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Work retreats, also known as staff retreats, focus on achieving a business result. While many team retreats are meant to boost morale and for team-building, work retreats are more strategic. The goal of a work retreat is to spend time brainstorming, working on a project, or coming up with a company roadmap.
The design of your work retreat depends on the type of business you have and your goals:
Teamwork-focused retreats are often organized by teams of 30-50 people for up to two weeks. Even when the goal is to improve the company culture, Surf Office can assist in hosting productive offsite retreats that get results.
We’ve gathered tips and ideas from our experience hosting teams of all types and sizes for companies seeking to host a work retreat. Here’s what you need to know to plan an effective work retreat.
The activities on a work retreat can range from team bonding to business-oriented goal-setting and presentations. There are many benefits to hosting a retreat, including:
Looking for a little inspiration? Surf Office has hosted work retreats for a number of different companies. Here are what four companies did on their work retreats.
Clearly, there are a lot of ways to use your team retreat effectively. What’s the best way to make the most of your limited time away?
The agenda you set for your team will depend largely on your goals. Work with our team to learn how to make the most of your offsite. We’ve hosted dozens of retreats, like one for Elbstack, a German software engineering and design company.
Elbstack’s retreat took place over two weeks in the heart of Lisbon. Their objectives were:
To achieve these goals, kick-off with an intense brainstorming session or hackathon. Develop the ideas that come from that session over the next few days. Take the time to pivot or start larger projects. And, most importantly, live like a local! Explore the beauty of Lisbon’s charming streets.
Elbstack scheduled some fun team activities in between work sessions. Some of the activities they signed up for included surfing lessons, a sunset sailing tour, and a city tour with a fantastic local Portuguese tour company, We Hate Tourism Tours. The team also enjoyed the best Lisbon had to offer in terms of gastronomy.
Lennart Brandt, a product designer at Elbstack, had this to say about the retreat:
“We had two beautiful weeks exploring the fantastic city of Lisbon. With no disruptions, we could truly dedicate our time toward developing our products and our company without getting distracted by client work or managing the logistics of the company retreat itself. Not only was the working environment on this retreat better than our previous retreats, but a less stressful situation also allowed us to have a lot of fun together as well.”
There are a few ways to make sure your work offsite is a success.
First, it’s a good idea to take your team to a remote location.
Head to the countryside to decrease the distractions of city life. Surf Office runs work retreats in the charming, remote fishing village of Ericeira. We also recommend the Catskill Mountains, Zion national park, and Gran Canaria, or one of our remote villas close to Barcelona or Valencia. Click here to see all our locations.
After you have your location, work on the agenda ahead of time.
Ask your team members what problems they would like to solve. Brainstorm which areas of the business you would like to improve. Then, organize a hackathon or design sprint to work on your project in groups.
We’ve also found it’s important to balance work and play.
Leave some free time every day for your team; otherwise, people are going to be exhausted.
Prioritize which ideas you want to work on.
Don’t try to do too much in one retreat! Focus on brainstorming ideas, creating quick concepts/prototypes, and feedbacking them. You can test your concepts in the real world once you are back from the retreat.
Not sure where to focus?
Before the retreat, ask your team what projects they would work on with a budget of US$10,000, and what projects they would choose with a budget of US$1 million. We did this exercise during our Surf Office retreat in Prague. Then we brainstormed and worked on the best ideas. You might realize that many “one million dollar ideas” you can actually develop with a much lower budget.
Lastly, make sure you’re equipped with the right environment and tools.
Book an office or workspace and make sure it has enough whiteboards or presentation tools.
Many work retreats focus exclusively on a business problem. But, leave some time for team bonding. Plan activities that give team members the opportunity to get to know colleagues on a personal level. When team building is done right, it can increase employee engagement. Data shows that companies with engaged employees have 2.5 times higher revenues compared to those competitors with lower employee engagement.
Here are some popular team building activities in our Surf Office locations:
Ready to start planning your team retreat? Get in touch with Surf Office for help with your next company retreat.
Enigma’s workation strengthens culture and collaboration
Enigma is a Switzerland-based remote-first digital agency. For their company retreat, the team of 32 spent six days in Ericeira, Portugal, combining productive work sessions with team-building activities.
Through workshops, brainstorming sessions, and activities like a group surf lesson, the team strengthened collaboration and company culture. As a result, Enigma’s company retreat generated fresh ideas, boosted morale, and brought the team closer together.
Mynd retreat resulted in 12 new product features
Mynd is a property management company based in California. For their corporate retreat, Mynd’s team of 32 people relocated for 10 days to Surf Office Barcelona. The team spent the first three days running a hackathon. The team developed 12 new product features in a quick sprint of innovation.
