Indianapolis Teams Aim for Wellness

T’is the season for dipping temperatures and workplace illness. When the weather chills in Indianapolis, the ideal solution is to wrap up in a blanket and sip tea at home, but for most of us that isn’t a realistic option. Truth is, most of us go to work sick. When the people we work with get sick, the office dynamic changes and productivity can take a hit.

Wellness takes into account both physical and emotional well-being, both equally important for the success of our employees and our businesses.

Indianapolis companies who engage in team building activities on do much to help the emotional side of one’s health, but what can we do to keep the team physically healthy?

Indianapolis businesses take physical wellness seriously. Just look at the jobs on Glassdoor.com, which shows Indianapolis jobs in corporate wellness are abundant. But for companies unable to provide a staff of wellness experts, other strategies can work.

Prevention is the key. Rather than sending staff home to recover and keep the office healthier, prevention is the obvious option. Venture Up, a company focusing on improving team culture and employee engagement, suggests a few things corporate wellness programs can provide:
1. Fresh orange juice
2. Chewable Vitamin C tablets at the water cooler
3. Lemon slices for the water station
4. Hand sanitizer throughout the office
5. Sanitizing computer spray to keep keyboards and laptops clean, (especially when used by more than one person)
6. Good ventilation
7. A posted list of tips on keeping hands free of bacteria (eg.  bottoms of purses, remote controls, keyboards, door handles)
8. A poster on the importance of hydration and humidity during the winter months
9. Office humidifier
10. Plenty of tissue

Corporate wellness is a major part of many companies strategies to recruit and maintain healthy teams and improve performance. According to talentculture.com, “It is a combination of keeping your mind, body and mental wellbeing in good standing to reach a higher level of productivity. Companies should prioritize the general health and wellness of their employees because it can impact productivity and the bottom line.”

While potential employees are searching for jobs, some of the perks that are being held at the highest importance include wellness programs and onsite gym or gym memberships discounts. Employees also want to see healthy food and beverage choices available in the office or nearby for easy access. Providing healthy choices at work is part of a growing trend as companies realize positive changes in employee attitudes and satisfaction.

The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has been leading the charge in workplace wellness and employee satisfaction. Lilly has on-site daycare, laundromat, gym, and gym memberships to off-site locations. Lilly has been named “Top Employer in the Biopharmaceutical Industry” and “100 Best Companies” in the Working Mother magazine. At Lilly, corporate leaders empower employees to take charge of their wellbeing. “One decision is all it takes to change your future. The decision to join Lilly will give you all of the tools you need to make the most out of your career, and the benefits you want to make the most of your life.”

Results from a Staples Business Advantage’s Workplace Index 2016 indicated several ways to foster corporate wellness:
1. Create well-designed, inspiring workplaces.
2. Make breaks mandatory. (Did you know that 53 percent of employees eat lunch at their desk every single day?)
3. Focus on personal and professional development. Having the right tools available is a major step toward a healthier workplace.
4. Adopt flexible work hours and paid time off. Stress kills, and there’s nothing more stressful than juggling life and work commitments, especially when there are children in the mix.
5. Make daily fitness part of your employee policies. While having an onsite gym or offering fitness subsidies might sound like options only the largest of companies can afford, even the smallest businesses can incorporate fitness into the workplace.
6. Take a walking meeting with your co-workers to design a plan for mental, physical and emotional well-being in your workplace.

Employers who keep staff happy and healthy will reap the benefits of increased productivity, profits, and will better be able to recruit and retain top talent.

Team Building helps Tampa rank high for Employee Engagement

“Keeping employees engaged in their work is a surefire way for today’s corporations to improve team culture and attract and retain top talent. Employee engagement programs at American firms ultimately aim to increase productivity and profits and seek to understand individual staff needs to keep teams connected and strong.

“Keeping employees happy at work means tapping into their core needs,” says David Lengyel of Venture Up, whose firm has been running corporate team building programs in Tampa to improve team performance since 1983. A Quantum Workplace study showed Tampa ranked third in the U.S. for employee engagement, according to a recent Forbes article, and Lengyel says this success is due to the Tampa area’s focused efforts to meet employees needs on a large scale.

There are many ways to ignite staff, beyond traditional team building experiences. Companies are smart to include wellness programs in their corporate culture, along with ongoing team training. Keeping staff interacting is critical, since it's easy for certain staff to become isolated and overly focused on individual projects, and cut themselves off from the team.

“If employees feel needed, appreciated and cared for, they’ll want to stick around,” Lengyel says. Happy employees can also help recruit staff through social media and word of mouth, still the best form of advertising. Employees can be a company’s best brand ambassadors.  

