Making sure your employees feel consistently engaged in their jobs means that they will be constantly excited and ready to contribute to the company’s success. Otherwise, they will get bored, feel unappreciated and unhappy, and inevitably move on.
It’s up to you to make sure this doesn’t happen.
But how?
In this article, we’ll talk about employee engagement, specifically what it is and why it’s important — and, importantly, we’ll give you 20 effective employee engagement activities and ideas to consider.
What is employee engagement?
In its most basic form, employee engagement refers to employees’ emotional commitment and overall motivation and involvement in the organization and its mission, vision and values. Essentially, it all boils down to how much your people care about their work and how invested they are in contributing to the company’s success.
An engaged employee is one who is:
- Proud of the work they do
- Eager to stay with the company for the long term
- Motivated to encourage and support their coworkers
- Interested in their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities
- Content with their job, manager and company culture
- Keen to recommend the company to family and friends
Why is employee engagement important?
Given how employee engagement affects every aspect of a business, there’s little doubt into its importance. Indeed, the more engaged your employees, the more rewards you’ll reap.
These are the main reasons who should strive for employee engagement:
- It improves team dynamics, morale and performance
- It increases productivity, both on an individual and on a team level
- It increases profits by 23%, according to Gallup
- It reduces absenteeism rates
- It decreases employee burnout and mental health issues
- It improves all-around employee retention rates
This is true for all employees, regardless their role and position, whether they’re remote, in-office or factory workers.
20 employee engagement activities and ideas
So, how do you ensure employee engagement in the workplace? These fun, creative and results-driven activities and ideas are a great start.
1. Volunteering days
One of the very first employee engagement activities to consider is volunteering days — which essentially involves offering employees a few hours from the workday, or even a full day, to participate in community service, whether it’s volunteering at the local animal shelter or soup kitchen.
You can either select a specific organization that employees can volunteer at, or you can allow your team to choose a cause that they’re passionate about.
2. Wellness programs
Wellness programs — such as gym memberships, mindfulness workshops, fitness classes, health screenings or healthy lunches — will definitely be appreciated by your team, as they will know that you truly care about them.
Not only that, but these kinds of programs also help promote employees’ physical and mental health, reduce their stress and increase their happiness. And, as a result, their productivity and morale will surge.
3. Recognition initiatives
Developing and launching recognition initiatives is one of the best ways for ensuring employee engagement.
This can be something as simple as an Employee of the Month program, or it could involve giving awards for length of service milestones or gift cards for a job well done. At the end of the day, the more recognized that employees feel (and publicly, at that), the more rewards your business will reap.
4. Employee competitions
A little friendly competition in the workplace never hurt anyone — in fact, it motivates employees to succeed and push themselves, which then benefits the company in terms of productivity, output and efficiency.
Some employee competition and contest ideas to consider include ping pong tournaments, steps challenges, trivia games, scavenger hunts and bake-offs.
5. Team-building activities
When it comes to employee engagement, organizing team-building activities (especially those outside the office) can help guarantee that. These include go-karting, paintballing and marathons, but they can also be a little less vigorous such as escape rooms, cooking classes and karaoke parties.
Some virtual team-building activities to consider, meanwhile, include online game nights, bingo and dance parties.
6. Remote and flexible work arrangements
One thing that more and more people are increasingly looking for when job searching is the ability to work remotely or enjoy a flexible work arrangement. In fact, they tend to prioritize these kinds of perks and benefits over salary.
In other words, by offering your employees remote and flexible work arrangements, you won’t only help boost engagement but also attract — and retain — high-quality talent.
7. Coffee breaks
Incorporating regular, short coffee breaks into the workday can significantly enhance employee morale and productivity, and foster a sense of camaraderie — as well as allow staff to re-caffeinate and recharge.
These breaks can either be in-person (in a dedicated area in the office or combined with walks outside) or virtual (which is especially useful for remote teams who don’t get to interact with each other frequently, beyond the requirements of their jobs).
8. Bar nights
Bar nights can be a great way to help employees blow off some steam — but they should supplement other activities on this list, and not define your employee engagement efforts.
Whether it’s arranging weekly or bimonthly trips to the local bar, or even hosting a bar night in the workplace (after office hours), make sure to provide alternatives for those who don’t drink.
9. Employee surveys and feedback sessions
If you’re stuck on ideas, or the employee engagement activities we’ve listed in this guide don’t resonate with you, consider implementing employee surveys and feedback sessions to ask your team what they want.
The key to this HR strategy is to actually listen to their feedback and implement their ideas (provided, of course, they’re feasible). After all, there’s nothing that will disengage employees faster than if they feel they’re being ignored.
