Why Do Employee Engagement Activities Matter?
When you think of a fun work environment, you may imagine one where work is done slowly or sometimes not at all. But that’s not the case. Employee engagement initiatives are fun activities and programs designed to make your workplace happier while keeping productivity high. When you’re engaged and motivated at work, you become more productive and passionate about what you do. The positive energy spreads to customers, too, boosting your business. It’s not all about making profits; it’s also about collaboration and creating strong bonds. By participating in engagement activities, you’ll build great relationships with your colleagues that go beyond the typical professional relationship. You’ll feel more connected to your team and be more likely to collaborate and support each other. Let’s explore 25 fun employee engagement activities you can implement in your company culture and transform the way everyone works.
25 Fun Employee Engagement Activities
1. Team Lunches
Team lunches are a perfect way to get people from different departments and backgrounds to hang out. Plus, it shows your employees that you really care about them and value their hard work. This can go a long way toward keeping them happy and motivated.
2. Board Games
You can create a room in the office dedicated to board games. Offer them plenty of options to choose from but make sure it’s mostly games played with many people. Soon, you’ll notice more and more employees inviting their peers for a game of “Monopoly” and relaxing after work or during their breaks.
3. DIY Workshops
Fun crafting sessions help your staffers come together and express their creativity. From personalized greeting cards to ceramic decorations, these sessions boost morale, promote team building, and offer people a good time. You provide all the materials, tools, and instructions, and they just have to bring their creative minds.
4. Office Olympics
Mini-games during breaks, or “Office Olympics,” as they’re called, are guaranteed to bring laughter to a busy workday. You could try out some classic favorites like chair races, paper plane contests, or desk basketball tournaments and allow your team to build stronger bonds, creating a more positive work environment.
5. Escape Rooms
Why not treat your team to an escape room adventure where they’ll have to put their heads together to solve puzzles and escape before time runs out? It’s the perfect activity for building teamwork, problem-solving skills, and relationships, all while having fun. You can repeat this often and explore as many escape rooms in your area (or beyond) as you can.
6. Themed Office Parties
It doesn’t hurt to organize a little party every now and then. Whether it’s a holiday or a regular day, you can set a theme and have everyone dress up and have fun. For instance, an ’80s-themed party or one where everyone dresses up as a movie character will create amazing memories and bring all of you together.
7. Acts Of Kindness
You should dedicate a day to spreading kindness among the workforce. Your employees can engage in activities like writing anonymous compliments to each other, buying lunch for their peers, or leaving surprise treats on colleagues’ desks, like sweets, snacks, and small gifts. This makes everyone’s day brighter and surely brings a smile to their faces.
8. Desk Decoration
Much like themed parties, it’s a nice idea to put your employees up to a little challenge: desk decoration. Each month, set a theme and encourage everyone who wants to participate to decorate their desk accordingly. Highlight that they can go as extra as they want, as you’ll pick a different winner each time.
9. Fitness Activities
When it comes to promoting wellness in the workplace, a workout session can be a great idea. However, taking it a step further with a fitness challenge can be even more beneficial. To start, suggest a step challenge with a monthly goal to ease into it. Then, progress to a mile goal for running or a set number of workout sessions. This will show your employees that you care about their health and give them an extra reason to push themselves.
10. Trivia And Quizzes
Who doesn’t enjoy proving their knowledge in front of others? Organize regular trivia and quiz events with presentations, videos, and any other media that will make them interesting. Test your employees’ knowledge on different topics each time, like history, pop culture, sports, and music, or, to make it more intriguing, industry-related questions, and offer small prizes to the winners.
11. Volunteering
Giving back to the community adds an element of meaningfulness to one’s work. Helping out at an animal shelter, cooking for the homeless, donating to organizations, or even cleaning your local park and beach brings your workforce together and shows them that their work in the company has a positive impact.
12. Movie Nights
Movies are a great opportunity to have discussions and bond with your team. You can watch one during a break or after work with a bucket of popcorn and experiment with different genres and themes each time. Afterward, you can discuss it with each other, thus finding out more about what your peers think and how they would react in different situations.
13. Book Club
Similarly, you can create a book club and bond over your love (or dislike) for certain authors and genres. Every employee will have the chance to pick a book for everyone to read, and this can be done in rotation. Give everyone a certain amount of time to finish the book, and then come together to discuss it and exchange opinions.
14. Cooking Classes
Get your team together for a cooking or baking session. Ask someone who loves cooking or baking to lead the session and teach everyone how to make a delicious dish or bake some sweet treats. You can all work together and learn new skills, and maybe even discover some new recipes to enjoy.
15. Bring-Your-Pet-To-Work Day
Few things make people smile more than pets. Allow your employees to bring their beloved pets to work for a day and see how everyone will bond with each other over their shared love for pet parenting. You can organize pet-friendly events that will accommodate the needs of every cute being, from dogs and cats to hamsters and turtles.
