Whatever Happened to the Company Picnic?

One of the favorite events of the summer was my dad’s company picnic. They always had it at a big park where there were games like sack, 3-legged and wheelbarrow races and water balloon tosses and egg tosses. And always a big game of softball or kickball with kids of all ages. My siblings and I would resist going every year. “We don’t know anyone. It’s going to be sooo boring, Dad….We wanna stay and play with our friends…” But Dad would insist. And every year, we would have so much fun. We made new friends, played games, ate great food, won some prizes and always left with a smile on our faces.

For my dad it was an opportunity to show off his family to his co-workers and show off his company to us. It made him proud that he worked for a company that would invest in their employees and host such a nice event. I am sure that even back in those days it was a lot of money to organize the picnics, but the payoff in loyalty and employee engagement, at least from my dad’s perspective, was great.

In today’s world it is easy to lose sight of the value of a simple Company Picnic or Holiday Party. Statistics show that only about 44% of companies in the US still have company picnics. I am proud to say that at Mossberg & Company, we still proudly host these team-building and appreciation-showing events on a pretty regular basis. Our families enjoy a Children’s Christmas party each year where Santa comes and every child leaves with a gift that was chosen specifically for them. Our employees take time out of their workday to enjoy time together over a Holiday meal. And this past weekend, we enjoyed a good old-fashioned Company Picnic. One of our Core Values is a passion for responding to Customers, Employees and Community. We strive to continue to have a great company culture and take our core values seriously and our company traditions seriously. We value our employees and their families. The article below supports that maybe these things are not only good PR but also good business!

10 Elements of Great Company Culture

Today we are taking a moment to share some photos from Saturday’s picnic. We have also posted some shots from picnics of the past. Hope you enjoy them!