Corporate Play
Why We Need to Play
Work life takes up at least one-third of our lives. While individual jobs can be rewarding, they also can be stressful and difficult no matter how enlightened the organization is. While employees are often asked to “be creative” in how the approach their work, it’s not that easy. There are deadlines to be met, sales quotas to achieve, reports to be written, and problems to be solved. At the end of the work day most employees are exhausted. It’s hard to build and maintain enthusiasm in a typical work environment.
More enlightened companies seek out ways to build rapport between employees. They sponsor pizza Fridays or a day at the local sports arena. They actively seek out employee ideas and reward the good ones. While these individual efforts are useful, they don’t necessarily rejuvenate and invigorate employees.
Healthy Play Leads to Better Employees
At East Bay United, we believe that building successful teams is one of the keys to success. Well functioning teams come up with more ideas, and more interesting ideas for product development, improving work flow, and many other areas of corporate life. One tried and true method for building teams is to literally create teams that play with and against each other. The operative word here is “play.” Play helps employees to find happier, more creative ways work together to solve problems. Healthy competition builds relationships, reduce stress and create a sense of shared identity. At East Bay United, we organize corporate play.
Play as a Means to Health
We use sports leagues and physical activities to give every employee a chance to compete, interact and get fit. Healthy employees are productive employees with fewer sick days and a stronger commitment to their work goals. EBU workplace-wellness-through-play activities can help you achieve this. We organize leagues and play activities within your company as well as between your company and similar companies. In addition to traditional sports like basketball, softball and bowling, we also organize kickball, broomball, Frisbee, walking, running, and fitness programs that can be incorporated into the daily workday. These are all down with the real goal of better productivity from happier, healthier employees. We tailor the program the needs and interests of your employees. And we make them fun!
Playing for a Cause
At East Bay United, our motto is “we play for a reason.” For us this means reaching into the communities where we live to help youth, families and individuals to lead healthy lives. We are a cause driven organization with education and prevention of obesity, diabetes and violence as our main causes. Everyone is the organization, from the Executive Director to the new volunteer participates in supporting these causes. You can play for a cause as well. We’ll help you set goals, recruit volunteers and raise funds. And we make these activities fun!
Building the Dialog of Play
In addition to assists our clients in developing play and team-building mechanisms, we also know the importance of being able to share stories. Talking about play is almost as fun as doing it. To that end, we also create customized social networks, blogs and other communication vehicles for your employees / players. Healthy interaction on these platforms is simply the extension of play and team-building.
Setting a Play Date
Whether you are interested in getting a corporate league underway or developing a day-long team-building exercise, EBU can help you. We have lots of ideas built from experience in doing this kind of play. EBU began as a group of serious athletes who have maintained an interest in sports as a means for personal development. Some of our program directors have played their sports at a very high level, even professionally, but our goal is to use these resources to have fun and show others how to have fun and grow. Contact us for more information on setting up workplace wellness and corporate play programs that can be easily and quickly set up.
