A Twist on Team Building - Telecom

Traditional team building activities have been given a new spin. This year Telecom’s Group Legal and Corporate Services team thought they’d try something different at their annual off-site event by trying their hand at volunteer work, and it seems to have been a hit.

More than thirty members of the team signed up to help the two local DOC rangers on Waiheke Island clean up the Whakanehwa Regional Park campsite. The crew were responsible for clearing away plant debris and rubbish, helping to reduce the risk of fire, provide more shade areas for campers and make way for winter planting.

“What we were able to achieve in the space of a few hours would have taken the rangers weeks to complete; they were thrilled to have us there,” says Angela Dutton, who organised the event. “On the face of it, cleaning up litter can sound like one of the less appealing types of volunteering, but it was at a gorgeous location and everyone really enjoyed it and felt satisfied by the end of it. It was a good alternative to traditional team building; we were able to give something back to the community, save money and still be able to do something together.”

Michele Bremser was one of the keen team members to get amongst it. “It was really fun to be out of the office and doing something different. It was amazing how much we were able to achieve while we were there, I’d be keen to do it again,” she says.