We compiled this list of team building statistics and facts as a resource for journalists, content marketers and organizations.
Team building statistics are snippets of information regarding the relationship between team building, productivity, communication, performance, and employee engagement. Backed up by studies, these team building facts discuss what contributes to the makeup of an effective team.
These statistics are sourced form team building research studies, and refer to the benefits of team building and importance of team building. This data relates to team building trends, workplace trends and remote work trends.
We will continue to keep these statistics on team building, teamwork and collaboration updated as a useful resource for you and your audience.
Team building industry statistics [free to cite]
You can use this data in any content, including blog articles, social media, white papers and internal reports.
Please cite the source as TeamBuilding and link to https://teambuilding.com/blog/team-building-statistics
1. Worldwide, 2500% more organizations are investing in virtual team building in response to COVID-19
In response to the global shift to remote work caused by COVID, there was a nearly 2500% increase in interest in online and virtual team building activities during quarantine.
2. The United States is the #2 country investing in virtual team building
Per capita, Singapore shows a higher interest in virtual team building than any other country in the world. The United States is second, followed by Australia, Canada and South Africa. Here are the top 13 regions, ranked in order of interest per capita.
- Singapore
- United States
- Australia
- Canada
- South Africa
- New Zealand
- Ireland
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- Philippines
- Netherlands
- India
- Germany
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3. Feelings of employee isolation reduces productivity up to 21%.
While more people than ever are working from home, it may feel inevitable that employees feel isolated. That experience should be an alarming concern because, according to this Gallup article, feelings of employee isolation reduces productivity up to 21%.
The purpose of team building is to foster employee connectedness. Even if your team is 100% remote, your team can interact with each other and feel less alone through virtual team building activities, which may help boost productivity.
4. Socializing between team members improves communication patterns more than 50%.
Many team building activities let employees practice communicating, while also giving your group opportunities to socialize outside of work. Therefore, it stands to reason that the act of socializing itself would improve communication, as mentioned in this study.
When socializing with coworkers, you are likely to create shared references through your conversation, while learning the best ways to communicate with your colleagues. These insights are likely to help you the next time you need to convey information to this team member, even if that next time is during an important meeting.
Consider starting your meetings with icebreaker questions to boost this socialization.
5. Team building also depends on “charismatic connectors”.
When building up your team, the types of personalities you incorporate are also important. One of the most interesting facts about team building centers around the idea of “charismatic connectors”. These team members actively engage others in conversations and are willing to connect coworkers and share information.
This HBR study found that “the more charismatic connectors a team had, the more successful it was”, which directly associates these personalities to elevated team performance. Thus, when creating teams and hiring new employees, keep these character traits in mind.
6. Being familiar with your team improves your performance over time.
A 2006 Harvard study once found that heart surgeons performed better when working with a team they were familiar with than when working with a new one. Even if the surgeon had performed surgery in that hospital, as long as the doctor was surrounded by new people, the doctor did not perform as well. This study teaches us that being familiar with and understanding how your team works improves your performance over time.
How does this fact fit into team building? Team building gives coworkers opportunities to become acquainted with each other, especially if employees work for different departments. Cultivating these new employee friendships may bolster your organization’s performance.
7. Virtual teams can surpass in-person teams if they receive enough support, communication, and virtual team building.
In 2009, a study led by Frank Siebdrat found that virtual teams had the potential to surpass in-person teams if they receive enough support, communication, and online team building. The remote teams he researched needed to have systems in place to facilitate employee contribution to have this edge.
Siebdrat’s findings are great news, since teams that now work remotely still need to stay high performing, despite having to work under new circumstances. This study also reinforces the significance of team building in maintaining productivity in the virtual workplace.
8. Team performance is best among teams that communicate in informal situations.
When speaking to your team members at work, it’s likely that communication happens under formal circumstances. Whether it occurs during a meeting or when requesting tasks, these formal communications are not the only ones that affect team performance.
In fact, according to researchers at MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, “conversations outside of formal meetings are the most important factor that contributes to team success”. If this factor is the case, then team building is an excellent opportunity for your team to chat informally, yet appropriately, and may also enhance team performance.
9. People with close personal friendships may not make good team members.
In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, author Patrick M. Lencioni mentions that a downside of being too close with your coworkers is that you may hesitate to hold your friend accountable for wrongdoing. This idea indicates that people with close personal friendships may not make the best team members.
However, despite this problem, having a close-knit team is still essential to strengthening employee engagement and satisfaction, as seen in the next two facts. Perhaps to offset this issue, encourage your coworkers to open up communication, and provide a company culture that features psychological safety, where mistakes will not be unduly punished.
10. Women who have a best friend at work are 2x as likely to be fully engaged.
Contrary to the previous fact, according to Gallup data, female employees who have a best friend (63%) at the workplace are two times more likely to be fully engaged at work than those who do not have a best friend at the workplace (29%). With employees spending most of their time at work, it helps to have a best friend there. Having a best friend at work creates a space where employees feel safe and included.
Feeling comfortable at work empowers employees to try innovative ideas that they might not have otherwise. Team members with a best friend at work are usually more invested in the company and less likely to be actively looking for job opportunities elsewhere. As a result, these close friendships at work increase employee satisfaction by 50%.
Learn more about work friendships.
11. Camaraderie promotes group loyalty and dedication to work.
In this Harvard Business Review article, Christine M. Riordan mentions studies that explore how soldiers form close bonds because they “believe in the purpose of the mission, rely on each other, and share the good and the bad as a team”. As you can imagine, this camaraderie would be invaluable if transferred to the workplace.
Thankfully, one of the main objectives of team building is to forge bonds between employees. When your team participates in these activities, this strengthened group loyalty and dedication to work results in increased productivity and engaged employees.
12. When employees feel their opinions count, companies could benefit from a 27% decrease in turnover rate, 40% decrease in safety incidents, and 12% increase in productivity.
According to Gallup, only 30% of U.S. employees strongly agree that their opinions count at work. However, Gallup predicts that if that percentage increases to 60%, companies could benefit from a 27% decrease in turnover rate, 40% decrease in safety incidents, and 12% increase in productivity. When employees feel psychologically safe, they feel free to experiment and innovate without worrying about retribution. As a result, employees are more engaged, which positively affects the company’s bottom line.
Gallup attributes these workers feeling that their opinion counted to companies establishing psychological safety for their employees. Psychological safety refers to an atmosphere where people feel comfortable being and expressing themselves without fear of consequence. Team building helps create this culture of psychological safety by bringing out your team’s strengths and giving employees opportunities to interact with each other regularly
How to cite these team building statistics
If you use data or statistics from this resource, please include a link to https://teambuilding.com/blog/team-building-statistics.
We will continue updating this resource with useful team building statistics and facts for your work.
Next, read about the history of team building, job satisfaction statistics, employee engagement statistics, and employee turnover statistics. We also have a list of quiet quitting statistics.
We also have a list of facts of the day to share at work and a list of team building case studies.
Michael Alexis