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5 Tips For A Successful Company Retreat With Great Results

7th March 202220th March 2025Posted in SaffronStays DiariesTagged company offsites, corporate retreats at villas, office retreat tips, office retreats, saffronstays, tips for company retreats, villas for retreats, villas for work, villas to work from, Weekend getaways, work getaways, workcation

Corporate offsites are a great way to start a new phase for your company. If you do it right, you can fruitfully end your retreat with new goals, new directions and renewed enthusiasm. But you need to make sure your office retreat is capable of providing these kinds of results. How? Here are 5 tips for company retreats that can help you get there!

1. Choose a suitable venue

The venue of your company offsite can make or break it. After all, you want your employees to enjoy a break from work while also focusing on seminars and presentations. For example, larger groups will do better at spacious homes like SaffronStays Aatman, where they can enjoy the quiet beauty of the Mahabaleshwar hills while the lack of distractions will keep their eyes on the goal. Startups and small teams can opt for cosy beachside villas like SaffronStays Sea La Vie. The quirky surroundings, the sound of the waves and dazzling sunsets will keep spirits high and inspire new ideas.

Those wanting to get away from cramped offices and city traffic can use the open space and wide fields surrounding SaffronStays The Riverine to let loose. This 5-bedroom estate includes rooms fit for conferences as well as a meditation area for short breaks in between events. Use this tip for company retreats and rent our villas to provide a space that adapts to business seminars as well as fun activities, helps streamline focus and offers services that are bound to keep enthusiasm levels high!

2. Make a detailed itinerary

Having a solid plan is a great way to be prepared. With a list of pre-determined activities, you can avoid chaos and set up a smooth flow of events. It not only ensures that people are on time but also helps them mentally prepare for the day. A detailed offsite itinerary must keep things lively. The last thing you want is drowsy eyes and nodding heads. We suggest a healthy mix of team building activities, group discussions and inspiring talks by leaders. Another tip for a company retreat is to hold different sessions in different locations. SaffronStays Raanwaara and Aranya Vilaas, for instance, offers a multitude of seating areas with unique decor and furnishings, to give each event a distinct vibe.

Don’t shy away from thinking outside the box. If you want to keep the employees engaged throughout, you will need plenty of creative activities. Team-building games like Minefield and Scavenger Hunts are great ways to promote collaboration and strategy. SaffronStays Sundowner’s vast rooms are perfect for these. Recreating Shark Tank with your employees — which can be done in the luxurious rooms of SaffronStays Falcon Hill — is a fun way to bring out unique ideas to take the company forward. Give each employee an opportunity to learn from others, engage in critical thinking and actively provide new ideas and you’ll be one step closer to reaching your new goals.

3. Build anticipation

Like any other event, your company retreat needs an effective marketing strategy. The more that people are looking forward to going, the more likely it is to be a success. You can do this in a number of ways like sending email reminders, putting up posters and providing tidbits of information about the events, but never the whole thing. A little bit of suspense is great for pumping up the excitement. A crucial tip for company retreats, letting people know the location and dates in advance also allows your employees to plan for it accordingly — from shuffling work deadlines to hiring babysitters.

4. Mix the group and promote teamwork

It takes several different cogs and wheels working together for a clock to keep ticking. So as you push your business to new horizons, don’t overlook the value of teamwork. It’s crucial for all personnel, no matter which department they are in, to know and get along with each other. And what better time to initiate such cooperation than at an office retreat? Use this opportunity to mix groups and make sure the entire workforce is mingling together. Ice-breaker games like Untangle a Human Knot or Two Truths and a Lie are great ways to promote a stronger and more collaborative work environment!

5. Hire a good facilitator

To get the best results out of an office retreat, put the event in the hands of a professional. The facilitator can read a room, set the mood and carry out activities in a way that is easy for everyone. Moreover, it takes the responsibility of hosting off your shoulders and leaves you free to participate in the events and enjoy them. It is well worth the investment to hire a facilitator so your offsite can go on without a hitch.

We hope these tips for company retreats can help you organise a super productive offsite and craft an unforgettable experience for your employees!

