Need some great ideas for employee engagement?
You’re in the right spot.
Sadly, only 36% of employees feel engaged in their work. That’s according to a July 2021 study released by Gallup that surveyed over 100,000 teams. Of those who are “actively disengaged,” 74 percent are also actively looking for work.
Employee engagement is one of those areas companies are struggling with on a regular basis these days. So, how can you keep employees engaged without overtime work parties, eye rolls, and sighs?
Don’t let your employees get disengaged to the point of leaving. Solicit feedback to see where your company can improve. This post is an excellent starting point for getting them reengaged.
Ready for some exciting employee engagement? Read on!
1. Invest in Personal Development Each Month
Each month, consider ways you can help your employees invest in their growth. This is a great idea for employee engagement as it can be adjusted easily for in-house or remote teams. Sharing valuable webinars can be done via email. Start a monthly book club where everyone reads the same book and comes together for a monthly meeting to discuss. When companies make the effort to share useful personal development tools, it creates a more well-rounded employee with new skills to improve their performance — professionally and personally!
2. Welcome Employees “Home”
If your team is mostly remote, think of a way to bring them “home” to your main office. Once a year, host a retreat with all expenses paid that brings your team together.
Activities for the “homecoming” might include:
- Company tour
- Team-building activities
- Scavenger hunt through local city
- A personal welcome from the CEO
- Dinner at a local favorite restaurant
Remember that remote and freelance employees are just as important to your team’s efforts and can feel more engaged when invited to where a lot of the action happens.
3. Upgrade the Lighting
It can be hard to concentrate under those terrible yellowish fluorescent lights. Not surprisingly, the erratic flicker from fluorescent lights and its poor lighting is known to contribute to eye strain and might even trigger migraine attacks. Help your employees ward off potential health concerns and keep them focused on work by upgrading the company lighting to lamps and mood lighting to adjust glare on computer monitors. Sometimes engagement comes down to the actual work environment!
4. Embrace the Fun
Work isn’t just about work. It’s about building a quality team that enjoys collaborating together and spending time together.
Some fun times ideas:
- Unique lunch & learns - Bring a magician or illusionist to a lunch and learn. Pair it with a short information session geared toward your company’s latest health initiative.
- Happy hour trivia nights - These can be virtual, in-house, or meet-up events. Grab a list of trivia questions or head to your favorite local spot for drinks and a trivia host to do the work for you.
- Murder mystery lunch events - Cater a lunch and set up a murder mystery theme to go with it. Not only will it keep your team entertained, but it will also have them working together on more than just a work project.
- Guess who dress-up day - Have your team dress-up as a favorite book character, t.v. show character or famous person. Have teammates guess who dressed up as which person. The winner is the one who guesses the most right!
Not everyone is a perfect friendship match, but as an employer, you can try your hardest to engage them together in spirited events that are bound to draw at least some laughs and cement some friendships.
5. Throw Welcome Parties
Just as new homeowners throw housewarming parties, companies bringing on new hires may want to throw a welcoming party. Send new hires a welcome email and invite them to their special homecoming party. Be ready with lots of great snacks and a gift package of company-branded swag to give to them. Another fun idea? Let them get to know their colleagues by sending them on a scavenger hunt with questions like “Who has read War & Peace in full?” or “Who has traveled to the most countries?” or even fun facts like, “Who in the office has a collection of over 200 Disney pins?”
Related: 7 Virtual Onboarding Tips to Make New Hires Feel Welcome
6. Offer a Strengths Assessment
Don’t make it out to be a big deal. A lot of people dislike the idea of “tests” and while this can be a perfect idea for employee engagement, it can also breed anxiety. Frame it as an opportunity for your employees to embrace new challenges or explore new areas of their skills to develop.
Strength tests to try:
- VIA
- SWOT Analysis
- CliftonStrengths assessment
- EQ-i 2.0 Emotional Intelligence Assessment
When your team better understands what they do well (and your leadership does, too) everyone can feel empowered and thrive in the workplace.