Mynd’s approach to their company retreat was to prepare beforehand; key design elements were already in place when they arrive in Spain. As a result, the team could move quickly and work without designers.
Amun’s retreat sparks innovation and team bonding
Amun is a leading cryptocurrency issuer helping make digital assets more accessible to investors. For their company retreat, the team of 45 spent six days in Mallorca focused on innovation and company culture.
At the heart of the retreat was a 48-hour hackathon, where employees worked in small groups to develop and present new ideas. The result was a productive week that generated creative concepts, strengthened relationships, and brought the team closer together.
Invision’s team comes together for beach meetings
Finally, InVision is a product design tool and 100% remote company. The team met in Ericeira for a company retreat with Surf Office.
They split their time between team bonding – stand-up paddle, surfing, and eating incredible seafood – and a hackathon. During their one-day hackathon, InVision built new product features and internal communication tools.
A work retreat is an offsite event where employees come together outside the office to focus on strategic planning, collaboration, problem-solving, and project work. Unlike traditional team-building retreats, work retreats are primarily designed to achieve specific business goals.
Companies organize work retreats to create dedicated time for planning, brainstorming, innovation, and collaboration. By stepping away from daily distractions, teams can focus on important projects and long-term objectives.
While company retreats often focus on culture, team bonding, and company-wide alignment, work retreats place greater emphasis on productivity, strategic discussions, workshops, and achieving measurable business outcomes.
A successful work retreat agenda typically includes strategy sessions, brainstorming workshops, project planning, collaborative work time, presentations, and team-building activities. The best agendas balance focused work with opportunities to relax and connect.
Most work retreats last between 3 and 5 days, although some teams choose longer retreats for larger projects, hackathons, or annual planning sessions.
Work retreats can improve collaboration, accelerate decision-making, generate new ideas, strengthen team relationships, and help teams make meaningful progress on important projects.
Yes. Many companies use work retreats to tackle projects that are difficult to complete during normal work weeks. By reducing interruptions and bringing people together in one place, teams can focus more deeply on their goals.
Popular work retreat activities include brainstorming workshops, hackathons, design sprints, strategy sessions, team challenges, cooking classes, city tours, and outdoor experiences. The best activities complement the retreat's business objectives.
The best work retreat locations combine productive workspaces with inspiring surroundings and convenient travel connections. Popular destinations include Lisbon, Barcelona, Mallorca, Porto, Ericeira, and Bali.
Planning a productive work retreat starts with defining clear goals and outcomes. Once you know what you want to achieve, choose a location that supports focused work, create an agenda that balances collaboration and deep work, and schedule activities that complement your objectives. Many companies work with retreat planning specialists to handle logistics, accommodation, meeting spaces, and team activities.
Are you planning a strategy meeting, design sprint, hackathon, kickoff meeting of a new project or “just” regular work time?
Whatever it is, we’ve got your back.
Expect a professional working environment with:
And of course, very fast internet.
Each team has a bit of a different expectation when it comes to their retreat experience and that’s why you have the flexibility to choose different types of accommodation ranging from premium ensuite rooms to shared accommodation.
All of our accommodation options are located in central areas within walking distance from the restaurants and grocery stores. You don’t need to rent a car or use public transportation to move around. We want to make your stay as easy as possible.
You have 100% security that your booking won’t be canceled (anyone with experience of last-minute group booking cancellation can relate).
We understand that your team might be growing and you might need to add additional rooms over time, you’ll have this flexibility too.
We’ve built a system that makes retreat planning easy and fast.
We’ll plan every detail of your retreat from start to finish, so that you don’t have to. This includes:
You will get a personalized schedule and online dashboard with all of your retreat information before your retreat starts. Our onsite support will show you everything you need to know upon your arrival and make sure everything goes smoothly for you and your team.
“Thanks for a great offsite venue @surfoffice – we had a blast!”
James Allgrove, Head of Growth at Stripe UK
1. Confirm Details
You will confirm with us the number of people, location (we can also recommend the best location based on where your team is located and prices of flights), dates and your desired setup for accommodation.
2. Invoice & Payment
After confirming details, we will send you an invoice. You can pay by wire transfer, credit/debit card or PayPal.
3. Team Retreat Planning
This process is super easy. With our playbook you will quickly create a personalized schedule. We’ll make sure you get all the information well before your retreat time and you will have our support person available throughout the whole process.
4. Retreat Time
Expect an introductory tour after your arrival. Our onsite support is available in case you need anything. We will give you local tips and remind you about your planned activities throughout the retreat.
Choose from hundreds of retreat locations in Europe, America, Asia-Pacific, and Africa.