16. Monthly Potluck
A fun monthly potluck, where everyone brings a dish to share, will connect people and promote a sense of belonging in the community. The best part is that everyone gets to show off their culinary skills and share their culture with others. So, whether it’s their favorite family recipe or a special dish from their home country, everyone can contribute.
17. Meditation Sessions
Everyone appreciates a chance to relax during a stressful day at work. Bring a yoga instructor or meditation professional and offer hourly sessions occasionally, where employees can relieve their stress and practice mindfulness. Showing that you care about their mental and physical health can do wonders for keeping your workforce loyal and engaged.
18. Team-Building Workshops
Improve your team’s cross-departmental communication and collaboration with workshops run by experts. These team-building activities require people to work together to find solutions and come up with ideas, which enhances their communication skills and helps them work together with other departments, seemingly unrelated to their niche, more effectively.
19. Podcasts
Encourage each department to create a podcast. They can come up with a name and theme, and it can be distributed among company channels or even publicly. This way, employees will get to hear their peers’ unique opinions about all kinds of matters and even offer suggestions to each other for episodes and discussion topics.
20. Secret Santa
Gift exchange is a heartwarming activity and a great opportunity for colleagues to connect with people in the company that they may not even have said hello to before. Spread the holiday joy by organizing a Secret Santa gift exchange and seeing all the unique gifts people will buy for their peers that they may or may not know well enough.
21. Scavenger Hunt
You can consider organizing a fun scavenger hunt around your office or nearby area. Create clues that lead to hidden treasures or interesting facts about your company. It’s a great way to get everyone excited and engaged in a fun activity.
22. Karaoke Nights
Allow your employees to express their talent and love for singing with fun karaoke nights. Whether you do it during a break, an office party, or after work, you will surely have a blast and create many opportunities for inside jokes.
23. Peer-To-Peer Language Learning
If you have a diverse workforce, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to benefit from your team members’ unique cultures and backgrounds. Pair employees with their peers and encourage language learning, where employees teach each other their native languages or any other language that they speak fluently.
24. Brainstorming Sessions
Brainstorming sessions can create a fun and supportive environment where teams exchange ideas and come up with innovative solutions. By encouraging everyone to participate and share their unique perspectives, you can create an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and heard. Plus, coming up with new ideas as a team is a great way to build stronger relationships and improve overall morale.
25. Appreciation Day
You should dedicate a whole day to showing your employees that you appreciate everything they do for you. Write personalized notes to each team member, give them small gifts, or even throw a special recognition ceremony to celebrate their achievements. Doing this can really boost team spirit, keep your staff happy, and foster a positive working atmosphere.
Common Questions About Employee Engagement Activities
How Often Should A Company Introduce Employee Engagement Activities?
It depends on many factors. First of all, it’s all about the budget. If your resources are limited, it makes sense to not organize parties, events, and workshops as often as you’d like. This is why the above list contains cost-effective options too. Still, you should also consider your company’s culture and your employees’ preferences. If they don’t enjoy physical activities, maybe you shouldn’t include trekking, for example.
Overall, once a month is a good frequency for employee engagement activities. It keeps past activities fresh in their minds while giving them something to look forward to each month. You can also adjust the frequency based on the nature of the activity. Outdoor excursions can happen every six months, while day-to-day activities can even happen daily or weekly.
How Can A Company Measure The Success Of Its Employee Engagement Activities?
Surveys are the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about measuring the effectiveness of your employee engagement activities. You can run them annually, quarterly, or even monthly to check in on your staffers. Are they satisfied with their jobs? Is the company culture welcoming enough? Are they happy with the company? Carefully craft the questions that will give you quantitative data for your research. To make the process easier, load them in your employee onboarding software or any other employee management program to help you analyze and visualize data.
Receiving feedback in person is also important. Observe your people daily, without micromanaging them, and sit down with them regularly to talk about work. Learn about their challenges and what they would change, and use these insights to improve your initiatives.
Can Small Businesses With Limited Resources Still Have Effective Employee Engagement Activities?
The short answer is yes. While it may seem discouraging, there are many budget-friendly options to choose from. After all, if you create a supportive and positive work environment, all of your initiatives will be successful, no matter their cost. First of all, you must establish communication. Employees should feel free to express their opinions and ideas and have plenty of opportunities to do so, with regular meetings, virtual or in-person. Creating a safe community where everyone feels welcome and appreciated is also important.
Then, you can use any low-cost employee engagement activity you think is fun and encourage employees to participate. The sense of community that is built even through the simplest group activity is remarkable and can have a positive impact on your team’s productivity and morale.
Conclusion
Although the above ideas can cater to different interests and needs, the list is not exhaustive, as there are plenty of creative ways to keep your workforce engaged. What works best for your team depends on their unique characteristics, such as age, department, education, location, and industry. If you’re not sure where to start, this guide can help you and be your motivation to explore even more creative activities.