Keeping employees engaged, interested, and motivated are top priorities for every company these days. For that very reason, throwing engaging events has become a common corporate culture.
From psychological standpoint too, these team-building events are essential not just for the health of employees, but also for the overall health of an organization.
It adds to the strengthening of relationship between the employee and the employer, in addition to establishing transparency and kicking the negativity out from workplace environment. Organizing employee engagement activities offers advantages for both. It boosts the confidence level and productivity of workers, and for employers, it increases ROI and business gains at multiple fronts.
Advantages of Employee Engagement Activities for Employees –
- Increased attendance
- Highly motivated employees
- Reduced injuries and instances of theft at workplace
- Improved customer service
- Better stress management
When employees are engaged more often in fun activities, they perform better and tend to work with more creativity and innovation.
Advantages of Employee Engagement Events for Employers –
- Happy and more productive workers
- Lower absenteeism (which means more work and deadlines are met)
- Higher retention rate
- Cost saving
- Better work life balance in company culture
So, how does a company engage employees?
Take them onboard, properly.
About 58% of employees who are taken onboard properly are more likely to stay with the same organization for more than 3 years. So, if your company does not have a documented onboarding process, it is time to develop one and put it in place. Here is how to develop an employee onboarding process.
Provide feedbacks for their work.
So, you hire candidates and start monitoring their performance. But, do you ever bother to tell them how they are doing or what do you expect from them? If no, go checkout the importance of giving feedbacks.
Feedback that is constructive is vital to employees’ ongoing development. Plus, it opens a window for improvement, which can be linked with increased productivity.
Appreciate them.
Apart from giving them feedback and criticism, it is also the job of an employer or a manager to appreciate every team member. Offering praise to your team does a great morale boosting and is often linked to improved employee dedication and performance.
Engaging Office Event Ideas That Employees Love
When it comes to organizing corporate events, the theme of the event should be about having fun and that encourages every employee to participate. At the time, the event should have a solid purpose like to build or to strengthen the connection between the employee and the employer, and appreciate and thank the individuals, teams, and departments.
Here are some of the engaging office event ideas your employees will love to be a part of –
Encourage and Appreciate Personal Projects
You can assign some of your team members with individual-level tasks. And if they perform to your expectations, don’t hesitate to give them reward and recognition.
To begin with, you can identify the potential candidates who carry experience and knowledge in the project and who appear confident enough through their daily work reports.
This would ignite a healthy competition in your office, and the end result would always be in your favor. But remember, never practice favoritism here; you might lose some of your best workers.
A Mentor for Every New Joiner
When new employees join, they often feel neglected, because they hardly know anybody there. First few days, or weeks, are always critical for the newcomer. These are the days when they develop a mindset about your company.
How about making an old employee a buddy or mentor of the joinee? The mentor can answer the new employee’s questions related to the organization, teams, tasks, etc.
Fun Fridays
While Mondays are blues, Fridays should be dedicated to fun, music, and casual attire. Promote a work culture that involves working like a workaholic on weekdays and turning into a wide party animal on Fridays.
You can dedicate the entire day (or post lunch hours on Fridays) for fun activities such as singing competition, refreshments, dancing or cooking competitions. The day should be end with rewards and recognition announcements for the week. Though, R&R can be shifted to the last Friday or the last working day of the month.
And as a reward, you could offer popular gifts, such as smoking pipes, key chains, water bottles, gift coupons, and movie tickets for the weekend.
To give the gifts a personalization, you can consider applying – for example – a label on water bottle that mentions the name of the recipient or the name of team.
These events can be organized in office premises itself.
To end with
If we give a closer look, every week day has a theme or story behind it. You can involve your employees to celebrate each workday uniquely.
Similarly, every festivity has a very unique story and culture. You can turn festive occasions into fun-filled events within your office building.
Also, you can run a little competition that involves teams and departments to decorate their space in festive theme. You can even ask them gear themselves up in festive and cultural attires. As a friendly gesture, you can arrange lunch and drink from office.
If there are people from different communities, don’t forget to celebrate their festive occasions too.
You can also celebrate the birthdays of employees every day. If your work culture is too busy, then maybe, this birthday celebration can be shifted to one fine day every month. Task your HR department to maintain a calendar of each month’s birthdays, and prepare a special gift for every birthday boy and girl. You can celebrate everyone’s birthday on the first or last day of the month.
These activities and events may sound small, but they do have a big impact on an employee’s mind and behavior. They love it when the employer shows a sign that they are cared for!
