By: Megan Jones

How I miss my younger years when summer meant you actually got time off! In the working world we aren’t always afforded the luxury we had as a child getting 2 months off from organized and routine responsibilities. However, that doesn’t mean working can’t add a little flare, especially during the summer months! Consider checking out our article on Summer Team Building Ideas. However for this week, lets look at 5 fun employee engagement activities!

Why Should my Organization Have Employee Engagement Activities?

Employee engagement activities are great ways to build team cohesion to get your employees excited about working, build retention and foster stronger team relationships. Additionally, they can bring a little levity to the working world, and break up the mundane working schedule. They are a great way to get to know your team and bring a some fun into the office!

5 Fun Employee Engagement Activities

Enhance Employee Meetings

If you have a weekly team meeting or 1:1 consider hosting them outside to enjoy the warm weather. You can even host an outdoor long lunch meeting, where you have 30 minutes of content followed the usual lunch time allotment where you can all still spend extra time and enjoy the warm summer sun!

Additionally, you can consider adding a few informalities to your meeting. If your employees are open to it, have a random topic question that you can open your meetings with. Some example topic questions are: favorite hobby, favorite snack, go to coffee order, vacation spot, etc. This can be a great way to learn more about your employees while adding some comfort into your meetings.

Provide Food/Beverages

I have yet to work at a company that employees weren’t motivated by food. Consider every quarter or month (if you have the budget) to bring a food item in for your employees to enjoy. You can do a monthly birthday lunch, a quarterly breakfast meeting, or a team ice cream happy hour, the possibilities are endless!

Flexible Scheduling

If there is one thing COVID has taught our working world, it is adaptability. Consider offering flexible working schedules, so employees can have the opportunity to work remotely if and when needed. It can show your employees that you trust them, and allows employees to still work even if they have an appointment in the middle of the day.

Celebrate Birthdays, Holidays, Achievements

Consider adding celebrations into the workplace. You can have a holiday party and/or celebrate birthdays monthly or quarterly. It can make employees feel seen and appreciated. Additionally, by having a birthday celebration each month, it allows employees that don’t love the spotlight to still feel seen, without attention being solely directed on them. Moreover, during October, November, and December there are plethora of holidays for numerous different cultures and religions, if you have a holiday party you can allow employees to share information and celebrate their culture which can create a more inclusive environment.

Welcome New Hires

Being a new hire can be intimidating. Therefore, as a manager consider making a policy or creating a plan to have a fun introduction to new hires. From a welcome breakfast, to having your new hire train with multiple members of the team, it gives your new hire opportunity to meet and engage with everyone. You can also do a team lunch, so your new hire can feel your team’s community and culture.

Volunteer Together

Consider once a quarter or every 6 months to spend a half day volunteering. It can be a great way to give back to your community, get out of the office and a wonderful event for team building. You can ask your team members what causes they are passionate about and then consider rotating volunteer organizations based on your team’s passions.

Working in the summer doesn’t have to be a bore, and these are great tips that don’t have to be exclusive to the summer. Consider adding in these team engagement ideas into your workplace!