Did you know that only 20% of employees feel engaged at work? That’s because many organizations struggle to find employee engagement ideas and activities that actually stick.

The text is saying that it is important for employees to be engaged with the company they work for, especially if they work in customer service. This is because if they are invested in the company, they will be more likely to work hard to keep customers happy.

Here are a few ways to improve employee engagement, as well as some employee engagement activities you can do at your workplace.

 13 Surefire Employee Engagement Activities To Motivate Your Workforce

In this article, we provide 28 activities to improve employee engagement and satisfaction at work.

1. “The Employee of the month” on a regular basis

They are always the first to arrive and the last to leave. They also give continuous optimal performance. They are great team members.

Your company has an employee who fits this description. It’s likely that other companies have someone like this too.

According to research, employees leave their jobs most often because they feel unappreciated.

Reward systems that acknowledge employees’ hard work and success can help improve morale, spur healthy competition, and create a more positive work environment.

The more motivated an employee is, the more engaged, happy, and likely to stay with the company they will be.

There are many benefits to having an “Employee of the Month” program. It shows your employees that you see and appreciate their hard work. This is one of the best employee engagement activities that you can invest in.

For building an effective “Employee of The Month” program:

• Set up parameters and rules: Treat the program as a friendly competition. And every competition must have a set of guidelines to follow. It will ensure an ethical workplace culture. Also, it will reduce possible animosity between the employees.
• What will be the reward: The rewards can be monetary or other recognition such as displaying the winner on the company’s dashboard.
• Decide on what basis will you select the employees: Staying late doesn’t mean being more productive. You need to find the best criteria to decide who will be the winner.
• Celebrate the winner: Once an employee wins, publicize the winner everywhere. Let everyone know what a champion they are!

2. Employees feel better about taking feedback

Feedback is a powerful tool that can be used to engage employees. It is often overlooked, however, and not used to its full potential.

A majority of people prefer corrective feedback over praise or recognition, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Useful feedback is key to engaging employees and improving workplace communication.

Regular feedback is an important part of employee engagement. It lets employees know how they are doing and what they can do to improve.

A perfect example of this is the negative connotation that feedback has. Perhaps this is because when a boss wants to “discuss something,” it is usually assumed to be something negative.

The solution?

It’s important to give feedback to employees regularly, not just when you need to criticize their performance. And when you do need to criticize performance, avoid using harsh or negative language.

An excellent way to address declining performance should be something along the lines:

Hi! I know you’ve been working really hard, and putting in a lot of hours. But the results haven’t been as good as they should have been. If you’re having any difficulties, maybe you can let me know, and we can figure it out together.

While giving feedback, keep in mind the following points:

• Keep it constructive and relevant. It should tell the employees about their performance.
• Negative feedback doesn’t equal to being harsh about it. Find out why it is happening and ways to solve it.
• Feedback is a two-way street. Listen to what the employees have to say. Employees engagement surveys are great to gather employee feedback.
• Keep feedback private. Never publicize it. Ever.
• Give regular feedback.

3. Regular Potlucks create a positive vibe

Essentially, a potluck is a food party where each guest brings a different (usually homemade) dish to share. The basic idea is to bond over food.

A potluck is less about what particular food to bring and more about sharing the experience of eating with other people.

Also, as far as employee engagement activities go, a potluck requires very little work.

A potluck is a good option because it is cheap and easy to set up. It also makes people happy and allows them to balance their work and personal lives.

eating together as a team can improve team dynamics and productivity while also promoting team building.

Conducting an office potluck is a great way to take advantage of all the positive benefits it has to offer!

4. Encourage employees to pursue side projects

You’re likely thinking that this is a waste of your company’s time and money.

Would you change your mind if I told you that some of the most successful companies began as side projects?

One of the benefits of side projects is that it allows employees to be creative and to manage their time effectively.

Employee engagement activities will make employees more excited to come to work and hence more engaged. Therefore, it is a win to incorporate them.

5. Celebrate those birthdays, anniversaries and personal milestones

Your employees are more likely to be engaged if they feel that their workplace has a soul or emotion.

The happiness of your employees should be important to you, and you should do everything you can to make sure they’re happy at work.

Sing the happy birthdays loudly!

Celebrate an employee’s tenure by decorating their workspace when they reach a milestone!

Your employees and their spouses will appreciate a token from you on their anniversaries!

6. The first-day welcome card/gift to new hires

This is one of the first employee engagement activities you should introduce to a new hire.

It’s not a good idea to have new employees feel disengaged on their first day.

The key is to make your workplace as appealing as possible. One way to do this is to give new employees a welcome card, gift, or email.

However, your company’s onboarding program should not be limited to just one idea. Get creative and showcase your company’s best traits. Gather new ideas to welcome your new employees.

• Present them with company-branded SWAG(stuff we all get). It needn’t be elaborate or expensive. Mugs, t-shirts, cool stationery are good options.
• Equally important is to introduce them to the team.
• Moreover, reach out to your new employees before they join, just as Facebook does. Thus, instead of a long lecture about what to do and not to do, send these over an email. It will save everyone’s time.
• Uniquely, allow the new employees to choose their first project. Thus, completing it will help him/her to ease into the company’s workflow as well as boost their morale.