Looking for the perfect villa to host your company retreat? Here are some more options.

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Team Building Activities At Dream Villas That Will Take You From Colleagues To Teammates

18th February 202219th March 2025Posted in SaffronStays DiariesTagged Corporate Offsites and Events near Mumbai and Pune, office retreats, offsite getaaways, saffronstays, team building, team building activities, villas near Mumbai, Villas near Pune, weekend trips, work getaways, work retreats, workcation

Just like every machine needs oiling once in a while, every team needs a team-building retreat. Groups of people work so much better once they’ve gotten to know each other a little more. Playing games and puzzles together helps coworkers create an environment where everybody can do their best. So take this opportunity to learn about ten team-building activities that will help your team work better, smoother and faster!

1. Scavenger Hunt

Objective: Strategy and collaboration

Time: 1-3 hours

Tools needed: Fully charged phones to record every challenge.

How to play: The group is broken up into teams and given a list of challenges to complete. They can range from finding a specific object, doing a particular craft or performative activities like singing or making a skit.

Purpose: Scavenger Hunts use fun activities to nudge people into breaking down professional walls and being more casual around each other. It also makes them practice goal setting and task delegation. Sometimes lip-syncing to the newest Ariana Grande song can be just what you need to strengthen team coordination and problem solving!

Where to play: SaffronStays Summer Salt, with its wide spaces, allows teams to strategize at their own pace, offering plenty of room to move about. This 6-bedroom property near Akshi beach also allows space for the game to spill over onto the lawn.

2. Untangle A Human Knot

Objective: Mind exercise

Time: 15-20 minutes

Tools needed: None

How to play: The whole team must stand in a circle and each person must reach across and link hands with two other people, except the ones right next to them. Soon, a knot is created. The team must work together to untangle themselves.

Purpose: This game drives team members to collaborate with each other and come up with constructive strategies, while also allowing for a little awkwardness and a lot of giggling to break the ice.

Where to play: Open-air areas like the wide lawn in SaffronStays Gardenia (a seamless garden rolling up to the first floor), are the best spots for a game like this and the cool Alibaug sea-breeze around this private pool villa will ensure that nobody has to deal with sweaty hands!

3. Minefield

Objective: Trust building

Time: 8-10 minutes per round

Tools needed: Objects like balloons, paper cups, chairs, pillows.

How to play: Divide the group into pairs and spread a number of non-sharp objects on the floor. One member will be blindfolded and asked to get from one end of the room to the other without touching any of the ‘mines’. The other member must guide the blindfolded one only with verbal cues.

Purpose: This team-building activity fosters communication and trust between team members in a fun and exciting way!

Where to play: Pick SaffronStays Sundowner for its wide-open lawn, elegant gazebo or elongated patio — making this 8-bedroom Karjat villa suitable for a delightful game of Minefield. Trust falls are all the more fun when you do it surrounded by hills and greenery.

4. Build A Story With 5 Keywords

Objective: Promotes creative thinking

Time: 8-10 minutes per group

Tools needed: None

How to play: Break up the crowd into groups. Each group must make a unique story with the same 5 keywords given to everyone.

Purpose: The activity pushes team members to be as creative as possible within a fixed framework. You’ll be surprised at how quirky each interpretation is!

Where to play: What you need for a storytelling session is a quiet spot where every voice can be heard. The gazebo on the banks of Andre Lake at SaffronStays Foresta By The Lake is an ideal place for the game and also a key feature of the sprawling 6-bedroom estate.

5. Two Truths And A Lie

Objective: Ice-breaking

Time: 25-30 minutes

Tools needed: None

How to play: The whole group must sit in a circle and one by one reveal two truths and one lie about themselves. The rest of the group must figure out which one is the lie.

Purpose: A great ice-breaker, team-building activities like these will result in the team members knowing a little more about one another and paving the way for them to get along better.

Where to play: A quiet, cosy nook where everyone is audible, like any of the rooms in SaffronStays Kairos Athena, which is only 1.5 hours from Mumbai. The bright and tasteful decor combined with the scenic views of Kalote Lake will set just the right mood!

