Top 10 Corporate Event Ideas to Motivate Employees
Originally published by Jenelyn Bacani at https://www.strideplus.com on July 22, 2018.
Demotivated employees are rude and hostile toward their customers while happy employees are always polite and accommodating to everyone in the office: from their superiors, to their colleagues, customers and clients, down to the support staff.
Happy employees are the ones who comes to work early and get the most work done- the ideal “best case” and “better of the lot” for employers.
The challenge for most employers- their HR departments and managements alike- is to be able to ensure that their team truly is content and satisfied.
I don’t really believe bad employees are born. I believe bad employees are once good employees that have lost faith in their ability to be content at work. Often times a by product of (1) poor self-esteem and (2) an uncaring employer.
The good news is, both issues can be fixed. Through a little bit of careful planning and intervention form the employer’s side.
Employees are the front-liners of the business and they need some motivation to bring positive results. While the business is growing, the demand from employees increases; more paper work, more volume of calls and queries, exponentially growing over time.
At the end of the day, the once happy employee gets depleted.
So it is essential that organizations boost their employees confidence and make them feel valued through proper communication, rewards and incentives, recognition, compensations and corporate events.
Top 10 corporate event ideas to help you motivate your employees:
#1 Team Sports
Team sports. The name captures the true essence of its benefits. It creates an environment for teamwork and healthy “sporty” competition.
A “team” is nothing but an inter-dependent group of individuals working towards a common goal. One of the main reasons why corporate teams go stale are because they stop focusing on a mutual goal and subsequently start working independently in silos.
Team sports addresses this by giving teams and employees a common task to address mutually.
Being a physical activity it has several other health and mental benefits as part of the parcel.
Here are a few interesting team sports you could consider:
- Volleyball
- Softball
- Mini- Golf course game
- Go-kart racing
- Table Tennis or Badminton
- Bowling
#2 Team Breakfast
Unlike team sports, where the team members have to add in great physical effort and function in a competitive environment, team breakfasts make for a similar opportunity for teams to bond, but without the “high stakes” scenarios of a neck-in-neck volleyball game.
A good day to either start or end the work with a bang is to have a hearty breakfast with your team.
This can easily be done without so much preparation. Just look for the best breakfast venue in town and send an email invitation to everyone, with a mouth-watering image of the menu.
A fluffy pancake topped with melting butter, slices of banana, dripping with chocolate syrup all over is something that no one can surely resist.
#3 Team Potluck
Organize a team potluck in the office.
Gather everyone for a meeting to discuss the team lunch and ask each department to contribute a specific dish. They can bring a meal or some dessert, depending on what kind of food they are more comfortable to bring at work.
If you happen to be based in the United Arab Emirates where we’re headquartered in, there will be a diverse variety of dishes possible since Dubai is a melting pot of global cultures and cuisines, and each belong to a specific continent or region.
#4 Free Snack
Organize a free snack day for everyone. A quick, simple way to brighten up team members on dull days or months of business churn.
The management can give a specific budget for the snack day. It could be flavored ice creams, smoothies or pastries. I’d recommend something sweet.
#5 Surprise Birthday
Organize a surprise birthday party for employees celebrating their birthdays. This could be a monthly event for the company. List down the employee birthdays and put them on your calendar.
Prepare a small photo booth with props so employees can share a memorable picture with the celebrant.
Plan the entire year ahead so you can have variety of sweets and snack to share every month. It could be:
Here’s a calendar’s worth of ideal for you;
- Sticky Caramel Popcorn — January
- Flavored Cookies — February
- Chips with Salsa / Cream mayo — March
- Mini sausages — April
- Macaroons — May
- Brownies– June
- Croissant — June
- Donuts — July
- Potato wedges — August
- Ice Cream Cone — September
- Flavored fries — October
- Chocolate bars — November
- Lemon square — December
#6 Weekend Theme
Another way to ignite the fun at the workplace and break everyone’s boredom is to create a weekend or monthly theme.
I’ve seen this often done in sales team where people are asked to dress up a certain theme and decorate their department according to the theme.
Here are some of the wildest ideas we could come up with; (below)
- Halloween Theme — employees are allowed to come to office and dress up like zombies and a character from a scary movie
- Baby’s Day Out — everyone is dress up like babies and department stations are designed with toys and feeding bottles.
- Hawaiian Theme — employees show up in the office with garlands and tropical outfits with coconut props at the background of their desk
- Movie Theme — Each department can choose a specific movie and the team will dress up as the characters in the movie.
#7 Appreciation Party
Few things are as gratifying and motivating to an employee as being recognized for their achievements within the company.
Monetary incentives and bonuses are great, but recognition has its own place in an individual’s heart. As humans, been gratified by social validation is hard-wired into our psyche. It is one of the greatest senses of achievement one can get.
As the name suggests, an appreciation party is an event that recognizes the improvement, efforts and skills of employees. Employees who are able to reach their quota or are able to receive commendations from customers are granted awards and monetary incentives, while being publicly appreciated.
#8 Game Night
Organize a game night and invite all employees to participate.
A game night is often conducted outside the regular workplace or in the office after work hours.
Prepare a board game such as Pictionary or if you want to be more corporate-centered, a Cashflow– so everyone can learn about money and investing.
Don’t forget to double that down with some great food and entertainment.
#9 Holiday Events
Regardless of their popularity or seeming social significance, ensure that events that are of importance to all the backgrounds that your employees hail from are acknowledged and celebrated internally.
Not only will this aid with your organization’s diversity initiatives, but also give employees of all backgrounds a greater sense of belonging to the organization.
#10 Summer Getaway
The best corporate event that perhaps most employees are going to be interested in is a short summer getaway on a beach town outside the four corners of your office.
Summer vacations are always refreshing. Organize some mini escapade to a beach down, coupled with some team sports activities and your employees are sure to rejoice every moment of it.
Find a vacation spot where they can both relax individually and can gather as a team to connect with colleagues and managers.
Summer vacations always have a lasting effect. Don’t forget to send them some photos and put some positive reinforcement stickers and messages on it.
When things get hectic or boring at work, they can simply have a look at the photos and they will be reminded of the fun things they’ve done in the beach.
Contact Strideplus to organize your employee team-building and corporate events.
Originally published by Jenelyn Bacani at https://www.strideplus.com on July 22, 2018.