7. A Day in the Life
How often does your leadership review employee job descriptions? If you take a look at job boards, many of the descriptions are cookie-cutter and boring. Do your workers feel the same? Have them write their job descriptions as a “day in the life of” for a better look at what your individual employees do. This will offer insight into what they enjoy doing and perhaps a better look at what should be delegated elsewhere.
8. Do a Drink Poll (& Taste Test)
Is your company’s coffee supply still in stock at the end of the month? Maybe the employees actually hate dark roast. Poll your team to ask their preferences about what they like to drink.
Go beyond the basics and ask if they prefer:
- Cold-brew
- Kombucha
- Hot chocolate
- Flavored creamers
- Regular instant coffee
- Sparkling energy water
- Flavored water options
- Fresh fruit-infused water
Make it even more fun by having a taste test and have employees vote on their favorite flavors. Doing so may seem silly, but it will save you money by getting what they actually like and it will keep them functional, happy, and well-caffeinated!
9. Give Back Together
The workers who give back together will not only feel a sense of purpose, but they’ll be able to build deeper relationships with their fellow altruistic colleagues.
Where should you give back? A few ideas:
- Library
- Roadside cleanup
- Humane society
- Area thrift stores
- Community garden
Dedicate a day each quarter for volunteering and offer it as a paid day off. Can’t swing a full day off? Make it a half-day on a Friday and then invite the team out for dinner afterward.
10. Use Trivia to Cover Company Policy Updates
Here’s your reminder that most employees won’t read the email with the subject line “Company Policy Update.” Most will leave it unread, scan it, or simply send it to their trash. Harsh, but true. Instead of another boring email update, turn it into a trivia game and give away a few gift cards to winners. They’ll remember policy update number 200 a lot better, we bet.
11. Send a Daily Funny
Laughing is good for everyone, so why should employees in the workplace be exempt? Give them a good laugh at the start of each day.
Some daily funny ideas:
- Comics
- Pet video clips
- Ridiculous people in the news
You can send it as a daily email to give your team a fun email to look forward to in their pile of emails. Or, include a funny as a sidebar in your next employee newsletter!
12. Bring in a Motivational Speaker
Are things feeling a little slow and uninspired in your workplace? Bring in a motivational speaker to turn it around. These types of speakers are trained to help your staff feel re-inspired and confident enough to move forward in their work. They can also reinstate the positivity and optimism that might be missing in your workplace.
Motivational speakers can:
- Offer a new perspective
- Inspire new work efforts
- Rebuild team confidence
- Help employees turn ideas into action
Can’t afford a speaking fee from someone like Tony Robbins? No big deal. Consider sending out inspirational videos via email from recorded talks of some of the top motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar, Mel Robbins, Rachel Hollis, and others.
13. Send Gift Packages Randomly
There’s nothing like a surprise package in the mail. Put a smile on your employee’s face with a gift in the mail. Whether it’s fun stationery, a bunch of their favorite snacks, a new coffee mug, or a funky mousepad, it lets your employees know you’re thinking of them. Don’t forget to add a thank you card, too!
14. Develop a Quarterly Fundraiser Event
Fundraising is a great way for team members to bond over a project that isn’t work-related. It also personally benefits employees because of the skills required to fundraise: good organization, communication skills, social media knowledge, resourcefulness, and more.
Some fundraiser ideas to try:
- Host a special dinner for a local family in need - For example, check out local news stories for struggling single parents, anyone who has lost their home in a fire, etc.
- Raise funds for fur babies - Have a bunch of animal lovers on your team? Work together to fundraise for new kennels for a humane society, cages for an animal rehab facility, or cat food for the local cats at a shelter.
- Get active - There are always 5K walk and run events throughout the year. Fundraise for a team event that benefits a good cause and pairs together exercise. There are even virtual events for remote companies that make it easier than ever to do together. Consider events around big observances like Breast Cancer Awareness Month or American Heart Month.
Fundraising events not only bring together your team for a good cause, but the satisfaction of reaching a goal together is one of the top ways to engage your employees.
15. Take Your Staff Out
Dining together with your team offers valuable time to not only nourish the body but also to nourish professional relationships. Workers who eat alone miss out on opportunities for engaging conversation and camaraderie. By sitting down at a restaurant or for a catered meal together, coworkers are more likely to slow down and appreciate food as well, creating a better digestive experience as a whole.
