10 Employee engagement activities for your remote team

Employee engagement is the measure of work satisfaction among your employees. Businesses become easier to run when the engagement of employees is high. However, nowadays employee engagement is not about working 9 to 5, but being involved and taking responsibility for the work they do. There are different employee engagement strategies to build strong engagement in the organization.

This work-from-home situation and hybrid working model has called for virtual employee engagement activities for the team. Let us first understand why employee engagement is essential and then find out the 10 employee engagement activities for the remote team.

Why is employee engagement important?

The employee engagement determines the success of an organization. Also, there are plenty of benefits like

• An engaged employee becomes proactive. He or she knows the roles and responsibilities. This clear understanding will help in better decision-making, which benefits the organization.
• When there is employee engagement, employees know very well about overcoming setbacks and driving value from each decision they make. This leads to growth and innovation
• With high rates of employee engagement, there is low employee turnover, improving employee retention thereby reducing hiring costs

Read: Why employers are interested in employee engagement?

Employee engagement articles

Also according to Harvard Business Review, employee engagement does more than boosting productivity of employees. According to it

• High rates of employee engagement can promote a variety of outcomes that are good for employees and customers.
• The success rate of a strongly engaged organization is almost twice as much as a poorly engaged organization.
• Employee engagement can also improve the quality of work and mental health, reducing absenteeism.

According to Dr. Jim Harter Ph.D., a chief scientist at Gallup Research, who has co-authored more than 1000 articles on employee engagement and workplace wellness states that engaged employees “continuously recreate jobs so that each person has a chance to do what they do best.”

10 virtual employee engagement activities for your team

Organizing employee wellness sessions

It is tough to engage, especially while working remotely if we aren’t feeling well. Be it physical or mental wellness, it is important to focus and give priority to employee wellbeing and improve it. Hosting employee wellness sessions can create positive employee engagement. Providing gym memberships, giving free access to therapists, conducting meditation sessions can be the other few perks of these employee wellness programs. Take a look at the corporate wellness programs guide to know more about the wellness programs, its benefits and design one for your team.

Fun employee engagement activities

Spending time playing some fun employee engagement activities can make the employee feel happier and more involved in the organization. Getting the employees involved in games and competitions can help in building connections with one another. Since we all work from home, many virtual multiplayer games can ace this idea. A classic example of this would be organizing fun Friday games for your team.

Creating employee journals

The Employee Journal is used for onboarding and developing new remote members. This includes creating private Slack channels. It has purposes like

• Each employee can share thoughts and questions they have and the organization.
• Brings in new perspectives and freshness to the existing system and processes.

This can boost employee engagement and bring new ideas to the organization.

Ice-breaker questions

Virtual Ice-Breaker questions like “chocolate or ice cream”, “tea or coffee”, etc. can be included in virtual meetings and in conversations to level up the engagement rate of employees.

Virtual parties

Working remotely has said a no-no to office parties and birthday parties. So small virtual parties can be celebrated to substitute these parties. Like celebrating virtual birthday parties, celebrating small wins, the celebration of work anniversaries on a virtual meet can engage the employees with each other and the organization.

Organizing workshops and training

Conducting workshop sessions and work-related training sessions for employees can make them proactive and increase their productivity. Conducting live sessions of these programs can upskill them and engage them with the work they are doing. Apart from this, this can be another benefits program for employees you provide.

Spreadsheet pixel art

If you are a nerd and like doing artistic works, then you will like doing Spreadsheet Pixel Art. In Spreadsheet Pixel Art, you add a little code to automatically replace numbers with a color fill for that cell. Then you can use these colors to “paint the numbers” and create pictures of nearly anything.

Remote offsite calls

Another interesting way to increase employee engagement is by connecting on calls where you call your people and talk about life. It can be anything like “How do they do”, “How is life outside of work”, and many other work-friendly topics. These kinds of casual conversations can create a good balance.

