Why Team Building is Effective
Having a positive, engaging, and effective work environment is something that many companies strive to achieve, but fail to do so. It is difficult for many to find the happy medium between work and play, to build a team of engineers and electrical design consultants that works cohesively as a single unit, and to create an engaging environment to effectively complete the tasks at hand. PK Electrical is an electrical engineering company that does not face these problems due to our focus on team building and a deep understanding of our employees’ wants and needs.
The principals at our electrical engineering company understand that team building is the foundation for the company and employee success. Team Building is not viewed as a waste of time and resources, but rather as an investment in the lives of our employees to enable them to form meaningful relationships in the workplace. Due to the principals’ understanding of how beneficial team building is, we put forth an immeasurable amount of effort in order to give team members the opportunity to learn about their coworkers, how they work, and the best ways in which to interact with each other. Strengthened and newly formed relationships are vital for employee morale and overall employee satisfaction. Our staff, designers, and electrical engineers all understand the importance of working together regardless of your position title. Additionally, team building improves productivity, motivation, communication, respect, and trust. All of these components are key factors in creating a truly productive and welcoming work environment.
How PK Electrical is Different
Many companies will plan small events like a picnic, dinner, etc. in order to get their employees to bond and get to know each other, but PK Electrical does things differently. We are constantly looking for events that allow our employees to work together in fun and engaging problem-solving activities that enable everyone to learn about each other on a deeper level. Each year, we plan two company-wide events that’s primary focus is team building. We have Alignment at the beginning of the year, and Realignment in the middle of the year. In the past, our alignment days were held in either Reno or Denver; one office would travel to the other and vice versa. This time we decided to fly our employees from each office to Las Vegas for a two-day team building event. The purpose of this was to give our electrical engineers, designers, and staff the opportunity to travel somewhere new as opposed to the same scenery from past alignments.
Las Vegas was the perfect location because it is close to both offices, and has a variety of events and activities. It is also the location of some our big projects (i.e. Project NEON, UNLV Emergency Phone Replacement, and the Northern Las Vegas Beltway ( I-15 – Pecos).
What We Did
Thursday, January 17th, 2019: Both offices arrived in Las Vegas around 10:30 AM, ready for a day full of team building. Everyone went to the Palms together to drop off their luggage. At 2:00 PM, everyone was waiting at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas for the surprise team building event. PK Electrical hired cityHUNT for a group scavenger hunt along the Las Vegas strip. We were broken up into teams that were specifically chosen in order to integrate both Denver and Reno employees as well as the different departments (management, administrative, design, and drafting).
The “hunt” lasted for three hours and was designed to have group members work together to come up with a plan, play towards each other’s strengths, and give everybody a chance to participate in various activities. The ending location for the scavenger hunt was at Maggiano’s, where we watched a slideshow of photos and videos from each team that were taken on the cityHUNT app throughout the day.
Friday, January 18th, 2019: PK Electrical attended Jeffrey Benjamin’s Breakthrough Training. Jeff’s program has various trainings relating to leadership, team building, communication, goal setting, customer service, and public speaking. In the past, we participated in the team building training, but this time we decided on goal setting training. This consisted of learning various methods to help set and achieve our goals. We were split off into pairs to discuss our goals and why we aspire to accomplish them; this activity took up the majority of the day. After discussing our goals in five separate categories, we were told to pick one activity to do for the next thirty minutes, that would help us accomplish/work towards one of our goals. Some people looked up information for their P.E. exams, went on walks, found apps that will assist them in becoming more mindful, and found small ways to better manage finances. Afterward, all employees were paired up with another employee from their respective office in order to keep each other accountable.
Our Takeaway
Team building takes time and effort. If done correctly, the payoffs are enormous: increased productivity, more cohesive work environment, and better communication skills are just a few of the many benefits. Allowing our employees to connect with one another in both work and non-work environments is crucial to our success. It is important to us that relationships are built and maintained throughout everyone’s time at PK Electrical.
Contact PK Electrical
PK Electrical, Inc. is an electrical engineering company and low voltage design firm located in Reno, NV and Denver, CO. We specialize in power, lighting and low voltage design. Our low voltage electrical design consultants and electric engineers have a profound commitment to innovative electrical designs and focus on client objectives. If you are interested in learning more about why PK Electrical was a finalist for the Best Places to Work campaign, as well as learn about their contributions to electrical engineering projects, check out our website or give us a call.