7. Build an excellent mentorship program

A new employee should not be left alone with other employees, as this could be overwhelming.

A mentorship program is very important for every new employee who will feel lost and uncertain.

A mentor is a more experienced person who gives guidance and advice to a less experienced one.

Assuming you want to create a mentorship program at your workplace: You can incentivize employees to participate in the program by offering additional benefits for those who volunteer to be mentors. Keep in mind that you’ll likely want to pair an older employee with a newer one, in order to create a functional mentorship.

Here are the reasons why you should think about implementing a mentorship program:

• A mentorship program is beneficial to both the receiving ends. The mentee gets someone to guide him, and the mentor learns to be responsible.
• When a new employee faces some trouble, he/she might be hesitant to approach the manager straightway. In this case, the chances of confiding to the mentor are higher. This knowledge reduces a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety from a new employee’s mind.
• A mentor showing you the ropes is bound to be more useful than a long and dull orientation lecture. The new employee will learn his way around the company faster if a mentor is there to guide them.

8. Encourage work-life balance.

It’s good that your employees are devoted to your company. However, it’s not advantageous if they never stop working. If staff members want to stay clear of burnout, they need to have a healthy balance between their work life and personal life.

As a business owner or manager, it’s your job to make sure every employee is finding the right mix of work and play. Give your employees the flexibility to decide what that means for them. You might need to provide guidance on how to find that balance, but it’s ultimately up to the individual to find what works for them.

This means that employees who are satisfied with their organization’s flexibility are much more likely to be happy working for their employer and are much more likely to recommend working for their employer.

Pro tip: Here are a few ways you can make work-life balance a priority for your employees:

• Measure output instead of input: Evaluate your employees based on results instead of how many hours they spend working toward those results.
• Offer flex hours or a flex day: Give employees the chance to take a couple of hours off or a day to themselves without charging it against their PTO.
• Make sure employees are actually taking PTO: Push managers to encourage their employees to take sick days and vacation time.
• Experiment with power naps: Allow employees to block off 15 to 30 minutes of their day to hit the snooze button on work.

9. Give out annual awards.

Awards are a great way to show your employees how much you appreciate them. They make the recipient feel proud of their contribution and sets a standard for the rest of the team. Awards can be given for achievements in the workplace or for more lighthearted things like “yearbook” awards (e.g., most likely to win an award).

If you give awards to your employees on a regular basis, they will know exactly what they need to do to stand out in your organization. They will also know when they will be acknowledged for it.

Create an online poll for employees to vote for other people to win different categories. Bring everyone together to announce the winners in an online awards ceremony or live stream your in-person awards event so remote employees can tune in.

10. Incorporate an ideas forum.

It’s nearly impossible to set up time to discuss all of the great ideas that almost every employee has to improve your business in-depth.

A place for employees to share their ideas would allow for better communication among coworkers.

Instead of having a physical suggestion box, create an online one where employees can post their suggestions and have others comment or vote on them. This way, management can quickly see which ideas are the most popular among staff.

11. Host career training.

Every employee wants to be successful in their career, but not everyone knows how to go about it. Providing career training is a great way to equip employees with the skills they need to get the job they want within your company.

If you invest in your employees’ long-term growth, you can give them an actionable plan to pursue and keep their career path centered around your organization. This will help you retain valuable staff members before they look to your competitors for work.

A career training tip: It can be more effective to let employees choose what kind of training works best for them, rather than choosing it for them. Some might prefer attending conferences, while others may want to pursue independent professional development. If possible, give employees the flexibility to choose.

12. Set up weekly meetings with management.

An additional way to promote involvement from the top down is to hold weekly gatherings between representatives and their supervisors. Encourage your employees to spend 30 minutes each week catching up with their manager and informing them of anything different that’s happening in their life.

Managers can also mention anything they observed earlier that week or bring up new information for the employee. This way, everyone is kept up-to-date, relationships are strengthened, and there are fewer surprises between employees and managers.

A good way to get to know your employees better is to have regular meetings with them, either over lunch or a walk. This will help you build a better relationship with them and also get some exercise.

13. Gamification helps increase employee competitiveness

Competitions with rewards at the end are the best way to drive performance and engagement.

Gamification does not mean simply turning real-life situations into games. Gamification is about taking the aspects of games that are engaging and fun, and applying them to real-life situations.

This means that instead of seeing a task as a necessary evil, you view it as an opportunity to compete and succeed.

And employees seem to love this!

The introduction of game-like elements into the workplace has nearly tripled productivity, reduced turnover by two-thirds, and halved the number of absences, according to Gallup.

If you want to increase employee engagement, you should consider gamification.

Final Thoughts

An engaged workforce requires a good boss. High turnover is caused by poor management, while good managers improve morale. National Boss’s Day is a day to celebrate good managers!

Although it may be daunting, engaging your employees is important and possible.

Incorporating these 28 employee engagement activities will result in a more productive, engaged, and happier workforce.