One of Alberta’s fastest-growing companies is finding that its best team-building exercises cost next to nothing. Or better yet, are free.

“The biggest success so far has been the mini-putt tournament, where teams of employees turned their work areas into golf holes using only the equipment in their office,” says Sherry Espiritu of Focus Corporation Inc.

“The tournament was set for 4:30 on a Friday afternoon, and people were ready to go at 3:45. The next Monday everyone was still talking about the fun they had. And it cost us nothing.”

It’s important to understand that just weeks before the mini-golf game, many Focus employees barely knew each other, though they worked on the same floor of the same northeast Calgary office.

Headquartered in Edmonton, Focus has grown to 500 employees from 50 in the past few years, mainly through acquisitions. The Calgary office has jumped threefold, to 45 employees from 14 in two years.

Photo by Mike Dempster, Business Edge
Sherry Espiritu and Roy Pominville of Focus Corporation Inc. enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Originally a land survey company servicing the oil and gas industry in Alberta, Focus has expanded its business into British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Meanwhile, the company has also diversified into international work and engineering development.

“Because most of our growth has been through acquisition, what we ended up with were small pockets of people who knew each other and tended to form cliques,” explains Roy Pominville, Calgary operations manager. “It was almost like having five or six little offices within one office.”

It can be a terribly counterproductive atmosphere, he says, because the free flow of information simply doesn’t exist.

To bring employees together, Pominville and Espiritu, the executive assistant to the president, approached management about creating an organized plan (with a small budget) to develop team spirit and encourage interaction. They received strong buy-in from management and, now into their third month, are overwhelmed by the results.

“What we want to show is that you can get a great bang for the buck, using very little buck,” says Espiritu.

Two months ago, the Calgary office began a regular Friday afternoon social, beginning at 4:30.

With a little ingenuity, Pominville and his four-member Team Focus committee created some interesting themes based on their past experiences, or through pure brainstorming whimsy.

Themes have included:

* Taking digital photos of every office employee, then distorting five pictures and having people guess who was who.

* Staff anonymously filled out a questionnaire of 10 funny questions. Answers were read out, and people tried to match the descriptions to the employee.

* Mini-putt. Everyone played. Votes were taken for best holes, etc.

* A bring-your-spouse afternoon.

* A milk-and-cookies afternoon. (Every person who was in the office that day attended.)

Each Friday, Pominville also reads out six or seven acknowledgements submitted by managers or employees. By simply filling out a form placed at the activity bulletin board, co-workers and managers can salute someone who has done something special in the office.

“The nominations have worked better than I could ever have expected,” he says. “People have gotten into it. Managers are even nominating staff in other units (helping support the concept that it is one office working together).”

Team Focus has also initiated other programs such as a daily 15-minute morning stretch before work, and a noon-hour walking program.

But its biggest single success has been filling a stainless steel fruit bowl every day.

“If we want a mutiny, just let the fruit bowl go empty,” laughs Espiritu. “We get more suggestions about fruit than anything, and the more we put in the bowl, the faster it disappears.”

The biggest challenges to the program centre around time management. People have had to learn that “it’s OK” to take a 15-minute break and have a short visit over a coffee.

And because the engineering group and the oil and gas team have completely different time demands, management has to be sensitive to create events that are available to everyone.

“We have a calendar of events up, and everyone knows that on Fridays at 4:30, something is going on,” says Espiritu. “It encourages people to manage their day so they can get to the event, or even if they are busy that they can pop in for five or 10 minutes to say hi.”

During each of the past two years, Focus has been recognized as one of the Top 30 fastest-growing companies in Alberta. Last year it was cited in a national competition as one of the Top 50 Best Managed Companies.

Pominville and Espiritu hope the program will expand to other Focus offices, which face similar challenges. Because the project is new, it’s difficult to gauge how productivity has been affected. But they do sense a positive shift in attitude.

Espiritu offers this anecdote: Recently the company made a call for volunteers to help stuff 700 envelopes for a client reception. Normally, two or three people volunteer, and it’s always the same ones. This year, however, 15 people offered to help.

Between filling and licking envelopes, it was a chance for employees to talk about their weekend, and to break up a busy workday.

Espiritu and Pominville call it a stamp of approval for mini-putt and all the other initiatives under way – proof that even a small investment can bear fruit.

Web watch: www.focus.ca