10 Employee Engagement Ideas (That Actually Work) in 2022

Employees are a company’s greatest asset so it’s important they feel engaged and connected to your organization. As Richard Branson once said, “if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients”. Employee engagement is critical if you want to stay ahead of your competition and retain your greatest asset!

Hopefully, we’ll all be able to meet face-to-face much more next year, but there are so many great ideas that can be run virtually and in person! Now we’ll take you through some of the different types of employee engagement activities - here are our top 10 ideas for 2021...

1. Have fun together

First, encourage regular catch-ups and work social events between teams and the wider organization to boost engagement and build a sense of community. For example, a ‘fun Friday’ event, team lunches, or a monthly social - even if it’s just for a short time.

For now, most of us are still working virtually, so we’ve put together our top 8 virtual team-building ideas that your employees will love! With activities such as virtual scavenger hunts, virtual escape rooms, and blind drawing, there are so many great ideas available, with something for every team member.

2. Recognition

Another of the most important engagement ideas is recognition. Most organizations have their core values set out, but not many can claim that they ‘live by’ these values. Your company could be the exception to the rule by creating an employee recognition program that is centered around your values. Recognize your employees who are living your company values!

3. Celebrate successes

Now, more than ever during challenging times, it’s so important to celebrate the wins! Your teams are probably working harder right now so build a culture where they are thanked and congratulated on their successes. For example, you could introduce an annual award ceremony or schemes such as ‘employee of the month’.

4. Communication

Informative, engaging, and regular communication is one of the most significant employee engagement ideas. Your teams need to be kept informed about key company updates, news, and initiatives. This can be done through company social media platforms, regular virtual meetings/town halls, and newsletters.

5. Encourage teamwork and collaboration

Working from home has become the ‘new normal’ during Covid times, but that doesn’t mean your teams can’t stay connected. With all kinds of incredible technology at our fingertips, employees can still stay in touch and work together collaboratively. For virtual meetings and virtual events, using software like Remo allows your employees to easily stay engaged with each other and your company.

6. Offer flexibility

Flexibility and work-life balance mean different things to different people so asking each person what flexibility means to them personally is important. For one person, picking their children up from school every day could be the most important thing to them. For another employee, it could mean that they would prefer to start their work day early and finish early. Encouraging employees to have a life outside of work is critical, as you want them to be healthy and happy.

7. Health and wellness

As employee engagement ideas go, health and wellness is key. Create a program that suits your employees - and if you’re not sure what suits them, ask! If fitness is their thing, then you could host fitness challenges throughout the year which can be held virtually and in-person. Companies like Perkbox help organizations implement successful health and wellness programs to boost employee engagement.

8. Encourage free speech

Communication with employees should be two-way - this is a key part of any successful employee engagement strategy. Employees should feel that they can open up, come up with ideas and give feedback about your company, including areas for improvement. Introducing an annual survey is one of the most popular employee engagement ideas. However you choose to do it, it’s important to implement an easy way employees can give their feedback regularly.

9. Learning sessions

As employee engagement activities go, this is a pretty unique one! Your company could host regular learning sessions, in-person or virtually. They don’t need to be formal training sessions - for example, you could introduce skills sharing ‘lunch & learns’ between colleagues on any topic they are knowledgeable and passionate about.

10. Professional development

Investing in employee professional development is a fundamental engagement activity as it helps them to grow within your company. Providing the right training opportunities also shows your teams that you are committed to them. A potential option that will benefit your employee development would be funding an online course or training program to help guide them to the right direction professionally. Giving them the opportunity to take extra training that is worthy to put on a resume is adds a little motivation for your employees to commit to the process!For more tips and tricks on how to keep your employee's engaged online, check out these 5 ways to keep your remote employees engaged from visme.co!If you have any questions about Remo’s video conferencing software and how you can use it to improve employee engagement, check out our FAQs. We also have loads more blog articles offering great tips about running successful virtual events.

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