It’s not the largest cities with the most Fortune 500 companies that rank highest for employee engagement, says Quantum Workplace CEO Greg Harris. “Cities that tend to perform best in what we’re measuring are going to be cities that have not so much a concentration of huge Fortune 500 companies, but a high density of smaller, more entrepreneurial ecosystems of companies—companies that are really good at starting companies, companies that are really good at scaling companies from zero employees to 500. Those are the types of companies that have the highest engaged workplaces,” Harris says.

Sacramento took the top spot in the Quantum Workplace study with 73.9 percent of engaged employees, and Atlanta took second at 73 percent. Tampa stands at 72.8 percent.

The Gallup Poll, which has been tracking employee engagement worldwide since 2000, shows the lack of employee engagement worldwide to be in crisis, compared to that in the U.S. Gallup cites “32% of employees in the U.S. are engaged -- meaning they are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace. Worldwide, only 13% of employees working for an organization are engaged.”

Worldwide, the increase in diverse work environments must also consider the far reaching needs of staff who come from varied cultures, lifestyles and geographic locations.

Diverse work environments can complicate efforts when trying to streamline ongoing employee engagement and corporate wellness programs. “A cookie-cutter program does not cut it when you are working across cultures,” says Lengyel, whose firm also works in cross cultural team training. Cultural training is a must for professionals in human resources working with diverse employees, as is sensitivity training for managers throughout the organization.

Gallup promotes employee engagement as a means to build a diverse, inclusive workforce. Research shows diverse teams are more creative and productive.

 

When it all comes down to it, we’re all humans. Addressing physical and emotional needs at the workplace on an ongoing basis will keep the corporate culture strong. Frequent employee surveys can keep managers on track and help them maintain long-term success. 

Cleveland Leaders Team Up for Inner City Success

When it comes to helping communities in need, Cleveland professionals step up to the plate. Generosity and cooperation are much a part of Midwest culture. Cleveland’s business leaders and their staff play a big role in helping under served families here, through pro bono consulting and Cleveland team building activities designed for corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Top business leaders in Cleveland are part of The Four Cities Project, a group of consultants teaming up with business experts in Detroit, Durham and New Orleans to support inner city neighborhoods. Cleveland companies are also tapping into their inner resources, sending employees out to volunteer and build connections with the community through social service. Popular Cleveland team building activities, such as bike building and assembling prosthetic hands, align with CSR programs and serve local kids in need.

Cleveland officials in The Four Cities Project identified four areas of Cleveland inner cities that are prime areas for rejuvenation. The group facilitated a 2-year $100,000 grant to teach inner city youth about entrepreneurship with an eye toward building local businesses in the future. Cleveland’s panel of 31 business leaders are focusing on the four following inner city areas for support:

• La Villa Hispana (West 25th Street near Clark Avenue) 

• Opportunity Corridor (East 79th Street) 

• Food Corridor (East 55th Street)

• University Circle area (East 105th Street)
  

Development for La Villa Hispana, an economic and cultural epicenter for Cleveland’s Hispanic Community, is now underway. Step one is to build El Mercado, or “The Marketplace,” the cornerstone of the community. The Business of Good Foundation pledged $16,000 to build the market, designed to hold 20 booths for retailers, according to the Hispanic Business Center. Forward Cities’ inspired the residents organizing La Villa Hispana to include a Retail Boot Camp, similar to a program offered in Detroit. The organizers are developing a simple plan to help new shopkeepers in choosing a location, manage inventory and supplies.The Opportunity Corridor is another work in progress. The Four Cities has collected resources and printed handouts to help business owners easily access resources to help them be successful. The group aims to facilitate area businesses in taking advantage of opportunities as the Opportunity Corridor is being built.

The Food Corridor is also on the move. The Hub 55 rehabilitation project will soon host healthy local restaurants, bringing new neighbors to Café 55 and the new Goldhorn Brewery.

The newest part of the project is near University Circle. A new committee is in the planning process. They aim to help small businesses attract customers and create mutually beneficial relationships and capture the college crowd.

Building business in four inner city neighborhoods is a tall order. But this is a huge opportunity for Cleveland businesses who seek to improve employee engagement. Research shows strong workplace engagement is a major factor in keeping and retaining top talent and keeping firms productive and profitable. If Cleveland firms lend their staff to volunteer and help inner cities become successful, they, too will benefit with improved employee engagement and a stronger corporate-community connection.