6. Memory Game Relay

Objective: Improve memory.

Time: 30-45 minutes

Tools needed: A deck of cards

How to play: Spread out 5-10 pairs of playing cards on the floor, face down, in random order. One by one, the players must go and pick two cards. If you get a pair of cards you win, if not you do a predetermined activity — like 10 jumping jacks! The goal is to remember the place of each card and get all the pairs as the game progresses.

Purpose: While this game is great for testing one’s memory, it also becomes a way to foster sportsmanship among the team. It can be played individually or even in groups to get that competitive spirit going!

Where to play: A luxurious private villa in Alibaug, SaffronStays Osaree has a large poolside verandah that is the perfect spot for this game. You can even arrange for local delicacies and cocktails to make their way to you as you play.

7. Shark Tank

Objective: Cross-department interaction

Time: 45-60 minutes

Tools needed: Only a bucket full of imagination

How to play: Have groups of 3-4 people come up with an idea for a product and pitch it to a set of judges. The most investor-worthy idea wins!

Purpose: A little competitiveness can be a healthy catalyst for teamwork. Bringing Shark Tank from the screen into real life might give your team members a spark of inspiration to work harder and be more proactive!

Where to play: Large rooms with a luxurious air and comfortable seating arrangements, like those in SaffronStays Falcon Hill. The 6-bedroom property is surrounded by beautiful forest land. Wouldn’t it be nice if the backdrop behind the judges was a view of Lonavala’s gorgeous valley?

8. Tied Together

Objective: Coordination

Time: 30 minutes

Tools needed: Gift wrapping paper, empty boxes

How to play: Put together pairs of people who have never worked with each other and tie one’s left hand to the other’s right. Each pair must then gift wrap a box. The best wrapped box wins!

Purpose: This team-building activity not only cultivates communication and coordination but also teaches one about having limitations and how to work around them — something that can be directly applied to work situations.

Where to play: SaffronStays Raanwaara and Aranya Vilaas has seating areas that are perfect for games like these. A cluster of 10 cottages, this property has gorgeous common areas for everybody to mingle. The quirky vibe of this pool villa will make sure the energy stays up!

9. ABC Hunt

Objective: Teamwork

Time: As short or long as you like

Tools needed: Objects from daily life

How to play: The host calls out three random letters and each team must bring objects starting from each of those letters. The fastest ones win! Queen of Sheba is an alternative wherein the host asks for specific objects.

Purpose: Playing this game in teams of 3 or 4 is a good way to encourage camaraderie amongst the employees.

Where to play: The vibrant SaffronStays Casa Manga in Karjat creates a happy vibe that will keep everybody smiling as they rush to grab AirPods, books, cameras, dice and so on. This charming 4-bedroom holiday home also has a massive swimming pool!

10. Forensic Sketch Artist

Objective: Communication and creativity skills

Time: 20-25 minutes

Tools needed: Laptop/tablet for the image, paper and drawing tools

How to play: Two groups play against each other. Each group assigns a forensic sketch artist. The rest of the players are shown an image of a face and must describe it to the artist who will sketch it out. In the end, the two sketch artists will compare their drawings and the more accurate one wins.

Purpose: Rather than drawing skills, this game presents the players with an opportunity to understand how to best communicate with one another.

Where to play: Wouldn’t it be nice to play this game in decorative outdoor seating areas like at SaffronStays Aatman? Nestled in Mahabaleshwar’s hills, the jumbled shouts of hair colour and eye shape will be levelled out by chirping birds and stunning sunset.

And while there is something or the other to learn from all of these team-building activities, don’t forget that it’s just as important to have fun. Sometimes, leisure and recreation can lead to the clearest minds of them all!

Plan a Workation- The New Travel Trend!

