down the corporate ladder.
Furtado admits the event is a cost, but equating it with other necessary trainings, he said, “Investing in your employees is something that should be done” to achieve the best possible outcome.
Lancellotti characterized managers’ recent attitudes toward employee-benefits-focused spending during this period as “humdrum,” but said that inaction is passing.
Over the past “12 to 24 months,” Lancellotti said the opposite is now the case. Today, she added, “The economy is healthier, so people are enthusiastic [and willing to spend extra money and time] and are excited to organize” corporate outings.
Lancellotti knows corporate outings – including scavenger hunts, trivia and even going out for drinks and appetizers – are one of the best ways to build lasting bonds among employees that may lead to better teamwork.
The Robert Half study found that the 1 in 5 companies that do host corporate outings perceive them as a productive use of time rather than a drag on resources.
‘Investing in your employees is something that should be done.’
GARY E. FURTADO, Navigant Credit Union president and CEO
The most common purveyor of corporate outings, per the study, is professional-services firms.
Lancellotti, herself the manager of such a firm, said much of her team’s work is about “accomplishing mutual goals,” in which a certain amount of teamwork is necessary, and such “comradery” is often derived from corporate-sponsored bonding events.
In fact, 40 percent of those CFOs who do offer outings said their single greatest benefit is “[increased] teamwork and morale,” while 20 percent said the top positive result is an “environment that stimulates new ideas and perspectives.”
The top benefit cited by 12 percent of CFOs hosting corporate outings is additional professional-development opportunities, with another 9 percent claiming increased cross-departmental collaboration as the top outcome.
Advocating for their inclusion in corporate calendars, Tim Hird, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, said less can be more in the case of corporate outings: “Events don’t need to be elaborate; they just need to provide a dedicated forum for open discussion and team-building.”
As executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, Erin Donovan-Boyle’s yearly calendar always includes two corporate outings. The first is an afternoon sail through Narragansett Bay as a token of appreciation for the Chamber’s 40-45 staff members and board members. The second, held in the fall, is a daylong retreat – usually at Salve Regina University or Roger Williams University – focused on strategic planning for the upcoming year.
While Donovan-Boyle plans to fit both events into her schedule and budget this year, she understands that’s not feasible or necessary for all Rhode Island companies.
Citing study data, she says regionality and company size play a factor in whether or not a corporate outing is included in a firm’s ethos and/or schedule.
Robert Half found West Coast entities, such as companies based in Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Francisco, were more likely to include corporate outings in their schedules than Midwest or East Coast firms. The report specifically cited Des Moines, Iowa, Cincinnati and New York City as locations where local firms are less likely to host such programing.
Similarly citing “lifestyle” differences, Donovan-Boyle said in New England, and Rhode Island in particular, “We have very small businesses, so a large corporate retreat wouldn’t be necessary” since most employees interact and collaborate daily.
