Nature activities offer work communities an effective way to promote well-being, strengthen team spirit, and improve work efficiency. Finland’s diverse natural environment provides an excellent setting for various workplace activities throughout the year. Time spent in nature reduces stress, increases creativity, and helps build more authentic connections between colleagues. A well-planned nature day for your work team can be a turning point in developing team collaboration and improving workplace well-being.
Why Are Nature Activities Important for Workplace Well-being?
Nature activities are a significant factor in promoting workplace well-being, as spending time in nature demonstrably reduces stress hormone levels in the body. The pressures of work life, constant availability, and intensive knowledge work burden employees’ minds, but just 20 minutes in nature can significantly lower stress levels. Different natural environments activate our brains differently than office or urban environments, which helps recovery from cognitive load.
Nature also supports the restoration of concentration, which is more valuable than gold in today’s work life. This is based on attention recovery, as the brain gets to rest from the constant flood of stimuli. As workdays fill with meetings, instant messaging, and continuous interruptions, nature’s peaceful environment offers a counterbalance that improves concentration when returning to work tasks. When a work community spends time in nature, both working memory and creative thinking improve.
In today’s digital work environment, the importance of nature connection is even more pronounced. Many employees suffer from “nature deficit” as days are spent indoors in front of screens. Regular contact with nature improves sleep quality, mood, and even immune system function. By offering the work community opportunities to spend time in nature, employers demonstrate care for employees’ holistic well-being. Arrange a refreshing nature day for your team by exploring Premium Resorts’ booking calendar and find a suitable time for a shared nature experience.
What Types of Nature Activities Can Be Organized for Work Communities?
Numerous nature activities can be organized for work communities, suitable for both active adventurers and those seeking more peaceful activities. Forest trips are a classic choice that works excellently year-round. During spring and summer, guided plant and mushroom foraging trips, mindfulness exercises, or even cooking together over a campfire can be organized in the forest. During autumn’s colorful season, photography walks and berry-picking trips combine enjoying nature’s bounty with the joy of togetherness.
Near water bodies, diverse lake activities can be implemented. During summer, canoeing, SUP boarding, and fishing trips bring variety to workplace activities. In winter, ice walking, ice swimming, and ice fishing offer unique experiences in Finnish nature. Team-oriented outdoor activities such as nature Olympics, orienteering, or geocaching combine movement, problem-solving, and teamwork in a way that effectively strengthens workplace dynamics.
Wellness-focused activities, such as forest yoga, forest bathing, and silence retreats, offer a counterbalance to the hectic work life. These activities emphasize presence, calming down, and strengthening the connection to nature. In wintertime, snowshoe trips, ski tours, and campfire evenings provide memorable experiences. In all activities, it’s important to consider participants’ fitness levels and interests to ensure the experience is pleasant and empowering for everyone.
How Do Nature Activities Strengthen Team Spirit?
Nature activities effectively strengthen team spirit because they create a unique environment where workplace hierarchies and roles often fade. When a team meets in a natural environment, people appear to each other as more complete personalities beyond their professional roles. This enables more authentic interaction and helps build deeper connections between team members. Conversations on forest paths or around campfires often bring up different topics than in office environments.
Shared nature experiences, especially those that include small challenges or problem-solving, build collective memory and stories that the team can return to later. Such shared experiences create a sense of belonging and “team spirit” that carries over when returning to the workplace. Small challenges faced in nature, such as weather changes or meals prepared together, teach the team to trust each other and work toward a common goal in a way that differs significantly from the office environment.
The informality of the natural environment also helps lower communication barriers between employees in different positions. Leaders and team members meet on more equal terms, which promotes a more open discussion culture. This can help resolve hidden tensions in the work community and untangle knots that would otherwise slow down team operations. Working together in nature also reveals people’s different strengths that might not emerge in the work environment, which helps appreciate colleagues’ diverse skills in a new way.
How to Plan a Successful Workplace Well-being Day in Nature?
Planning a successful workplace well-being day begins with defining a clear objective. Consider whether you want to focus on strengthening team spirit, relieving stress, awakening creativity, or perhaps addressing concrete work matters in an inspiring environment. The objective guides the selection of activities and the structure of the day. Also consider participants’ physical condition, interests, and previous experiences with nature activities to ensure the day is enjoyable for everyone.
In scheduling, it’s important to find a balance between guided activities and free time. A workplace well-being day in nature needs flexibility to allow nature’s calming effect to take place. Start the day with a light activity that sets the mood, and place any working sessions in the middle of the day when energy levels are highest. End the day with joint reflection and relaxed togetherness. Also consider weather conditions and prepare alternative plans if, for example, rain surprises you.
When selecting activities, it’s advisable to combine physical and calming elements and offer appropriate challenges without excessive competitiveness. Ensure that alternatives are available for different participants. In choosing the timing, consider the seasons: spring and early summer are suitable for refreshment, late summer and autumn inspire strategic thinking, winter offers a unique environment for teamwork, and late winter energizes new beginnings. When planning your workplace well-being day, explore Premium Resorts’ booking calendar to find a suitable environment for your team in different seasons.
What Benefits Does a Work Community Gain from Regular Nature Experiences?
Regular nature experiences bring significant long-term benefits to work communities, especially in preventing burnout. Time spent in nature helps recover from work stress and prevents chronic fatigue, which is reflected in reduced sick leave and better endurance. Workplaces that regularly organize nature activities have been found to experience reduced employee stress and increased general satisfaction.
The natural environment activates the brain’s creative functions and improves problem-solving abilities in a way that directly reflects on work performance. Regular nature experiences also develop flexible thinking and the ability to adapt to changes, which is valuable in today’s working life where change is constant.
The strengthening of community is perhaps the most significant long-term benefit of regular nature experiences. When a team regularly shares experiences in nature, it creates shared memories and reference frameworks that strengthen the sense of belonging. This is reflected in improved teamwork, more effective communication, and stronger commitment to both the team and the organization. Employees who feel connected to their work community are more likely to stay with the organization longer and are more willing to strive toward common goals.
At Premium Resorts, we have seen how workplace well-being days organized in nature positively change team dynamics. Our destinations offer perfect settings for organizing nature activities throughout the year. Explore our booking calendar and let your team experience nature’s empowering effect on workplace well-being.
