10 Fun Employee Engagement Activities to Energize Your Team
Employee moral is key to a successful and energized company. Here are 10 employee engagement activities that’re sure to get the most out of your employees.
If you even need to ask, “What can employee engagement activities do for you?” — It’s simple.
Enhancing employee engagement with activities means a lot of good things for your company. Better productivity. Higher employee retention. Better customer satisfaction.
Overall, a better atmosphere for an efficient team to operate and have a positive experience means more success for your business.
See the benefits for yourself by trying these 10 engagement activities in your office.
Brainstorming Session
Brainstorming is the first step of the creative problem-solving process that centers around divergent thought.
Divergent thought is when you allow your mind run wild with ideas with no filter to hinder them. It is meant to generate as many wild ideas as possible before casting any form of judgment on any one idea.
This allows for a better pool of ideas to choose from to then use convergent thinking and condense the idea into the most effective solution to a problem.
Ask your team to solve a problem around the office to help the team feel like they are truly an integrated part of the company.
You could also allow them to brainstorm on an aspect of their own lives. Let them formulate ideas that have to do with their own interests to show that you invest in their lives as well.
Innovation Challenge
Have employees generate new ideas and compete for whose innovation is better.
One issue that a lot of innovation challenges have for companies is that they focus on the brainstorming aspect and generate plenty of ideas but they don’t invest any time and energy into making the idea implementable.
An innovation is an idea put into practice successfully. So rather than have a “best idea” competition have one that focuses on results and reward the team member(s) who can actually produce the best execution of their ideas.
Community Lunch
Here’s a good employee engagement activity. Create a chance for employees to get to know each other through a potluck style lunch. Have everyone bring a dish and share a bit about themselves with the group and why they chose to bring their food item.
The experience gives the team an opportunity to network amongst each other. A team that can break bread together can be more comfortable together.
This will hopefully make it more likely to go to each other with issues instead of relying purely on upper-management and create a more self-sufficient work force.
Get Outside
Influence your staff to get outside every day to have exposure to fresh air and nature. Sitting outside for 15 minutes will re-energize and focus your mind.
If you don’t have the space on company grounds to allow for outdoor seating then try to at least bring some plants into the office.
You could also find some campgrounds or another large plot of land to host a company bonfire. These kind of employee engagement activities get your team outside into nature and provides a fun bonding opportunity.
Onboarding
The onboarding process can be a stressful time for new hires.
Let employees be a key part of the onboarding process for new hires. This will make the new employee more quickly integrate into the existing company culture while allowing older employees to get to know their new peer.
Create a scavenger hunt of sorts for the new employees to go around introducing themselves to senior staff to gain key knowledge about the company and operations.
That way the newcomers can feel more comfortable and integrated quicker while the veteran employees get acquainted with the new member of the team.
Gamify the Office
A little bit of healthy competition can go a long way to engage a team. It really opens people up to collaborate and challenge one another. It can improve a team’s ability to work together and individuals to feel more motivated to succeed.
Include a gamified aspect to the work culture and you’ll notice a drive in your employees that wasn’t there before. By adding scoreboards and badges for successful tasks can increase productivity and give clear impressions of when employees meet goals and who are the top performers.
These types of employee engagement activities can be a slippery slope though so be careful of over-competitive staff members or signs that the games are getting old. Influence staff to work together instead of purely against each other.
Let Them Play
For more light-hearted activities try bringing board games and puzzles into the break room or challenge the office to solve riddles together. That might not directly increase engagement by themselves but that will definitely bring some fun into the equation.
Culture Committee
Have a designated team of people whose job it is to maintain a positive culture among the rest of the company. Have them plan employee engagement activities, events, and rewards for company milestones.
Those who are willing to engage in a committee can feel like more of an integral part of the company overall. And for everyone else they get to reap the benefits of having a group of their fellow co-workers who are looking out for their interests.
Have an Open-Door Policy
Keep lines of communication open. Always make yourself available to hear employee’s thoughts and concerns.
Ask regularly about how their weeks are going. Even encourage them to vent any frustrations they have with you and other members of upper management. You want employees to feel that it is a natural habit to not hesitate when issues arise or to come to you with ideas.
Let Them Work on Their Interests
Let your employees earn an hour or two to work on what interests them in the office. If they like to blog, draw, or make jewelry for their Etsy store allow them to bring it in and work on it at their desk while getting paid.
This will motivate employees to work even harder when they get back to their work for the office. It will also show that you really care for their personal interests and want
See What Employee Engagement Activities Can do for You
It’s always management’s goal to facilitate growth and engagement of their employees. Whether you’re a long standing company or just starting your business, I hope these ideas can help your company thrive.
Employee satisfaction in the workplace is a key
Give them a try and let me know how they work to better your company’s success. If you have any questions or want to share your experience feel free to contact me here.
