Employee Engagement Activities: Making Work Fun

Spicing up the workplace: employee engagement activities that are sure to boost your employee’s morale.

It’s 9:00 a.m. on a Monday morning. You walk into work and everyone is sitting at their desks clenching their coffees staring at their computer screens still longing for the weekend. Do you sometimes wish your employees were looking as if they were heading into a Friday rather than a Monday morning? If you answered yes to this question and want to do something about it then it’s time to spice up your workplace with employee engagement activities!

The goal of employee engagement activities is to have your workers excited about coming to work every day and also to help them get their jobs done efficiently and in a timely fashion. A recent Gallup Poll found that less than one-third (31.5%) of U.S. workers are engaged in their jobs in 2014. There are many different types of employee engagement activities you can use but here are a few of my favorite ways to engage the employees in your office.

Recognizing the “Good Stuff”

Positive morale is always great to have in any office setting. It’s good to have some kind of positive activities to bring your employees together. Read more about the importance of bringing your employees together here.

A unique employee engagement activity that is used amongst both offices and organizations are small employee appreciation gifts. These gifts can be little items that have sayings on them to brighten anyone’s day or something personalized with their name. Some other great — but small — examples are a pack of gummy bears with a tag that says "Work would be unBEARable without you!" Appreciation is one of many great engagement activities that will improve productivity in your office.

Bragging can be used to engage your workers — in a good way.

I have personally used something called a “Compliment Box” in the workplace before. The “Compliment Box” idea is anonymous and can enrich your office space. To start using a "compliment box" in your office you will need to:

• Grab an old box.
• Decorate the box in a unique way, maybe even pertaining to your workplace.
• Explain to workers that if you see a co-worker doing a great task or a favor for someone in the office — write the compliment on a piece of paper and place it in the box.
• At the end of the week, the office would gather around while one person reads all the compliments.

It feels really good to know that your co-workers appreciate each other. As a manager, it is important to always acknowledge a team members hard work and dedication.

Team Builders

Team builders are one of the most popular forms of engagement activities. But are you tired of using the same team builder activities? You’re in luck because now there are so many unique ones to choose from. One I found to be effective and repeatable is called “All My People Move Your Feet.” Follow these steps to play in your office.

• Position chairs in a circle and have everyone sit down.
• One person will go in the middle and begin by saying “All My Penguins Move Your Feet if…” and they will say an interesting fact about themselves.
• If that fact pertains to someone else in the group they will have to get up and run to the nearest empty seat.
• The last person standing will have an interesting fact about themselves and the rotation will continue

This is a great exercise to get to know co-workers better and maybe even ease any tension in the office. There’s also no better way to get moving during the day.

Good Old Fashioned Fun

It’s always important to have some sort of fun in your office. If you don’t have a little bit of excitement every once and a while, your workers will dread coming into work every day. So use those creative juices and plan some awesome employee activities inside or even outside of the office!

Something different my office did one time was we planned a night where we would go do karaoke together at the local bar. They say you haven’t really bonded with someone until you have sung karaoke with them or in front of them so here is your chance!

Want to spice up the way your office communicates? Try Ving and turn boring e-mails into ones your company would love to read! With Ving, you can use personal videos and have interactive polls your company can answer from whatever device they are using.

If you are looking to change the attitude of your workplace, these engagement activities will help start your office to move in the right direction.