Workplace competition can help you identify skills, and enhance productivity and profits. Studies have shown how healthy competition can fuel creativity, strengthen interpersonal relationships and even improve productivity in the workplace. Creative problem solving, trusting your intuition and being willing to push beyond your personal boundaries are all skills that make someone a good competitor; they are also skills valuable to every workplace. But too much competition can be toxic, lowering staff morale and generating workplace stress.

Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of workplace competition:

Communication

One of the most notable benefits is enhanced communication. Too often, during the workday, co-workers have little opportunity to interact with each other. Or, they may only have the chance to speak briefly with the same one or two colleagues. Workplace competitions can be an excellent opportunity for employees to interact with one another, forging friendships that increase productivity.

Creativity

Workplace competition is the perfect excuse for the cultivation of outside-of-the-box thinking and innovation. By providing an opportunity for collaboration, you are promoting team-based creative thinking that will spill over into day-to-day problem solving.

Natural Born Leaders

We inherently play to our natural strengths, and this is never more apparent than during workplace competition. Take advantage of this ideal occasion to watch how people act. The employee who stepped into a leadership role may be just the one to lead your team to victory the next time a project needs guidance.

So how do you glean the benefits of workplace competition without the drawbacks?

Make It Fun

Laughter is nature’s way of eliminating stress. Activities like bowling or a trivia challenge not only help to encourage teamwork, they often find co-workers enjoying a shared joke or two. And because these activities typically take place off-site, it adds to the already playful atmosphere.

Encourage Participation Over Winning

In any competition, there can be only one winner. By celebrating staff involvement rather than just honoring the winner, you are creating an environment where each member of your team feels valued. When someone feels that their contributions have value, they are far more likely to contribute their best ideas.

Healthy competition that recognizes all participants, rewards those who have been successful, and refrains from penalizing those who didn’t ‘win’ can have a positive impact on your overall work environment.

Finding your next all-star employee doesn’t have to be difficult. Let the talented staffing professionals at Morris Bixby help you to build a winning team!