 

3 Fun Team Building Ideas in Detroit

One way to rev up corporate team meetings in Detroit is to play upon its legendary status as the icon of the auto industry. While industries in healthcare, defense, aerospace, IT and logistics have a strong presence in the city, many meetings in Detroit still focus on a theme that draws a parallel to the famed Motor City that changed the world.

Photo: Courtesy VENTURE UP Team Building, Detroit

As for meeting planners in Detroit? Hmmm, is it me, or do they have motors on the mind? Below are just some of the meeting themes at recent events here.

Detroit Conference Themes

• Accelerating Growth
• All Drive – High Octane
• The Driving Force
• Driving to Excellence 2016
• Fueling Power
• Performance Driven

But not all team building programs align with a Motor City theme. In fact, Magna Power recently convened with Venture Up Team Building in Detroit 
to reinforce its corporate social responsibility efforts. During the 4-hour program, team members assembled 3D printed hands to send to kids overseas who were born with symbrachydactyly, a condition in which hands are not fully formed. For more information, please see the video below:

Whatever the case, Venture Up, who has worked with meeting planners in Motor City since 1983, agrees that the “auto theme” for Detroit corporate meetings is here to stay. “Anyone meeting in Detroit has an affinity for wheels,” says David Lengyel, the company's co-founder.

"Nearly all of our programs here involve vehicles in motion, including our social responsibility events," he says. Curiously, none of them involve motors. Here are some programs popular with meeting attendees:

Human Propelled Cars

Life-size human-propelled cars are a big hit with meetings in Detroit. Why use metal when cardboard will do? This program involves a team of 12 or less devoted to create a race car using such basic materials as cardboard boxes, pvc pipe, ropes, tape, minimal hardware, flashy decorations and a set of wheels. Teams are challenged to design an efficient man-powered racing machine to safely race across the finish line in record time. 

Mini Car 500

If you’re thinking about the Indianapolis 500, it’s the furthest cry from the Mini Car 500 in Detroit. This race requires teams to build a car from a 4-ounce piece of pine wood to create a lean, mean, speed-racing machine. Teams receive all they could possibly need, includng a block of pine wood, plastic wheels, nails to create axles, decals and decor. Powered only by gravity, the miniature cars race on a 40-foot flexible track, proving engines don’t matter in this Motor City mini race.

Perhaps a more sophisticated method of mini car racing in Detroit may soon be coming down the tube. Slot cars made from 3-D Printing recently raced in Detroit, an event sponsored in part by Materialise, 3-D software company.

Building Bikes for Charity

Another motor-free team event involves corporate teams building bikes for Detroit’s children in need. Corporate teams meet for a series of strategic games and then team up in separate groups of about 10 to build a bike for a local young achiever, often a member of the area’s Boys & Girls Club. In many cases, the children receive the bikes in person at the meeting. Executives can see in a matter of minutes that they can change the life of a child with a thoughtful gift they will enjoy for years to come.

Many execs find bike building personally enriching, as well as a powerful team experience. Corporate social responsibility not only enriches team relationships, it strengthens corporate culture and the firm’s connection to the community.

Many corporations in Detroit and throughout Michigan are involved with the Grantsmanship Center in organized corporate giving programs serving local communities and families in need.

Building a Better Miami with Teamwork

Visitors from across the globe are taking in the sun and sea, and getting down to business, whether in Miami for trade shows, corporate training programs or just stepping away from a cruise ship port for some serious shopping.

The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau reports a 5.4 percent increase in corporate and leisure travel over the last 12 months. The 15.1 visitors brought $25.1 billion to the Miami economy and plenty of reason for local hospitality groups to develop resources to serve a growing need, locally and internationally.

Miami is a natural breeding ground for homegrown conferences too. Hispanicize, a Miami-based event highlighting U.S. Hispanic trendsetters in music and film, is also a local leader in drawing corporate sponsors to Miami, including speakers from Facebook, the White House, Google, and Toyota,” according to a recent article in the Miami Herald, titled: “In Miami, homegrown conferences are heating up”.

Venture Up of Miami agrees that the city is heating up. Since 1983, the firm has provided corporate team development programs throughout Florida. “Recent years have shown an upshot for team building venues in Miami,” says Mike Donnelly, Venture Up Program Director, who also leads training programs for local corporations.

Many of the Venture Up’s training programs take place indoors at resorts and at corporate headquarters in Miami, especially in summer when humidity is high, says Donnelly. “In the past, Orlando was a top spot for our team building events,” he said. “Now Miami is the hot spot.” Venture Up’s most popular team building activity in Florida is the Amazing Race, he says.

