20 Awesome Employee Engagement Ideas and Activities

A lot has changed in today’s workplace. Many teams of employees are working in a hybrid workspace, part remote and part on-site. Employers are offering more flexible schedules. While supervisors are less able to pop over and offer encouragement in a traditional way, there are many ways to engage your employees whether they work remotely or are in the office next door. Engaged employees are a company’s greatest asset. Improving employee engagement doesn’t have to be hard work – it can be fun. In fact, fun may just be the secret ingredient: employee happiness and engagement are inextricably linked. Here are twenty tips to engage your employees.

1. Be yourself. One thing we learned from COVID-19 is that the boundaries between our professional self and our home self have blurred. Make sure to show off a bit of your quirkiness to your team. They’ll appreciate your humanity!
2. Use filters and backgrounds to make video conferencing a bit more interesting. Try the My favorite Vacation Spot background challenge and give employees time to share a quick story.
3. Leave time for employees to connect with each other before or after meetings. This builds a cohesive, engaged team and prevents back-to-back meeting burnout.
4. Be outcomes-focused, not clock-focused. Let your employees have the flexibility to work when they are the most productive.
5. Supercharge your communications and workflows. The next generation of business apps increases knowledge management and improves efficiency. Slack is a rising star, but Webex and Microsoft Teams are well-known platforms.
6. You just can’t bump into your team members by the water cooler – or can you? Virtual workspaces help remote employees feel less isolated. We love Gathertown, one of the most creative and fun virtual workspaces out there.
7. We’re all playing games! Incorporate games into your meetings. Try social gaming classics like “Two Truths and a Lie” or ‘Would You Rather?” which are fun icebreakers that help your employees get to know each other better. Look for multiplayer games that are quick and foster collaboration. Consider going deeper with special gaming times: your investment in gaming could have a big employee engagement payoff. This research study revealed that employees had a 20% boost in productivity after playing games together.
8. Share company goals, targets, and outcomes. When everyone is aware of the goals, engagement deepens, and productivity increases.
9. Brainstorm! Make sure everyone on the team knows there is no such thing as a bad idea. In fact, some of our craziest ideas will be innovation gold. Regular brainstorming supports a culture of learning. Brainstorm about everything: competitors, new products or services, processes, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Not only will you harness the eyes, ears, and minds of your team members but you will also increase employee engagement.
10. Take care of yourself too. Happy, engaged managers positively influence their team.
11. Be organized. Send out materials and agendas in advance to provide your employees with an opportunity to process. This will increase participation of all employees – even those who are often reluctant to speak up.
12. Pay attention to who is contributing and who is not. Provide welcoming opportunities for those who are hanging back but avoid putting people on this spot.
13. Provide opportunities for employees to support each other for work challenges. You will harness the power of your team and increase connection.
14. Mix things up! Match up employees who don’t usually work together for projects. Connections between employees increase employee happiness.
15. Make a difference together! Let employees choose the charity of their choice for an employee philanthropic effort. Shared impact deepens team engagement.
16. Debrief projects. Making the time to reflect and learn from both successes and challenges creates a company culture that is committed to learning and developing. The payoff will be a team poised for even greater success on the next project.
17. Recognize milestones and achievements in both people’s professional and personal lives. Consider personally signed cards by mail.
18. Don’t wing it. Read team updates and reports. Your team knows if you are faking it. Be engaged and lead through example.
19. Get to know your employees better. Personalized feedback and recognition increase employee engagement.
20. Share a meal, with a twist: email your team a list of ingredients that don’t seem to go well together. Each employee presents their dish, describes it, and tastes it in front of the whole team. Everyone votes on the most likely to be delicious, the scariest, and the most creative dish.

Contact Us Today

Partner with TANDIUM Corporation to engage your employees and increase employee happiness. TANDIUM’s knowledgeable staff will collaborate with you to develop an engagement strategy tailored to your business and your team. TANDIUM Corporation is a complete human resources service organization. Contact us today.