27th February 2021Posted in SaffronStays DiariesTagged private villas, saffronstays, SaffronStays hospitality, work getaways, Workation, Workation places, Workation trend, Workations Near Mumbai, Working from home

In adapting to the new normal of working from home, a lot of people aced it with remote working. Complementing their professional life, people added personal feats of traveling by working from a vacation or the buzz word these days ‘Workations’. Workation in simplest terms means a working vacation; You unwind after finishing work. Now, with fears looming over of another possible lockdown, the search for workation destinations in and around the city spikes up. A workation with family by your side, where you get busy on your work tasks in the day and switch up to play later on has the perks of a work-life balance we all hope to achieve.

A workation with family needs to be thoroughly planned to address the comforts of every family member, those who have to work and those who don’t. At the same time, ensuring privacy, following safety protocols, and hospitality that takes care of everyone will make it an enjoyable experience.

Easy Guide to Plan a Workation

Choosing a Safe Location

It’s imperative to choose a safe location considering the COVID-19 situation. While a lot of you may dream of working from the hills, the government has now made COVID tests mandatory for several states. So pick a place that is nearby and follows all safety and social distancing protocols.

Strong Network Connectivity

One of the pre-requisites of fixing upon a workation destination is a stable internet connection and cell reception. A place with good WiFi and regular electricity will enable a smoother work process. It is wise to choose a private villa vis-a-vis a hotel, where there will be a lot of people chancing upon the free internet connection.

Destination With Activities to Do

A home with a pool, large lawns, gardens or near the beach ensures rejuvenation activities once the laptop shuts down. So pick a place that facilitates your unwinding away from any devices.

SaffronStays Horizon 360°, Mahabaleshwar — SaffronStays Horizon 360 °, Mahabaleshwar

If you want your workation to be wrapped in close arms of nature, then SaffronStays Horizon 360° in Mahabaleshwar opens up to infinity views of the surrounding green valley. This chic 3-bedroom villa provides a refreshing stay with a cool breeze from the thicket of trees around. The home’s striking feature allows you to catch both sunrise and sunset from its spacious balconies. You can take the kids boating in the Venna lake just a kilometer away, or to the Mapro garden (30 mins drive) and have a workation trip.

Guaranteed Privacy

Choosing a private villa ensures the whole place is to yourself and enough social distancing from the crowds. There’s no worry of you disturbing someone, or vice-versa when you are sitting outdoors. Like, if you choose SaffronStays Kenzen, you can sit all day long in the greener courtyard or find a spot under any tree as your workstation. Wind up with a book or play a game of badminton in the spacious outdoors, you’ll have unparalleled privacy here. It’s a cluster of 7 bedrooms, so you can plan an outing with your extended family as well. With Awas, Kihim and Mandwa beaches in close proximity to the home, spend your evenings basking the views of sunset by the beach.

Warm Hospitality

What fulfills an experience of a memorable vacation is the service you enjoy during your stay. Be it a break from the kitchen chores or served with tea just when you wished for, the feeling of being taken care of properly is heartwarming. When you are busy answering calls or sharing quality time with your family, let our trained chefs and staff on-site help you with your needs. In SaffronStays The Forest, in Alibaug you can savour some lip-smacking meals with signature local taste. The chirping of the birds is the only sound that accompanies your keyboard clattering. This 4-bedroom villa is pet-friendly too, so make a complete workation with family, without missing your pooch.

Let your work meet leisure by trading up the monotonous lives in a four-walled concrete jungle with open spaces, cooler workstations, rejuvenating change of scenery, and laughter of your loved ones.

How Work From Home in Pandemic Affects Productivity

8th February 2021Posted in SaffronStays DiariesTagged corporate offsite, Corporate Offsite Trip, productivity, SaffronsStays, saffronstays, Work from home, work getaways, Working from home

Living through a pandemic has taught us many lessons. The importance of good health- both physical and mental became a talking point in the year gone by. As work cultures switched from cubicles to homes, employees had their fair share of challenges to deal with, which in turn took a toll on their productivity, for better or worse? Has work from home culture raised the expectations vs performance bar? Let’s understand in more detail how working from home impacts productivity.