16. Offer Life Cycle Surveys
One of the top ideas for employee engagement is to literally ask your employees to be engaged. The best way to do this is through pulse surveys and also through life cycle surveys. Don’t just offer employees exit surveys; by then, it’s too late to know how you could have better engaged them. Instead, offer new employee onboarding surveys, quarterly surveys, and also exit surveys.
Have employees respond to topics like:
- I enjoy my work because…
- I feel I have all the tools I need for my job (yes or no)
- I feel supported by management in the following ways…
- I don’t feel I have enough support in the following areas...
If you want to know how things are working (or not), you have to ask. Then you’ll know how to fill in your blind spots.
17. Offer Feedback The Right Way
Communication is a two-way street. Let employees know they will be heard (see #16) and then implement ways to change based on feedback. Offering positive, timely feedback and allowing for two-way conversations is essential to engagement over passive reactions from employees. Additionally, when a company regularly practices open communication between employees, leadership, and C-suite, it sets the tone for feedback that can positively impact culture.
18. Encourage a Healthy Work Environment
Employees who feel well have the energy to keep up with their job and do it well. A healthy workplace is one that not only has policies in place for healthy habits but also has leadership encouraging those habits.
Some examples:
- Keeping work in the workplace
- Avoiding working overtime too often
- Encouraging break times from work
- Healthy eating options in workplace cafeterias
- Offering access to physical fitness (i.e. offering workout breaks, on-site gym, gym vouchers, etc.)
A healthy workplace is one that encourages work-life balance to keep employee engagement high.
19. Explore Technology-Based Work Groups
Before the pandemic, software giants offered a variety of business cloud services to keep teams connected. Now, there are even more remote offerings to help everyone stay engaged in an era of telecommuting and full-time remote work. Keep departments engaged and synchronized on your company’s most important projects by investing in software that keeps everyone organized.
Related: The Ultimate Resource Guide for Remote Teamwork & Wellness Success
20. Try Some Improv
There’s nothing like a fun activity to break up the workday and engage workers in a unique way. This is great for creative departments, but it can also be a good way to go beyond the monotony of a regular workday for other departments, too.
Improv topics:
- Yes, and...
- Wild West
- 1-minute life story
- Stranded on a deserted island
Not only will you get to see a new side of your team, but it will surely bring about some laughs — which is always an ideal way to connect.
21. Create a Weekly Engaging Newsletter
HR has no choice but to share policy changes and sometimes boring content with employees via email. Instead of sending another snoozefest email, create a weekly engaging newsletter with a roundup of HR news that also includes entertaining content as well.
Some ideas:
- Include company-related trivia questions
- Share employees’ weekend adventures or vacay pics
- Add a mini health challenge and giveaway prizes to participants
- Ask employees to share their favorite healthy recipes for print
If you make email newsletters a weekly event, it gives employees an email to look forward to that also contains pertinent company information that won’t get ignored.
22. Search Within For Talent Upgrades
Keep your employees engaged by showing them how your company offers a career, not just a job. Offer monthly or quarterly updates on job openings to encourage upward mobility. Let team members know they get first dibs before the public and to chat with their supervisor before applying for a new position. Offering opportunities to your own people first can shake up the ranks and offer fresh perspectives.
23. Encourage Random Acts of Kindness Days
The world can always use more kindness, including in the workplace. Each quarter — or however often you want — ask your staff to commit to one random act of kindness in the workplace. It can be anonymous or grandiose; it’s all up to the giver.
Some ideas:
- Surprise the office with snacks or coffees
- Bring in flowers from your garden for the break room
- Show up with a balloon bouquet at someone’s desk
- Give a shout-out to a hardworking teammate on Slack
- Write compliments on Post-its and stick them on someone’s desk
Need more ideas? This random acts of kindness website can help you brainstorm and think of even more ways to give.
24. Offer Flex Times
An employee can’t be fully engaged if they’re constantly thinking about how to fit their personal obligations around their work schedule. Flex-time allows employees to have altered schedules with individualized start and end times.
