Use Special Occasions To Engage With Employees And Boost Teamwork

“Paychecks can’t buy passion.” – Brad Federman

And by that, we mean “the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary effort into their work.”

With motivation being one of the key drivers to boost employee engagement, if engagement levels are low, it’s one of the first areas you can look at to get insight into how your employees are feeling. 

With motivation being one of the key drivers to boost employee engagement, if engagement levels are low, it’s one of the first areas you can look at to get insight into how your employees are feeling. 

There are so many opportunities that you can leverage, and we’ve come up with just a few to get you going.

Level it up

Create different levels of celebrations and decide how you’ll approach each one. For example, a Level 1 celebration could be a significant milestone, such as the entire company overshooting on set targets or an annual appreciation day. Level 2 could be a specific team achievement on a project or a promotion. And Level 3 could be someone’s birthday or personal achievement.

These occasions don’t need to break the bank; you can put aside varying budgets and degrees of planning for each level. By letting your employees know what you consider to be markable occasions, they’ll have something to work towards and look forward to. This is engagement gold and the returns far outweigh the costs: According to a Gallup poll, those teams who score in the top 20% in engagement realize a 21 percent increase in productivity, a 41 percent reduction in absenteeism, and 59 percent less staff turnover.

Spread the love

Sometimes, people feel best when they’re helping others and contributing to the communities around them. Set up opportunities where your employees can feel empowered, adding value in areas outside their routine day-to-day work.

This could be in the form of a charity run where you get an entire team together or having annual charity days, where you choose an organization to support and take the day off to do it. Not only will deserving causes benefit from much-needed support, but your employees will also feel proud to work for an organization that gives back - and they will gain an even stronger sense of teamwork. A very special occasion indeed!

Deck it out

While celebrating religious holidays could be regarded as distasteful, especially if you have a diverse workforce, you could easily have themed office days that don’t discriminate against anyone. You could incorporate this into an annual day or have bi-monthly themes that relate well to your company culture.

While celebrating religious holidays could be regarded as distasteful, especially if you have a diverse workforce, you could easily have themed office days that don’t discriminate against anyone. You could incorporate this into an annual day or have bi-monthly themes that relate well to your company culture.

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled.” – Anne M. Mulcahy