If you are looking for virtual employee engagement ideas, it means you already know that gone are the days when offices used to run on the “Stay quiet and stick to your chair” formula. Workplace culture has evolved for the better, and now employees’ productivity is not measured by the time they stick to their chairs. Now quality has more value than quantity (thank god!). That’s where the real struggle for organizations begins: how to keep your employees high-spirited, productive, and happy so that a 9 to 5 job doesn’t turn out to be labor for them but a joyful experience.
For oh-so-good reasons, workplace culture has evolved over the past few years. Organizations have realized that making employees gaze at their laptop screens will not help them grow. The only way is to keep your employees high-spirited, engaged, and entertained. That’s why employee engagement, recognition, wellness, appreciation, and motivation are no more just empty words but are becoming parts of organizational culture.
However, COVID-19 has changed the dynamics of workplaces. Remote working and virtual interaction have become the new normal. This changed scenario has put organizations in a hot spot to devise ways to bring remote working somehow to in-house working. Let’s admit it is a difficult task, but not impossible. Many virtual employee engagement activities can keep your employees bonded, high-spirited, and engaged.
Virtual Employee Engagement Ideas
In case you are looking for virtual employee engagement ideas, you have come to the right place. Here are a few virtual employee engagement things to do that can keep your employees connected and entertained:
1. Scavenger Hunt
No, don’t worry! You wouldn’t need to send your employees outside for a scavenger hunt. You can play this game online through apps like the Around the World Scavenger Hunt. With this scavenger hunt, your team can take a trip worldwide within 60 minutes without stepping out. Its capacity to accommodate around 25 to 500 employees makes it a perfect virtual employee engagement activity helping employees collaborate, connect, and bond with other members.
Members just need to join Zoom, and the host will guide them on how to play. It is better to create cross-team groups so that the employee bonding can spread across the organization while following clues, finding amazing objects, and scratching heads to find answers to tricky questions.
Get to know more about how to conduct the best scavenger hunt activities.
2. Plantation and Gardening
Virtual employee engagement activity fostering a societal cause is always a wonderful idea – just like plantation and gardening. Give out everything they need to grow plants and take care of them. Keep everyone in the loop through Teams or Zoom and let them go in nature and have some conversations with their teammates and nature to boost team building and mental health – all together.
3. Channel Inner Picasso
Everyone has an artist hidden in them – some of us successfully discover it, and others let it die with them. So, why not take a virtual employee engagement opportunity as the right time to help your employees find their inner Picasso? Take onboard a virtual painting organization, like Paint & Sip, and they will arrange everything from giving away painting kits to accommodating 50 to 100 employees. It will be all fun, colors, and delicious sips of cocktails, along with enjoying moments of truth with fellow employees for the whole team.
4. Eat Together
Throwing recognition launches and arranging engagement dinners have become common in organizations. However, these are stories of the pre-pandemic era. Now things have changed a lot, and such eating experiences have become a past story. So, what to do in the present if your team is working remotely? The answer is simple: you can still eat together, but virtually.
Circulate an email among all employees asking them to come on Zoom at a particular time with their food. It will be nothing like a real experience, but it will at least allow everyone to communicate with each other, crack some jokes, and talk about casual things other than work. Until your employees finish their plates, they will already have a memorable experience interacting with other team members.
5. Personality Assessment
Chances are that new team members who joined your organization during the pandemic or those working remotely haven’t met other members of the organization. So they wouldn’t know much about them. This situation can create communication gaps and conflicts during collaboration as they don’t know the other person’s nature. That’s why personality assessment tests are an amazing way to uncover the personalities of different team members. It will help your team know about each other and how to work together to produce the best results.
6. Coffee Breaks
Who doesn’t like their tea and coffee breaks while working? Tea or coffee is one of the most wanted things of employees as it keeps them energetic and helps sneak some happy moments in busy hours. So, employees end up drinking 4-5 cups of coffee. So, instead of burning your stomach alone, why not enjoy it with your group members mutually while having casual conversations. It will increase the taste of coffee and the level of relationships with others.
7. Themed Days
Recall those school days when you had to wear a particular color dress because the given circular would say, “tomorrow is purple color theme day.” So, why not go back to your childhood and being theme days concept to your corporate life. These theme days can be just colored ones or bit quirky ones, like becoming minions or brinjal. This is funny but would be quite unique and entertaining. So don’t miss this one while making a list for virtual employee engagement ideas.
Conclusion
The lack of proximity makes it hard to conduct virtual engagement activities. However, it is not impossible. You can hire other organizations to assist in conducting virtual employee engagement activities.
Your employees would really love virtual employee engagement activities as everyone wants some relief from their packed life schedule. This will entail confidence in employees to come out and show their hidden talent and skills and collaborate with other team members to show the best outcomes.