Benefits of a flex-time schedule include:
- Increased productivity
- Attracts new talent
- Minimizes absenteeism
- Improves employee work-life balance
If you float this idea to workers, be sure that all expectations are clear prior to the start of flex time opportunities. This type of schedule won’t work for all positions or companies. It’s also essential that the right technology is provided for workers.
25. Consistently Chat
If you’re working remotely as a team, it’s important to have consistent chats. Whether it’s one-on-one colleague discussions or standing manager meetings, ensure that team members stay connected through some form of direct conversation each week.
26. Support Local Healthy Businesses
Host a health fair event on-site or even virtually as a way to support local businesses in your area. The pandemic has hit many small business owners hard, so being able to provide them free marketing is helpful!
Businesses to invite may include:
- Yoga studios
- Naturopaths
- Chiropractors
- Acupuncturists
- Natural food stores
By focusing on a health fair specifically, you’ll provide new resources to your team in an exciting and engaging format.
Related: All-in-One Guide to Planning and Hosting a Health Fair for Your Employees
27. Offer Different Platforms
Not everyone loves the idea of speaking up on a Zoom call with 25 people. It can be too much of a “hot seat” experience that feels overwhelming to some introverts. To get more engagement out of your more reserved employees, provide a variety of tech platforms and use options with Zoom, Slack, and Google Hangouts to solicit in-the-moment feedback in a more relaxed format like chat boxes.
28. Vote on Superlatives
Remember picking out superlatives for your high school yearbook? Bring a dose of nostalgia back into the workplace with a superlative voting event. Create a wall within the company or department with every employee’s photo. Below it, let teammates write out which category they think their colleague fits into best.
Some superlatives to consider:
- Life of the Party
- Most Likely to Win Monopoly
- Most Likely to Go Skydiving
- Most Likely to Buy More Office Stationery
- Most Likely to Drink a Whole Pot of Coffee
Keep the voting categories lighthearted to avoid hurt feelings. This is a perfect exercise to help departments intermingle while having fun.
29. Share Your Lives
It’s so easy to just bypass the weekend and come into the office bleary-eyed on Monday mornings. Ask your team to share what they did over long weekends or after precious vacation time. It’s a great way to offer engaging conversions and invite colleagues into one another’s lives. Invite staffers to share their pics from outings and vacations on a dedicated Slack channel for further engagement.
30. Focus on Being Present
Sometimes, your team needs more relaxation time and less work. When stress levels have your employees’ shoulders up to their ears, there’s nothing more rewarding than a good stretch or a moment to unwind. If your team is used to being up against stressful deadlines, consider a weekly day to offer some mindfulness activities.
Mindfulness ideas worth trying:
- Coloring time
- Body scan exercise
- Guided meditation
- Stretching and yoga poses
- Mindfulness worksheets
Remind your team that mindfulness takes a lot of practice, but the benefits of it are worth exploring.
31. Keep the Party Going
Why should birthdays be limited to just one day? If you have a small enough team, consider keeping the party celebrations going all week long. If your team doesn’t love the birthday idea, what about holiday observances? Take note of various religious and national holidays for all in the office to ensure diversity in your events. Each day, offer a fun game (trivia, anyone?) or special food offerings related to the holiday to engage your team and help them learn more about each other’s backgrounds.
Start Investing in Unique Ideas for Employee Engagement
Employees don’t walk in one day and decide they are miserable. Most workers start down a slow decline and it shows up in their work over a period of time.
To ensure your workplace sees less turnover, investing in employee engagement on a consistent basis can help. Doing a big holiday party once a year doesn’t really cut it. You have to make sure department leadership understands the personalities of team members and continues to nurture those relationships. Companies can’t exist without workers, so keeping workers happy and engaged is key to making a company run like a well-oiled machine.
With only 36% of workers actually feeling engaged in their work, there is obviously much need for improvement. This list is just a starting point for those conversations between department heads, leadership, and ultimately, employees.
How do you keep your team engaged? What are some of your favorite ideas for employee engagement? Share below!
