Three Rules for Planning a Great Company Picnic

Although not all companies celebrate their employees' hard work, a few companies take the time and often the thanks will take the form of an annual company picnic. And while larger companies may hire somebody outside of the office to plan and essentially put on the picnic, many smaller companies will plan their picnics in-house to save on costs. Saving money is all well and good, but planning a large company picnic based on the schedules of a large number of employees is not necessarily easy. So you will want to use whatever tips available to get it done right and throw a great picnic.

Of course, the easy way out would be to hire an outside service to do most of the work. But planning a picnic can actually be quite fun and you do not want to miss out on that. And as long as you follow three simple rules, you will have no trouble planning a great company picnic that everyone will truly enjoy.

1. Plan Early - As with any sort of social event of this magnitude, it is extremely important to begin planning early for a number of reasons. For one thing, you want to be sure you can book the place where you want to have your company picnic. If there are only a few choices, they may fill up fast. In addition, you want to be sure your employees have enough time to make plans to go to the company picnic and with busy lifestyles this can be difficult.

Setting the date, booking the venue, and getting the ball rolling early in the planning process will mean less stress in the end. And less stress will mean you may actually get to enjoy the picnic too.

2. Be Diverse - The picnic you plan should be as diverse as the people who work for you. There is a fairly good possibility your employees enjoy a wide range of activities, food, and entertainment. So you should take this into consideration when planning your picnic. After all, your company picnic is a way to show your employees your appreciation. So you do not want to leave anyone out.

You may want to have people give you suggestions directly or even send around a survey to find out what kinds of things people like. Whatever you do, be sure to have a little something for everyone and nothing that will offend anyone and you should be fine.

3. Use Conferencing - It may be beneficial if you put together a sort of focus group to help you plan, and you can easily communicate with those individuals with a conference calling program. Your focus group can help you iron out all the details for the picnic and can discuss them with you through conferencing.

The best part is conferencing programs can be downloaded from the internet at no cost to you, not something you can say about the rest of the plans for your company picnic. Download your conference calling program in advance, and you will be ready to go with a conference call at the drop of a hat.

Company picnics are supposed to be fun, but only after all the planning is taken care of. But if you plan early, plan right, and communicate with others through conferencing, you will be able to enjoy your company picnic and so will your employees.