Group challenges

Work from home can be challenging to maintain a healthy lifestyle and habits. So group challenges like healthy habits, like eating healthy, drinking enough water can be conducted and the winners can be provided with a gift card. In this way, you can build an employee wellness program. This can improve employee engagement in your workplace.

Ted-style talks by employees

In this, the employees can be asked to give their Ted-style talks. These types of employee engagement strategies can inculcate leadership skills and increase the self-confidence of the employees. In this

• The Team members can list the expertise they have, which could range from mathematical problems to mastering the recipe of their favorite dish.
• Allowing 3 to 4 extra minutes for a Q and A session.

This is an excellent way to help boost team engagement during virtual meet hours because people are interested in their colleague’s personal stories and expertise.

Best tools for virtual employee engagement

Using the right digital tools can make virtual employee engagement activities more interactive, collaborative, and enjoyable for remote teams. From communication platforms to recognition tools and virtual whiteboards, these tools help organizations improve employee engagement and strengthen workplace culture in remote and hybrid environments.

Slack

Slack is one of the most popular communication tools for remote teams. It helps employees stay connected through channels, direct messages, polls, and fun community spaces. HR teams can create dedicated channels for employee engagement activities such as wellness challenges, birthday celebrations, appreciation posts, and virtual coffee chats.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams combines video meetings, chats, file sharing, and collaboration in one platform. It is widely used for virtual team meetings, online workshops, employee training sessions, and team engagement activities. Features like breakout rooms and live collaboration improve employee interaction.

Donut

Donut is a Slack integration designed specifically for virtual employee engagement. It randomly pairs employees for casual conversations, virtual coffee chats, and team introductions. This helps remote employees build relationships and reduces feelings of isolation.

Kahoot!

Kahoot makes virtual employee engagement activities more fun through quizzes, trivia games, and competitions. Organizations can use it during virtual meetings, onboarding sessions, or team-building events to increase participation and energy levels.

Miro

Miro is an interactive online whiteboard platform that supports brainstorming sessions, workshops, and collaborative activities. Remote teams can use Miro for idea generation, strategy planning, and creative team engagement exercises.

Zoom

Zoom remains one of the most widely used tools for virtual meetings and employee engagement activities. Features like breakout rooms, reactions, polls, and virtual backgrounds make online team-building sessions more engaging and interactive.

Bonusly

Bonusly helps organizations build a culture of appreciation by enabling peer-to-peer recognition and rewards. Employees can publicly recognize teammates for their contributions, improving morale, motivation, and employee engagement.

Choosing the right employee engagement tools depends on your company size, remote work culture, and the type of employee engagement strategies you want to implement. Combining communication, recognition, wellness, and collaboration tools can significantly improve employee satisfaction and team engagement in remote workplaces.

‍

Finally

These virtual employee engagement activities must be entertaining. Only then, team engagement can be increased. These fun activities can create a sense of belonging to the organization, hence they can be more engaged at work. As we all are in the middle of a crisis and doing remote work, it is important to organize such fun employee engagement activities to boost productivity.

The covid pandemic has severely impacted the employee engagement rate and employee wellness. In this regard, a survey answered by 120+ HR and People Operations leaders was conducted to deeply understand how employers take care of mental health at workplace and this India’s Health and Wellness at Work report had some interesting findings. Download your copy of the report now.

Boost employee engagement by offering employee healthcare benefits

Pazcare is an employee insurance and healthcare benefits platform, built for HRs - to take better care of the modern workforce. Now boost your employee engagement by offering modern employee healthcare benefits. We offer tailor-made group health insurance policy according to the needs of your organization. Considering the need of the day, our group insurance comes with coronavirus insurance. We also offer group term life insurance policy, group personal accident insurance policy and corporate wellness programs that caters to the needs of modern workforce. Our corporate wellness programs include wellness sessions, personalized therapy sessions, unlimited doctor consultations, exclusive healthcare packages for women, regular health checkups, and a lot more.

Talk to our team to gain more insights on the plan and its benefits. Get competitive quote for your team and get started.