13 Employee Engagement Activities to Engage Your People

The 13 employee engagement activities you can use to engage your people now include lunch and learns, recognition programmes, feedback strategies, employee surveys, wellness events, work parties, and more, giving you a practical mix to build a culture of engaged people.

Employee engagement isn't a quick problem to solve. It's a continuous effort and challenge, one that employers must approach in unique and competitive ways if they want to retain and hire the best talent. That's why you must spend time creating and carrying out various employee engagement activities. You want your people to enjoy working for you, so the right activities encourage a culture of motivation and reward for hard work.

What Should You Be Aware Of?

Not all employee engagement activities you organise will suit everyone. Sometimes you just can't please everyone with one activity. For instance, a work party may be some employees' idea of fun while others make excuses not to attend. That's why you need a variety of employee engagement activities to cater for different personalities and preferences.

Don't forget to be as inclusive as possible. If a work social offers alcohol, provide alternatives for those who don't drink, or host smaller team events alongside companywide ones.

In-Person vs Virtual Employee Engagement Activities

The rise of remote and hybrid working means certain employee engagement activities are physically challenging to run. Some in-person events may be missed by people who work remotely or hybrid. Therefore, when planning your suite of employee engagement activities, ensure you cater for a combination of in-person and virtual formats.

1. Lunch and Learns

These events combine shared learning with social interaction. They can include remote attendees virtually. As people give up their lunch breaks to join, sessions need to be short, snappy, interactive and fun.

It might be a team member sharing a project they're working on, or another team explaining a process. Transparency and knowledge sharing are key.

2. Alternative Days

Remember bringing a game in or wearing your own clothes at school? Themed days are a great way to show your people you care and let them do something different.

There are endless themes you can select, but popular ones are International Fun at Work Day (April 1st), Bring Your Pet to Work day, Wear Your Own Clothes day, or Acts of Kindness days.

Whatever suits your culture, organise these days and give employees something different. You could even ask them to vote on favourite days from pre-picked selections or suggest their own.

3. Health and Wellness Events or Days

Employee wellbeing has shot up the list of HR priorities in recent years, and employee engagement activities that support health and wellbeing can only be a plus.

Gartner found that during the pandemic, 49% of employees turned to their organisation's wellbeing programme for support. Such support should be personalised to meet different needs, and employers should commit long-term.

Therefore, employee engagement activities that support wellbeing are essential. These may include in-person or virtual fitness, yoga or meditation classes, in-house massages, or mental and physical health talks.

4. Employee Recognition Programmes

You want your people to feel included and valued, so include employee engagement activities that use recognition to do this. For example, celebrate birthdays and special days, or use programmes where employees recognise peers who have gone above and beyond. You might also run award schemes where managers or employees nominate individuals.

However you organise recognition programmes, they need to include people not working in the office, so mobile apps are brilliant for this, regardless of location. Sorwe offers a variety of options to easily create recognition programmes for both in-office and remote employees.

5. Feedback Strategies

Feedback should be part of your culture, whether it's manager to employee, peer to peer, or employee to manager. People need regular feedback. Using an app to give an easy-to-access portal for feedback encourages honest, ongoing communication throughout the organisation.

Although gathering feedback can be time-consuming, we offer many options at Sorwe, including instant feedback, surveys, 360-degree feedback and other tools to build a culture of continuous feedback.

6. Employee Surveys

Employee engagement surveys are excellent employee engagement activities for understanding how your people feel about working at your organisation. Annual, biannual or pulse surveys, carried out using modern technology, allow your people to give open and honest feedback that you can respond to.

At Sorwe we offer different employee surveys depending on what your organisation requires, from annual or biannual surveys to quick pulse surveys that reveal how your people really feel about working for you.

7. Work Parties

Parties don't have to end in antics that create extra work for HR. Work parties should focus on the social aspect of getting together informally and enjoying good food and conversation. Some organisations host an annual party partners can attend, or themed summer and Christmas events. Some even make their parties more informal, like a barbecue families can attend.

Whatever theme you choose, work parties give employees a chance to socialise without work pressures and feel recognised for their commitment and hard work.

8. Sports and Charity Events

Organisations can host charity events or enter a work team. For example, the JP Morgan Chase run occurs every year in London, with employees from different organisations participating. Usually, the organisation pays the entry fee and hosts celebratory drinks or food afterwards.

Such events encourage team building, commitment, and a shared sense of achievement for the organisation and charity, something the whole company can support and talk about.

9. Supporting a Charity

Not everyone wants to take part in a charity sporting event, but you could select one or more key charities for your organisation to support. Host fundraising events and let teams come up with different ways to raise money. It creates a shared objective and a culture of kindness and commitment beyond work.

10. In-House Competitions

You can also organise competitions or games just for your employees. These can be low-key, like a rounders tournament one afternoon or a team football match. You could set up a season-long tournament with different teams across the organisation, or a monthly baking competition.

Again, this creates a sense of belonging and something different for employees to participate in.

11. Speaker Events

Public figures, wellness specialists, ex-sporting professionals or motivational speakers can be excellent for your work community to learn from. Beyond teaching something new, their experiences and lessons learned can spark inspiration and enthusiasm.

12. Offsites or Team Building

Offsites are more important than ever now that more people work remote or hybrid patterns. Teams need to get together in person to develop and bond, and be reminded of why they're working at the organisation, something that can get lost in day-to-day work.

Use team building or offsite events to reiterate organisational goals, current performance, and how the team and individuals can contribute to company-wide objectives. Include downtime for socialising, fun, and solidifying relationships.

13. Recreate the Water Cooler

'Water cooler' moments are still valuable, but it's hard to be inclusive when a physical water cooler is missing for home workers. Recreate your own by introducing fun quizzes to motivate and bond your teams.

You can set weekly trivia quizzes for individuals or teams so the weekly quiz becomes a talking point and something fun to participate in. Online quizzes can be sent straight to individual inboxes and marked externally, so you can compete against other teams. At Sorwe we can help you organise team or organisation-wide quizzes where employees can easily participate via the mobile app.

Whichever employee engagement activities you choose, they need to suit your organisation's culture and budget, and include all employees where possible. You don't need to run all these ideas at once, but start somewhere or build on what you already have. Employee engagement takes time, so try out activities and gather feedback from your employees to see what they want.

Sorwe can help you assess employee engagement levels using feedback and surveys and encourage ongoing engagement. We eliminate the administrative burden of offering recognition and feedback, allowing everyone to concentrate on improvement.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best employee engagement activities to start with?

Start with low-cost, inclusive options like lunch and learns, feedback strategies, and employee recognition programmes, then expand based on employee feedback.

How do you engage remote or hybrid employees?

Use virtual-friendly activities such as online quizzes, mobile recognition apps, virtual lunch and learns, and offsites that combine in-person and remote participation.

Why are employee surveys important for engagement?

Surveys reveal how employees truly feel about working at your organisation, giving you honest data to act on and improve engagement over time.

Do all employee engagement activities need a budget?

No, many activities like alternative theme days, feedback strategies, or in-house competitions can be run with minimal cost while still boosting morale.

How often should employee engagement activities be organised?

There's no fixed rule, but a mix of regular smaller activities (like weekly quizzes or feedback) and periodic larger events (like offsites or parties) works best.