46+ Sample Team Contract Templates

What Is a Team Contract?

In the work setting, professionals who work as a team must assess what their strengths are. The assessment will serve as a basis for planning for the team to reach a particular organizational goal. The same applies to the school setting, where a group of high school or college students completes a group project plan by delegating specific tasks to team members with different strengths. A team contract is a document that spells out the rules that all team members must follow. A team agreement usually contains statements regarding how the team will function, how team members should communicate, and how every team member will relate to each other. Moreover, the contract must also detail what the team wants to achieve.

According to Queens University, 75% of managers rate collaboration and teamwork as “very important.”

However, only 18% of workers undergo communication evaluations during their performance assessments.

Moreover, 86% of executives and employees believe that the lack of communication in the workplace accounts for company failures.

Team Building Ideas You Can Apply In the Workplace

Conducting team building activities in the workplace doesn’t have to be fabulous and expensive. It can be a simple event that gives your employees a chance to understand each other better and improve their work performance development plan. So, here are some team building ideas you can apply in the workplace.

Organize group discussions while eating lunch together. Provide food for the company and divide your employees into different groups. Let them discuss work-related matters and address work-related questions as well. One great idea is to place numbers on the plates that correspond to which group your employees belong. So, all employees with number one on their dishes can eat lunch in the conference room, and all employees with number two can eat at the workstation. Lunch, together with a team, is a great way to help workers get to know their colleagues better.Tour your employees to all working departments. Schedule your employees to tour other working departments. Employees can be curious about what their colleagues do. By exposing your workers, you will satisfy their curiosities and expose them to new working processes happening within the company. This idea is similar to job shadowing. It gives employees a chance to consider other career paths. The activity is not costly at all and will only cost your worker’s time. Most importantly, it enhances cooperation between departments.Provide comfortable association areas. Provide comfortable sofas, beverages, and snacks in a particular area where your employees can collaborate. An area that they can reserve and use as a meeting room. This concept will help your workers comfortably open up to their co-workers regarding business matters, especially when working on a specific project assignment.Create a book club. Encourage your employees to join the company’s book club. Any staff member can attend and volunteer to read and expound on a particular work or business book. The company must provide books. The employees will have to meet at least once a week to discuss a portion of the book. Employees must take turns in discussing a chapter or portion of the book for the club. This activity will allow your employees to ask questions and express their business concerns.Administer group training. One-on-one training is vital for new employees, especially when you start to integrate them into the organization. Group training by a contract manager is also essential if you want your workers to perform better as a team. Also, this will help your workers to master new skills and methods as a group. Moreover, an employee with a specific skill set can also mentor workmates who are open to learning.Sponsor sports or fitness activities. Sponsor sports activities for your employees to enjoy. It can be baseball, basketball, football, bowling, etc. Another idea is to register your staff for walking or running events that support local charities. You can also sponsor t-shirts for their sports activities. By doing that, you will also expose your company to the community while supporting your workers’ causes. If you want it to be a regular, you can schedule your employees for group exercises or yoga classes in your company gym.Schedule learning activities during lunchtime. You can hire a third-party speaker or personnel to share his/her knowledge, skills, and experiences as an expert in a particular field. Your can staff can bring lunches with them while the speaker speaks about an exciting and informative topic. The speaker must seek to encourage employees to participate and interact.Form hobby clubs for your employees. Employees have their interests outside of work. So, you can form hobby clubs, such as a gaming club, a photography club, a chess club, and more. Conduct a survey and know your employees’ interests and form a club that your workers have a common interest in.Encourage your staff to do charitable activities as a team. You can enlist your employees under a community service contract to join philanthropic works, such as feeding hungry people, helping the homeless, or donating clothes to the poor. A group activity for a good cause can create stronger and deeper connections between team members. The bond they form will reflect in the workplace.Host events for your staff’s family members in the workplace. Hosting events for your employees’ family members is an excellent opportunity for your staff to form friendships even outside of work. By doing that, you can also strengthen teamwork within the workplace. You can host trick or treat events for children, or host tailgate gatherings in your company parking lot before showing a live football game or a family movie on the big screen. On Christmas eve, employ catering services, and celebrate the memorable holiday with your staff and their families.

How To Build Effective Teams In the Workplace

Establishing a successful team in the workplace can be challenging because workers have their values, opinions, work experiences, skills, etc. Nevertheless, teamwork is something an individual or a group of individuals can learn under a team or group contract. With that said, here are the steps to build a successful team in the workplace.

Step 1: Know the Purpose and Goal of Every Team

Before creating a team, first, identify the purpose of every team. Remember that a team is composed of employees who work together on a particular project or task. For that reason, team leaders must identify both long term and short-term smart goals and recruit the right people for the team. When different groups work together effectively, they fulfill the purpose of the organization as a whole.

Step 2: Set Your Expectations for all Teams

Practically, you can employ team leaders to form the right groups, build the right working culture, and create team contract rules. It would also be best if you take other necessary actions to establish a working environment that nurtures and rewards teamwork. Your institution must work on a system and method that supports collaboration rather than individual progress.

Step 3: Support Employee Empowerment

Employee empowerment is allowing a worker to think, act, and make decisions about their work independently. Empowered employees tend to become more efficient in doing the jobs their leaders task them to do. They can work on their duties without waiting for somebody else’s decision. Therefore, workers become more accountable and responsible, which is what an employer wants for his/her employees, especially when they work in teams.

Step 4: Encourage Communication Through Team Building Activities

Make ways for your employees to communicate with one another better. You can apply some of the team building ideas mentioned earlier. In this way, you will enhance cooperation between team members, groups, and departments. Note that collaboration is key to a well-functioning business organization.

Step 5: Enforce Good Working Habits

Team members may develop ways of accomplishing their work. Good working habits include meeting deadlines, fulfilling commitments, planning steps, and making wise decisions. These habits contribute to a team’s success. So, it is wise to set up rules and regulations in a team contract. The contract will serve as a basis for disagreements or conflicts that may arise later on between team members.

FAQs

What is project management?

Project management is a process where a company plans and uses its resources to achieve a specific goal. Resources include employees, finances, intellectual property, and technology. It can either involve a one-time or an ongoing project. Usually, it is associated with the fields of information technology, health care, and engineering. Moreover, it doesn’t matter which field a project manager belongs because his job is to determine goals and choose the right workers to perform specific tasks.

Is there such a thing as a leadership contract?

Yes, there are even books available online concerning this topic. A leadership contract is an agreement made for team leaders in a particular organization. When an individual signs a leadership agreement, he must commit to lead his/her team to the best of his/her capabilities. It is a personal commitment an individual makes to be the kind of leader the contract details.

How does a business contract differ from a team contract?

Business contracts can come in many forms depending on what interests a company. It can be a sales agreement, an employment contract, a lease agreement, or a standard business agreement. A team contract can be a category that falls under a business contract since a team contract also concerns business.

What is contract negotiation?

Individuals or companies who venture on business deals make contracts to set their agreements. Typically, contracts contain expectations and obligations that the parties have made. Contract negotiation happens when the parties smoothen out the details of the agreement before committing to it. The parties involved try to negotiate the conditions and terms to favor each of the parties involved.

A team contract is a document that binds a team together. In the workplace, it helps a particular department to complete an important business project. In the classroom setting, a team contract or a group project contract guides the students to finish a school project. In both settings, a team contract serves as a means for a team to achieve its goals.