Hybridization of work: the team building boom

With the implementation of hybrid mode and the distance between employees, team cohesion is of considerable importance. After 20 months of pandemic, corporate events are back in full swing and team building is now crucial for companies.

It is difficult to distinguish between the post-pandemic phenomenon of catching up and the boom in face-to-face reunions linked to teleworking, which is now widespread, but it is certain that team building has picked up very strongly since the start of the school year. " We're living in a historic moment," says Aurore Abecassis, who set up Acmé Paris, her agency for immersive physical (and digital, covid-oblige) experiences at the end of 2019. "The last year has been very hard, employees have experienced upheaval and difficult moments, sometimes isolation. Some have left their companies, others have joined new structures." In short, there has been a lot of turmoil. So there is a lot to be done in terms of team cohesion after the widespread trauma caused by the pandemic. This company director confirms this: "We are extremely busy," she says, comparing the current period to the Roaring Twenties.

With telework, companies want to create specific moments of cohesion

On average, companies allow employees two days of telework per week. "As a result, people bump into each other, and there are few times when they see each other. The companies want to create specific cohesion meetings. Themed evenings, horse riding, mixology classes or karaoke: "companies want to be exceptional" and favour quality over quantity. " The idea is to do fewer events but more qualitative ones, especially as companies have accumulated large budgets over the last two years," says the director of this structure, which offers premium, tailor-made experiences to clients such as LVMH, Airbnb and BNP Paribas.

Another major challenge is that, a year and a half after the start of the health crisis, talent must be retained at a time when many employees are leaving or considering leaving their jobs. "So there is a twofold need for our clients to retain employees who want to leave and attract new ones. We need to create events that will showcase the employer brand."

Because according to her, the company event can have a resounding effect,"when you plan a seminar, there is a fomo effect [fear of missing out], employees say to themselves 'I can't leave before the seminar'. Afterwards, there is a halo effect": employees leave with unforgettable memories and say to themselves "I've experienced some crazy things, I'm staying again", continues Aurore Abecassis.

Green team building in Koh-Lanta mode

Requests for events geared towards CSR - corporate social responsibility - are multiplying. The market players confirm this, starting with Nicolas Baudry, head of Banana Events. Last June, he launched Les Aventuriers de la Planète, "a team building event where we experience ecology in Koh-Lanta mode. The programme includes saving natural resources such as water and learning how to collect waste. " It was a hit," he says. The format is very popular, especially post-pandemic. "People want to learn from the health crisis, we know today that we can consume less and better. The leaders want to convey a message in a playful way. Aurore Abecassis is of the same opinion, according to whom the prospect of an offsite outside of France will be much less attractive to companies in 2021. "There is a certain uneasiness at the idea of leaving France", probably also less facilities and a loss of habit due to health restrictions concerning travel abroad.

Some organisations are also taking advantage of the current period to hold events that are 100% fun, without any message. "There is a real need to get together, to party, to let go. We have clients who tell us: no thinking, no powerpoint, we just want to have fun! "This is all the more true given that with the change in working methods - now alternating between face-to-face and distance learning - corporate event professionals are accompanying clients in this hybrid transition. Demands are changing and are also marked by "the return in force of festive events, which allow colleagues to meet up in real life and not through screens" continues Nicolas Baudry at the head of his structure, which is now hiring 10 employees. Founded in 2015, Banana Events has 300 clients including Axa, Malakoff Humanis and Google. With a million in turnover this year, revenues have increased fivefold in six years, despite the inevitable slump in 2020, which - for Nicolas like many of his competitors - has been made up for thanks to the digital shift taken during the pandemic. Exponential growth has also been observed among other professionals in the sector who have resisted the crisis.

Co-founded by Emmanuel Teboul three years ago, the start-up Dama Dreams is enjoying rapid and continuous growth. The company has 16 escape game rooms, the most famous of which is located in the heart of Paris and is an exact replica of the Bureau de Légendes series. The immersive experience "has been a real springboard" for the development of the structure. The escape-game immerses participants in the ultra-realistic world of the programme broadcast on Canal + for two hours. And companies obviously like it. " The strength of the escape game is that you have to act as a team, unlike bowling or carting, it is one of the only indoor leisure activities that allows participants to cooperate. The company, which currently has 26 employees, has achieved - despite the five-month closure due to the covid - a million euro turnover in 2021. Its co-director Emmanuel Teboul is banking heavily on the forthcoming opening in the capital of the "largest immersive experience in France", under an American licence.
The company director's ambition is to multiply his turnover by five next year.

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