Why Is Employee Engagement Now A Growth Area?

Employee engagement is all about ensuring the contentment of your employees. While one can argue that monetary benefits are one of the greatest motivators in creating happy employees, the truth is that factors like better job responsibilities, making employees answerable and take onus for tasks, promoting a good work-life balance, encouraging greater participation in decision making, creating an atmosphere where ideas and creativity is appreciated and encouraged, the communication channels are open both ways and many more such positive steps are better ways to ensure a greater deal of employee engagement.

With many startups and big companies providing and encouraging such a working environment today, no doubt employee engagement has started to be accepted by most companies who are trying various ways and methods to make this aspect an essential part of their corporate culture. It is no longer a corporate secret that happy employees create happy customers and that in turn result in better business for the company.

Happy and satisfied employees also are far more productive than unhappy and disengaged ones. With enhanced performance and involvement levels, it is but obvious that the organization builds a strong competitive edge in the market. Employee engagement happens when corporates are concerned about the well-being of their employees and this, in turn, has a cascading effect. Existing employees are happy and perform their best, retention issues are automatically reduced, and it attracts the crème of the industry to come and join the task force of the said company.

The trend towards growing importance of employee engagement has also caught up because technology has helped employees to understand the significance of their role in organizations today and how comparable corporates who have been able to create success stories have incorporated such aspects in their professional working space.

Here are some unique activities that help in making employees engage more and better with their organization.

1.     Cook it up Cooking is said to be an art. While many individuals love to cook in their free times, there are many others who pursue it seriously as a hobby. There are also the people at the other extreme who do not quite like the idea of cooking. Creating small teams of such a composite group of people and handing them the task to cook a recipe from the menu for the day is no mean task. But what makes this task interesting and captivating is the challenge embedded behind a normal looking team activity. The activity is not only about cooking a dish, but it is also about making it professionally – just the way a chef from a five-star hotel would make it. And why does it need to be finely made? Because at the end of the session, each member of the group is going to be served the dishes made by each team. That’s the food for the day. Made on the lines of the MasterChef series and supervised by a real-time experienced chef, this activity demands equal participation from all members. There need to be ideas, exchange of information, strategizing, allocating the resources at hand, allocating jobs and taking on leadership roles. 

2.     Key Punch This one is all about the presence of mind and working smartly. The outdoor venue helps permeate a positive flow of energy. The entire group is divided into smaller teams. The job is to collect keys or touch numbers laid down on the ground. But it must be done as per a mentioned order and there are only five attempts to do the job correctly. The time is also limited. At a given time, only one member from each team is present in the game parameter. The rules are quite strict – members cannot repeat numbers, and neither can they go out of order. Work must be done fast so members need to be quick in time management. They also need to be using their intelligence a lot for proper problem-solving. Even though the activity is performed on an individual basis, the goal of the team is of the utmost importance in the activity.

3.     The Interlocker Like block building exercise that kids indulge in the interlocker is about arranging and assembling pieces together in the right order. The only difference is that in this case, the activity happens outdoors, and the team needs to work with planks of wood. A blueprint is handed over to the team and they need to follow it to the hilt. The objective is to create the desired structure in the shortest possible time. Even though the activity sounds simple, it is challenging and requires every team member to contribute and give their ideas and suggestions effectively to come up with the best results. 

4.     Trust Walk- As the name suggests, this activity focuses on spiking up the trust amongst partners. At the start of the activity, members are all paired up. One member of the pair needs to tie a blindfold while the other acts as the guide. At the beginning of the activity, the blindfolded team members have spun around so that they are clueless about the directions. Now the other partner needs to guide his blindfolded partner so that he can cross obstacles effectively based on verbal communication. Touching or physical contact is not allowed in this game. Other than being a great builder of trust and communication skills, the activity is also about working in sync, taking risks and effective problem-solving.

5.     Double Dragon – The job in hand in this activity is for one team member to get inside a hula hoop. The conditions are that – he is blindfolded, and he needs to listen to the suggestions of his team members and act accordingly to accomplish the task. The task is made more competitive by making the blindfolded person balance a ball between his legs. The team that finishes first by following all the rules is the winner. The activity is best for developing good communication skills, plan and strategize and work as a team to emerge winners.