The end of team bonding down the boozer?

Although nearly three out of five managers take staff to the pub for team-building purposes, just over half of employees are unenthusiastic about going out with their colleagues and one in five actively dislike it.
 

These are the findings of study entitled ‘Health of the Workplace’ undertaken by insurance firm Aviva. The research also revealed that only 23% of bosses think that such socials create a positive sense of team spirit anyway, a third find them a bit of a drag and one in 10 feel obliged to attend to keep their staff happy.
 
Doug Wright, principal clinical consultant at Aviva UK Health, said: “While around half of bosses say they enjoy getting to know their team in an informal setting, heading to the pub may not be the best way to do this, especially when you consider that many employees don’t look forward to these events either.”
 
With budgets being tight, it might be better to spend the money on initiatives that benefit both employees and the company, for example, by providing ‘workplace wellness programmes’, he added.
 
Only 23% of employers currently run alternative activities such as teambuilding days, however, while a mere 13% offer sports-related pursuits.
 
But when socialising in a pub environment, some 45% of managers said there was no obligation to drink alcohol and only 7% indicated that they would actively discourage staff from doing so.
 
Two out of five indicated that they would be concerned about creating an unhealthy working environment if an employee called in sick next day, however, while just over a quarter said that they would have no sympathy if such a situation were to occur.