In terms of serving the trade show and convention industry, a $615 million renovation project is underway at the Miami Beach Convention Center. An 800-room headquarters-hotel is slated for a March 2019 opening.

“We are breaking record upon record across industry indicators and are only beginning to realize the full potential and incremental economic impact,” said GMCVB President & CEO William Talbert, III in a recent article published by the South Florida Business Journal.

Miami International Airport expects record 43 million passengers in 2015, according to the article by staff writer Emon Reiser. Port Miami expects to surpass its 4.8 million multiday cruise passenger record, according to Reiser’s article. Miami is already known as of the “Cruise Capital of the World.”

The good news for locals? The influx has created 4.6 percent more hospitality jobs in Miami-Dade than last year, bringing the total to more than 134,300, and the future calls for more benefits for visitors and locals alike.

Dallas Police Department Building Teams to Fight Crime

It takes a team to optimize success in any endeavor. There’s a 3-team process in town designed to keep crime at bay, not unlike corporate team building processes in Dallas. The Dallas Police Department is keeps a strong team connection in fighting crime with the Community Engagement Unit (CEU).

The CEU is comprised of three teams bridging community members and police officers efforts to fight crime and keep Dallas safe. The unit is a prime example of how cross-functional business teams in Dallas build relationships, share information and accomplish goals. Venture Up, a team building firm, has been working in Texas for three decades building relationships between community, civic and business leaders. “When it comes to keeping communities safe, nothing beats building relationships among neighbors and the police who serve them,” says David Lengyel, co-founder of Venture Up.

The first team, the Neighborhood Policing Team, deals directly with the individuals making up the community. Officers blend efforts locally by attending crime watch and community meetings, absorbing first-hand information that can be dispersed throughout police departments. 

 

These same officers work the street combatting crime with the knowledge and resources augmented by the neighborhood crime-fighting partnership.

The second team, the Nuisance Abatement Team deals with specific locations, “working with property owners to eliminate conditions conducive to the criminal element,” according to the DPD web site. 

 

Police are especially aware of neglected and abandoned properties that create havens for criminals. This team employs its public relations skills in procuring voluntary cooperation from a property owner to improve conditions that may attract crime. Property owners who comply often find their property values can increase, which adds to the incentive to clean things up. As a last resort, the team relies on legal channels to compel cooperation.

The third team, the Deployment Team, goes underground, using covert operations to fight crime.  Crime statistics drive officers on this team to target specific areas and trends in, and methods to identify suspects and criminal behavior. Plain-clothes officers ride in unmarked vehicles scouting the area for crime in progress and arresting criminals in the act.

The Dallas Police Reserve Battalion, in service for 60 years, provides another major resource in keeping Dallas safe. The Battalion is a crew of volunteers, state-certified peace officers who work in conjunction with the DPD. Officers work at least 16 hours monthly and may serve in many capacities, although they are primarily engaged in patrol duties. For more in formation, call 214-725-4000

New Orleans MBA Teams Help Build Local Businesses

Loyola University paves the way for MBA students to team up with major companies to support local startups. This is just one of the ways business teams are building relationships in New Orleans and fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals.

Google, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, TPG Capital, IBERIABANK, and Jones Walker are among the heavy-hitters providing expert advice to facilitate small business success. “When top tier companies help new companies get ahead, and involve business students in the process, CSR is reinforced on many levels,” says David Lengyel of Venture Up, who has been running corporate team training programs in New Orleans for more than three decades.

Teamwork is the name of the game for IDEAcorps, a partnership program with Loyola and The Idea Village that initiated the event. These business innovators match MBA student teams from across the nation with local startups for an intensive 4-day consulting competition during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW). The program also involves leaders at the big firms.

Business experts, corporate executives, investors and nonprofit professionals work with NOEW leaders to give students an experiential learning program in business consulting. Students can see how their efforts can provide real-life results impacting new business growth in New Orleans.

The program welcomes local participation, with these requirements:

-- A team of six, including a passionate leader and five entrepreneurial friends or associates. Diversity, as in all teams, is an asset.

-- A shared passion and competitive spirit to assist new businesses and help them grow.

-- A commitment to deadlines, as in the program dates of March 10-13, 2016.

-- A faculty advisor from their locale, whose presence is recommended but not required.

The learning  begins when team members act as the startup’s founding team  to see how far they can strategically develop the company in four days. Teams compete for a cash price and the seasoned pros judge their work. The judges consider such factors as each team’s ability to provide solutions and produce results in a limited amount of time, similar to the model for Venture Up’s corporate team building programs in New Orleans and across the nation.