13 Best Virtual Employee Engagement Ideas in 2022

Best Virtual Employee Engagement Ideas

Virtual or remote employees don’t get all the benefits that most office-going employees get. Moreover, this is also one of the significant reasons why most virtual employees have fewer interactions and engagement with other employees. 

So, in this section, you’ll know all the effective methods to employ proper employee engagement ideas for your virtual employees. 

Use Virtual Town Halls

The virtual town hall is a way for company leaders to update staff via live streaming. It allows remote employees to assess company-wide measurements and track key targets.

Moreover, a virtual town hall can also help coworkers feel more connected with other employees. Even departments that don’t normally connect will get a chance to interact and learn about each other’s work.

Virtual town halls boost company confidence by bringing everyone on the same page. If used properly, they can also increase employee engagement.

Coffee Breaks That Are Virtual

Virtual coffee breaks are a time set aside for low-tech activities like talking and brainstorming. During a virtual meeting or conference, you might add virtual coffee breaks to let your employees break the stress and a chance to recharge their energy and generate some engagement with other employees. 

Most of the time, these activities last about 15 to 30 minutes and they are also called a “virtual chat” or “virtual coffee meeting.” These breaks are a way for virtual employees to get to know other employees better.

Office Olympics

Indeed work is essential especially if you want your business and company to grow, however, sometimes your employees need to let go of some of the steam.

So, in this case, Office Olympics are a great way to get your employees to work together and have fun. Colleagues will be able to cheer and work together as they show off their skills. 

Moreover, it’ll also keep everyone in good moods and this will give them some break from the regular stress work. 

Some of the best online games for employee engagement are given below:

• Online Chess Tournament
  
• Online Poker Games
  
• Best Storytime
  
• Online Talent Show

99k Challenge

The first step on the road to becoming fit is taking one. To make it worth it, you and your team need to walk 99 thousand steps in a month. 

Even your remote employees must perform this challenge as there are applications that can help you keep track of each of your employees. At the end of a month, those who will walk the most steps will win a prize. 

This challenge will not only keep your employees fit, but will also build a strong engagement among team members.

Mental Wellness Program

The distance separates many remote employees from their HODs (Heads of Departments) and colleagues. Therefore, finding a work-life balance might be a challenge, as this can also affect the employee’s personal time and life. This in turn can severely affect the employees’ mental health and overall productivity. 

During this time, workplace counseling might be an effective solution. External counselors allow employees to express their feelings without worrying about client-patient confidentiality being shared with others.

These mental health programs can surely bring the remote employees back to their game.

Slack Apps

Slack apps are one of those applications that helps to improve employee engagement. These applications will help you to have better communication with your team members and build a strong connection. 

In short, slack apps provide a platform to all the employees where they can create a digital working environment that eventually improves the overall team performance and increases employee engagement.

Flexible Schedules

Working from home might be a challenge for many. For instance, parents with kids must work and also look after them. It’s a huge issue for families who homeschool or have kids on vacation.

Work hours should be flexible rather than set by the office. Allow flexible start times and schedules. Remote staff can start between 8 and 10 a.m.

During the day, employees can also take up to an hour off if needed, as long as they work the required hours. This simple policy may minimize stress and increase productivity for remote workers.

Provide Workspace/Connectivity Allowance

HR management and departments have a lot of different goals and aim to reach, so it can be quite a challenge for them to keep track of virtual employee engagement all at the same time.

However, you can make employee engagement a regular practice through some effective strategies.

One way to ensure that employee engagement always stays high is by letting them express their creativity. 

A lot of people think that creativity is only about someone making art, but in simple words, creativity is doing something differently. This will allow all your employees to express themselves and through this, all the work from home employees will have better engagement activities among themselves.

Virtual Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt

During a virtual Easter party, employees have a video call with each other to celebrate the holiday. These events may include activities, games, and even challenges that are entirely related to the Easter egg hunts, rabbits, and many other things.

However, one of the main reasons for these parties is to build virtual team engagement for better team performance.

Annual or Quarterly Feedback

If any of your employees have performed better at their annual or quarterly assigned tasks, you can always recognize them with positive feedback in the team’s online chat groups. This will indeed make your employees feel confident and be more engaging with their employees. 

Care Packages

If anyone should get a little extra attention and appreciation, it’s your employees, they are the ones who work so hard to help your business succeed. 

If you want to show how much your employees and their work are important, gifts are a great way to do that. The right gift can make the moment even more special. 

Moreover, when an employee performs whether it be a virtual or in-office employee, these gifts can play a huge role in also improving employee engagement. 

You can give care packages like:

• Energizing Delights ( For bodybuilding and fitness freaks)
  
• Care Box for Pets ( If anyone has any pets)
  
• Gift Box (Common for everyone)

Self-Paced Virtual Onboarding Orientation

Virtual onboarding is the process of integrating a new employee into an organization remotely. That is, not in a tangible, face-to-face setting. This usually involves web-based documentation, training, and staff participation.

Onboarding introduces a new employee to your company’s internal processes and culture.

It’s also often the initial stage in training new staff. You would want to ensure that the onboarding process sets the tone for any future training that your new remote employees will get.

Your new team member should spend some time with their new team during onboarding, this will increase the overall employee engagement and will even create great teamwork.

Incentivize Volunteering

Businesses are adjusting work cultures to a virtual office environment, which includes corporate volunteerism. Although many have struggled at the beginning, all have improved gradually. Major techniques that were pushed aside during the move to remote offices are now being optimized. 

Moreover, through this volunteering, employees will have a better engagement and connection with different teams.

Ask employees to volunteer for various tasks like giving a speech or presentation about a particular project and if they are able to accomplish the tasks how would they like to be rewarded or incentivized. In this way, you’ll be able to increase employee engagement. 

Bottom Line

Virtual employee engagement ideas are pretty important especially if you want your virtual workers to stay more productive and satisfied with their jobs. In many companies, these ideas are not being implemented the way they should be and this is also one of the reasons why most remote employees are not happy with their current work. 

So, to keep your remote employees productive and happy, ensure that you implement these employee engagement ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How do you keep virtual employees engaged?

Keep remote employees linked with effective communication and technology. Use platforms like Zoom, Recognize App, GoToMeeting, Slack, and Asana to streamline team communication and project management. Encourage your employees to be active in these platforms for continuous collaborations and engagement.

Q. What are virtual employee engagement activities?

Employee engagement activities keep your employees satisfied, happy, and loyal to their place of work. Today, many employees want more than only incentives and bonuses. They want to be recognized, valued, and grow while they are working.

Moreover, activities like giving time off, virtual recognition and rewards, frequent breaks. All these activities can make the employees feel cared for and valued which will also increase their overall engagement.

Q. What are some interesting employee engagement activities?

There are many interesting employee engagement activities that you can implement for your employees. Below are some of them:

• Workplace Parties
  
• Employee Tournaments
  
• Training
  
• Recognition Programs
  
• Team Activities
  
• Sports Events

These are some of the most interesting activities that your employees will not only enjoy but will also improve their overall employee engagement.