Memorable corporate retreats strengthen the bonds between your team members, combining goal-orientated activities with time for relaxation. Ensuring the ideal event experience for your team begins in the initial planning phases. Let’s explore the corporate retreat planning process and explain the value the right corporate event venue can bring to your team’s performance for years to come.

Set Clear Objectives

When you begin by setting the objectives for your corporate retreat, you can build backwards to connect your end goal with your planning phase. Potential objectives for your corporate retreat might include:

Generating Fresh Ideas

Retreats are a chance to take your team away from their traditional office environment and the constant everyday distractions to help them focus on creative strategy. A change of scenery can inspire creative thought. Data from the Journal of Applied Psychology shows employees who engage in leisure activities together achieve greater performance and higher levels of creativity. 

Teambuilding

As a growing company with a number of new hires, you might consider teambuilding the objective of your corporate retreat. Retreats strengthen the bonds between each member of the team as they enjoy activities and downtime together. At Rancho Cortez, your team will enjoy activities such as horse riding and lasso lessons together, and learn from our wranglers the importance of team roles and responsibilities.

Strategic Planning

Corporate getaways serve your business by bringing team leaders together to plan new initiatives. Retreats in remote locations bring clarity to strategic visions, allowing management teams to plot a path forward for the organization with face-to-face discussions in locations conducive to focus and clear headed analysis.

Select Evidence-Based Corporate Retreat Activities

Fostering collaboration and trust is a crucial component of corporate retreats. When planning your company’s upcoming events, look for activities that have evidence of these types of benefits. For example, Rancho Cortez continually analyzes our team building activities to ensure we’re providing corporate guests the ideal experience. Each element of our corporate retreat service is built upon clear data linking the activity with long-term value for our business clients. 

Example of high-value corporate retreat activities include:

Team Hikes

Hiking and exploring the wilderness together can reduce blood pressure and lower stress levels. Hikes might be the best way to begin a corporate retreat so that each member of the group starts the retreat with a calm mind ready for sharp focus on creative problem solving later in the trip. 

Cooking and Sharing Meals Together

Taking a cooking class during the retreat and then sharing a meal together later after the day’s activities not only helps each member of the team unwind but helps cement the bond between each team member. Cooking classes will allow teams to take on different roles in preparing meals and help management teams learn more about their staff and each individual’s personality. A Cornell University study shows business teams that eat together perform better. Sharing a meal provides the chance to get to know the team and have those quiet shared moments shown to enhance business relationships. 

Learning a New Skill

The most valuable corporate retreats allow each member of the team to begin on the same level to help open the lines of communication and encourage collaboration upon the return to the office. At Rancho Cortez, we thrive as a San Antonio corporate retreat service by teaching guests to our ranch how to carry out roles on our working dude ranch. Corporate guests will learn how to care for the ranch animals, how to lasso, and how to safely ride horses on the wide open trails of Bandera.

Confirm Accommodation Options 

The accommodations your team enjoys on their corporate retreat can make or break the experience. Getting a comfortable night’s rest before the next day’s activities is critical for the trip’s success. Before finalizing your choice of retreat location, confirm their accommodations options and review the options with your management team.

Key considerations when choosing accommodations include:

Room Availability 

Does the retreat service offer the requisite number of rooms for your team? If you’re booking during the Spring Break or the Holiday Season, you might consider booking a large number of rooms well in advance to minimize late disruption to your team’s trip.

Amenities

Consider accommodations that suit different personalities and lifestyles. For example, many members of your team will likely have a fitness regimen they wish to maintain on their trip. Others might simply wish to relax by the pool after a challenging day of meetings. Ensure the location offers a wide range of amenity options. 

Shared Rooms Vs. Individual Hotel-Style Accommodations

There are benefits to both traditional hotel style accommodations and lodge-style room suites for your corporate retreats. For example, lodge-style suites usually have a large common area in which teams can meet at times throughout the day or night for impromptu meetings on short notice. Hotel-style rooms allows for teams to reenergize and refocus on their own schedule as they prepare for the next day’s activities. 

Choose Rancho Cortez for Unforgettable Corporate Retreats in Texas Hill Country

Rancho Cortez is a one-of-a-kind San Antonio, TX corporate retreat location. From our picturesque ranch setting to our skilled and experienced event planning team, we offer every element your business requires for the ultimate retreat experience. Start planning your next company trip today by contacting our team or confirm your stay at the ranch using our online booking system.