Traditional team-building activities tend to send employees heading to the hills.

But we're confident that there are plenty of ways to establish relationships with your coworkers without an awkward icebreaker activity or out-of-place craft project.

Creating those bonds among staff members is about more than just having a cool company culture; employees report that when they have friends at work, their job is more fun, enjoyable, worthwhile, and satisfying. In fact, a recent Gallup survey found that close work friendships boost employee satisfaction by 50%, and people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to engage fully in their tasks. 

Now that the weather is warmer, we think there are even more ways you can get employees to participate in creative, engaging activites. Here are eight of our favorite suggestions: 

If you're a human resources professional, the odds are that you've been in charge of developing or growing your company's workplace wellness program. While it may seem like a natural fit to task the HR team to deal with employee health details, we often find that our clients haven't really determined where the responsibility for their wellness program lies. The approaches vary among different companies and industries, with some focusing on personal responsibility or others opting to hire a third-party vendor. 

We believe in creating a culture of wellness and cultivating positive, permanent lifestyle changes. That's why we were beyond thrilled to hear that one of our longtime clients, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), was launching the new EVEN™ Hotels. This brand offers wellness-minded travelers a destination where they can maintain their healthy lifestyles while on the road. Whether they're on a work trip or enjoying a bit of PTO, these hotels are built with the guests' health in mind. 

Any employee's ears would perk up at the idea of unlimited vacation days. This doesn't come as much of a surprise when you contrast the dream of endless time off with the idea that Americans are working more than ever, averaging more than 48 hours a week according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. 

We’ve come a long way since the standard pedometer. From smartphone apps that can tell you how healthy your food is to a wristband that tracks your activity and sleeping patterns, the “wearable wellness” trend shows no signs of slowing down. According to ABI Research, 13 million wearable devices will be integrated into corporate wellness plans over the next five years – an impressive jump, when you consider that less than 200,000 are currently incorporated.

You may be aware that your staff is rarely hitting the magical 8-hour mark for their sleep schedules. While your employees' out-of-office time is their own business, a lack of adequate sleep could be affecting your company in the long run. Those cubicle cat naps and overall on-the-job sleepiness cost employers about $100 billion in lost productivity, health care costs and employee absences, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

Your office has a productivity problem, whether you're aware of it or not. The source of your setbacks doesn't necessarily stem directly from your employees, but from a combination of environmental and cultural factors that interrupt, distract and slow down the efficiency of your workforce. Luckily, there are plenty of solutions to help you get the most out of your employees without resorting to micromanagement, banning the use of the Internet or destroying your staff's work-life balance. 

When people say that the best ideas are often the most simple, I often think they must be referring to Nilofer Merchant. Her TED Talk about walking meetings last year offered us one of the most profound yet straightforward corporate wellness solutions I've ever heard. (If you haven't yet viewed it, click here to watch.) 

You've heard the statistic over and over again: one-third of Americans can be classified as obese. While the ramifications of this data have been explored in terms of our children and our health care costs, we believe that the impact of this information on the workplace deserves extra attention. As a corporate wellness provider, we've seen first-hand that employers can make a difference in the health and lifestyles of their employees. If companies don't start to make this shift in the public consciousness, every employer in America will find themselves paying an even higher cost for workers with a high BMI. 

Last week, we had the pleasure of attending the 2014 Art & Science of Health Promotion Conference in Colorado Springs. Held at the beautiful Broadmoor hotel, the conference offered us a chance to discuss our new ideas in the field of health promotion and hear incredible presentations from the industry's thought leaders.