10. Professional development opportunities
Another great way to keep employees engaged is to provide them with professional development opportunities. Not only do these programs allow you to invest in the future of your organization, but they also tell employees that there’s a place for them in the company for the long term — and this will help you retain top talent.
For this, you can either give employees a monthly or yearly budget for training, seminars and courses, where you reimburse the fees, either fully or partially.
11. Mentorship programs
A great way to support employees’ career development — and boost their engagement — is to offer them mentorship opportunities. This typically involves pairing less experienced employees with senior employees, who will teach them the ins and outs of the role and industry.
Not only will those less experienced employees receive guidance and support, but the senior employees will also gain useful leadership experience.
12. Birthday celebrations
A great way to show your employees that you care about them is to celebrate their birthday! This can range from a small party in the break room (complete with a yummy birthday cake) to a small gift as a token of the company’s appreciation for all their hard work.
You can even take it one step further and celebrate other major life events like work anniversaries or the birth of a child.
13. Learning lunches
Another useful employee engagement strategy is to host regular learning lunches, also known as lunch-and-learns. These lunches combine a free meal with a workshop, giving employees the best of both worlds: food and professional development opportunities.
Learning lunches can focus around developing new skills, completing a training session, attending a seminar, socializing, or discussing interesting topics like networking tips or retirement planning.
14. Office parties
Whether it’s the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas or New Year’s Eve, or just because, throwing an office party is bound to keep employees engaged and motivated in their jobs. You don’t have to go all out, either, particularly if you don’t have a big enough budget: some treats, costumes and decorations in the office break room will suffice.
You can even host virtual office parties, if your employees work remotely.
15. Sporting events
Your company is bound to have some baseball, American rugby or tennis fans on its staff. And an awesome way to keep them engaged is to arrange sporting events, either across teams or departments — or even with other local companies.
That said, not everyone enjoys (watching or playing) sports, so it’s important that you don’t force participation from anyone that doesn’t want to. You could even arrange an alternative for the non-sports fans so they don’t feel left out.
16. Barbecues and picnics
When the weather is good, consider organizing a barbecue or a picnic to help employees recharge and feel appreciated. While you could arrange this for the weekend, it’s perhaps more advantageous to do so on a weekday during work hours.
All you have to do is find a suitable location, arrange food (which everyone can help prepare and cook), and set the date!
17. Clubs and interest groups
If you have a few bookworms in your company, why not start a book club? If some people on your team enjoy gardening, perhaps create a relevant interest group.
In fact, introducing clubs and interest groups in the workplace can be a great way to make employees feel valued and engaged — especially when these initiatives are led by the employees themselves.
18. Employee referral programs
One of the best ways to foster employee engagement is to develop and introduce an employee referral program, where current employees refer people to open vacancies in the company.
If they refer someone who is successfully hired, then you can reward them accordingly, typically with a small bonus or a gift card.
19. Cultural celebrations
Incorporating cultural celebrations into the workplace can be a great way to promote diversity and inclusion. This can include religious holidays like Christmas and Hannukah, as well as cultural events and festivals like the Chinese New Year and Holi, the Hindu “festival of love”.
As a result, the better sense of safety and belonging employees feel, the more engaged and productive they will be. It also provides everyone with the opportunity to learn about different cultures and traditions.
20. Gamification
Gamifying tasks and projects is yet another fantastic employee engagement activity to try out in the organization. This involves integrating games or game-like elements into business processes.
For example, you could introduce leaderboards to your sales department, or hackathons to your IT department. For this to really work, though, it’s a good idea to incorporate a rewards system into the mix, which could be anything from a gift card to something inexpensive like a free coffee.
FAQs about employee engagement activities
Here are some common questions about employee engagement activities:
Q: How often should I hold employee engagement activities?
This will largely depend on your budget. That said, time and money allowing, it’s a good idea to try to hold employee engagement activities once a month, which gives employees something to look forward to. Meanwhile, outdoor excursions can be a biannual thing, while office parties can be held quarterly.
Q: How can I measure the success of such activities?
There are many ways you can measure the success of the employee engagement activities that you introduce into the workplace, including absenteeism and turnover rates, annual performance reviews, and pulse surveys.
Q: Can a small company implement effective employee engagement activities?
Of course! While you may have limited resources for such activities, there are many budget-friendly and even free options to choose from. You could also hold employee engagement activities a little less frequently if that helps your budget.
Final thoughts
And there you have it: 20 effective employee engagement activities and ideas to incorporate into the workplace. Of course, there are many other fun and creative ways to boost engagement.
If you can think of any, including those that you’ve already introduced to your staff, we want to hear them and what the overall experience has been. Just let us know in the comments section below.
This article is a complete update of an earlier version originally published in 2018.