Former Wales and British & Irish Lions Captain Sam Warburton OBE was invited to provide some motivation for over 600 staff from Sony UK TEC at its annual team building day.
Staff from the Pencoed-based manufacturing facility congregated at Cardiff City FC’s home ground for a fun-filled day of teambuilding exercises last Friday.
Having been capped 74 times for Wales, and 48 as captain, Warburton shared his experiences of leadership and working together as team, as the day’s guest speaker.
To ensure its talented and highly-skilled workforce can continue to achieve world-class manufacturing standards, the business heads organise the facilities fifth annual team building day to bring its staff together.
This year, the day was planned to tie in with Sony UK TEC’s Motivational and Wellbeing strategy, with a particular focus on mental health. The aim of the day was to create lasting connections and relationships between the team in order to maintain a healthy and happy workplace.
With activities chosen to align with the manufacturing giant’s collaborative working and wellbeing initiatives that they are continually cultivating, the workforce took part in a series of activities including Tai Chi, learning the Haka, and a ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’ networking exercise.
Jessica Jones, Learning and Development Manager at Sony UK TEC, said:
“This year’s team building day was a huge success. We were so happy to see nearly 600 Team Players come together and thoroughly enjoy the day. The finale of the day is always incredible – seeing everyone taking part in a mass Haka makes all the hard work and planning completely worth it!
“We want our Team Players to feel proud to work with each other and for Sony UK TEC. The connections the team have with each other are the foundations of a successful work environment.
“It is written in the One Minute Manager, a leadership book that focuses on the responsibility of the line manager in keeping their teams engaged, that “People who feel good produce good results”, and we truly believe that. We endeavour to ensure that everyone in our team feels happy, motivated and healthy.
“We are looking forward to continuing our team building initiatives throughout the year after seeing the success of our annual events.”
Sam Warburton said:
“Days like today for the guys in the Sony UK TEC team are so important as it’s a great way to get to know everyone in the organisation. I think when you have a greater connection with the people you work with you are much more likely to go above and beyond the call of duty for both the company and your colleagues.
“We have team building at the start of every season in Rugby and then revisit them through the season. It aligns everyone so that we are all working towards the same goal, it really motivates the team. We had a choir come in once, initially everyone was a bit confused but by the end of it we all came together, and it was one the best tools we had used for connecting the team.
“I really enjoyed meeting and speaking to the staff at Sony UK TEC and I hope they all got something from it, it was a great day!”
Sony UK TEC’s emphasis on staff progression, motivation, and improvement, has driven international success at the Welsh factory, with the facility consistently recognised among the most progressive in the industry.