Understanding History of Work From Home

A majority of Indians (the senior working force) may have been introduced to the work-from-home routine due to the lockdown, remote working has not been a novel concept abroad. Working from home or ‘remote working’ is decades old, but the conversation about productivity becomes more relevant today, as a majority of people globally function from home, irrespective of their choice.

Coping Up With the Changes

Back in March 2020, when people cocooned in their homes and worked, there were reports of working from home improving productivity. By May 2020, exactly three months into the lockdown, Prodoscore, a leading productivity intelligence tool revealed a 47% increase in efficiency of people working from home. Employees were saving their travel time, they could work in their pyjamas, meetings were either cancelled or virtual, you could munch while you work. The idea of working from home was new for many and seemed a great start.

Technological Barriers

For the millennials and the seniors experienced with WFH setting, the transition of shifting from desks/cubicles was not difficult. But for others, the challenges began from dealing with all technical problems on their own. From something, as basic as, inability to connect to an internet connection or complex tasks of scheduling/attending Zoom meetings, the non tech-savvy populace faced the brunt. “You’re on Mute” can be called the key phrase of this pandemic-induced working culture.

Extended Work Hours

One of the greatest disadvantages of working from home is the inability to disconnect. Not everyone is able to demarcate between work and personal life. Working hours stretched beyond stipulated 8 to 9-hour shifts. Employees were spending more time in front of their laptops, than their families, despite constantly being under the same roof. You are not alone if you are feeling worked up; over 3 million people share the same sentiment! As per a research by Harvard Business School, an employee’s average workday increased by 8.2%, i.e. an extra 48.5 minutes each day. The study analysed emails and meeting times of 3.1 million people across 16 global cities.

The immediate effects were seen on mental health issues. Mental health experts saw a spike in cases where people complained of work stress, and anxiety fuelled by work pressure. Productivity was naturally seeing a downward slope, even though the graph of working hours steeped.

How Do We Exactly Measure Productivity

Productivity can be called an umbrella that covers – efficiency, timeliness, consistency, promptness, tackling crises to deliver the work. So how do we collectively measure these metrics? Productivity of a person is the amount of time he/she takes to finish a task. It is quite possible that out of an 8-hour shift, a person is productive only 4 hours, and the other 4 are spent contemplating about it. It also depends on an individual’s skill sets, nature of work, their resources to get work done in an expected time-frame. But considering all these factors were favourable, were employees still feeling productive? The perceived ‘benefits’ of WFH were evaporating towards the end of 2020. A report by 451, S&P Global Market Intelligence affiliate states only 11% of employees felt productive and engaged during this work from home. This report dug deep into the quiet opposing findings of another study by Boston Consulting Group, that stated 75% of employees were able to strike the balance and perform well. Know some ways to increase productivity while working from home.

The Counter Perspective

Working from home desk (Credits: Pexels)

To every research, there could be 5 more with diverse findings. So while some part of the workforce longs to go back to the office, another comfortably set-up their work-desk aesthetic at home. Some of the biggest IT companies have experienced a surge in productivity of their employees, so much so, they decided to implement a permanent WFH policy. Indian IT majors like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, Tech Mahindra and Microsoft believe in WFH model even after the pandemic is over as the teams are now used to the shift and saw an increase in productivity. Gartner CFO Survey revealed that 74% of CFOs and Finance leaders intend to move at least 5% of their staff to permanently work remotely. Search giant Google has already emailed their staff to work from home till September 2021. The company is testing a ‘flexible workweek’ where employees attend three days a week from office and remaining days from home. Twitter and Square have announced permanent WFH.

Steps to Improve

The findings of increase or decrease in workforce productivity differ industry-wise. But as things are slowly getting back on track, employees do need a break more than ever. Things look brighter with COVID-19 vaccinations being rolled out, a sense of relief is washing over, and that has to be celebrated. Fixed day offs or a little breather to go on a getaway, to step out of home and explore what we missed will instill a positive sense to get back to work again. A corporate offsite could work wonders as an appreciation to those who showed their productivity, or enhance those who were too fatigued of working hours. A little gesture of appreciation can go a long way to fuel one’s motivation to work. And a motivated task force will drive your business to success.