35 Inexpensive Employee Engagement Ideas and Activities

Employee engagement is an indispensable initiative that should be treated as critical in all workplaces, regardless of a company’s size, number of employees, mode of work, and designations.

Failing to budget for engagement activities can lead to increased company costs due to employee turnover. A Gallup survey shows that turnover can cost the company one-half to twice the departing employee’s salary.

However, a company needs to have a broad range of engagement initiatives to actively engage different types of employees according to their engagement levels.

Let’s learn how to curate inexpensive employee engagement ideas that cater to different employees and help them work more enthusiastically.

What is Employee Engagement and Why Does it Matter?

In simple terms, employee engagement refers to employees' involvement and enthusiasm toward their workplace goals and co-workers. Engagement gives a sense of purpose and value, motivating employees to work better and outperform themselves.

A study shows that companies should allocate around 1% to 2% of their payroll budget towards employee engagement activities. Budgeting for employee engagement helps HR and company leaders plan and develop employee engagement initiatives to target all employees with different engagement levels, without burning a hole in their pockets.

Furthermore, those looking to work with a company will see their engagement initiatives and organizational culture before the designated job role, making a company’s employee engagement initiatives a deciding factor in accepting or rejecting job offerings.

Keep reading to learn why employee engagement programs and team engagement activities are essential to improving a company’s business.

The Benefits of Low-Cost Employee Engagement Programs

Here are some of the tangible benefits of engaging employees with simple and cost-friendly initiatives:

1. Engagement leads to better relationships with managers, leaders, and co-workers.
2. Budget-friendly and time-constrained employee engagement programs do not waste the productive time that employees must spend on their work.
3. Inexpensive initiatives focus more on interactions and discussions on topics of interest, which are important drivers of engagement.
4. Engagement significantly reduces employee turnover, which can cause huge losses for a company.
5. Adopting inexpensive engagement initiatives can help motivate different categories of employees with more interesting activities and programs.
6. Innovative engagement activities become an example for employees to come up with similar innovations in their work tasks.

25 Budget-Friendly Employee Engagement Ideas for Any Workplace

Undoubtedly, developing innovative team engagement activities can be challenging for company leaders and HR. The bigger challenge is getting all employees to participate actively in such programs.

However, conducting the same monotonous activities every year, or activities common among competitor companies, cannot bring out the desired engagement results.

Let's look at some innovative and inexpensive employee engagement activities that are set to become the norm in all workplaces this year.

1. Peer Recognition and Instant Appreciation

Many HRIS and employee engagement platforms have a separate portal for instant appreciation, rewards, and recognition. Rather than waiting for several levels of approval before announcing an award or token of appreciation for an employee or co-worker, such portals help simplify and fast-track the recognition process.

Rather than delayed recognition, instant appreciation and rewards can significantly boost employee morale and improve engagement.

2. Team Lunches or Potlucks

Employee engagement must provide opportunities for employees and team members to interact better with each other. Occasional team lunches outside the workplace allow employees to hang out at their favorite haunts while bonding with each other.

Similarly, team potluck lunches with theme-based lunch menus help employees learn more about each other’s cultures and ethnicities.

3. DIY Office Challenges

Occasional challenges and contests, in addition to an employee’s work tasks, can be great ice-breakers for team leaders and all company employees.

Desk decoration, designing/selecting ergonomic office furniture, solving transportation problems, suggesting healthy cafeteria food options, and more are some fun challenges to help employees take their minds off work and put on their thinking caps. The best suggestions and ideas can be rewarded with vouchers or coupons and implemented with company-wide recognition.

4. Themed Dress-Up Days

Remember how we used to get excited about dressing up for special days as kids, just to show off to our friends and peers? Bring the same cheer to your workplace to inspire engagement among all employees.

Dressing on festive occasions of cultural relevance, dressing according to color codes, formal dress-up days, non-uniform days, and several other fashion themes can become reasons for employees to take a break, or come out of their remote work schedules and show up at the office.

5. Suggestion Box (Physical or Digital)

Of course, your company can have several channels to collect feedback for every policy and initiative. A physical suggestion box in a common area accessible to all employees is an evergreen channel to post anonymous feedback.

This method also works for sharing feedback within a team, where leaders can have an online suggestion board in their digital workspace that allows anonymous feedback sharing.

6. Gamify Performance Incentives

Tracking and logging the progress of work tasks can be tedious. Introducing game elements that mimic a competitive environment can motivate team members to beat their previous records and those of others.

Maintaining a leaderboard to display weekly achievements and top performers, providing points for meeting targets before deadlines, scoring and sorting members based on their scores, and many other game-like elements help boost the team’s productivity.

7. Hosting “Skill-Swap” Sessions

Skill-swap or knowledge transfer allows employees in a team to share their skills and knowledge, which helps them excel in their work with other team members. Such sessions prove to be useful during periods of absence when other team members can step up and do their work without affecting their work targets.

Weekly knowledge-sharing sessions, preferably conducted online or offline with all team members, help employees learn new skills, avoid mistakes, and invoke healthy discussions and debates.

8. Friday Fun Activities

Most companies encourage their employees to spend their time in meaningful engagement by the end of the week when they are done with their weekly targets. Friday afternoons can be dedicated to conducting fun team activities and mini-outings with the team.

Whether you decide to host your team’s potluck, have a session of arcade or indoor board gaming, host fun impromptu music and dance events, or decide to reflect and share tokens of appreciation and gratitude, Friday activities can bring a memorable and engaging end to a productive week.

9. Volunteer for a Local Cause

Volunteering can be an ideal way to connect and engage like-minded employees outside their work interests. Such initiatives can help employees lead by example and motivate others to join their cause.

Planning tree-plantation drives, orphanage or elder-care home visits, organizing donation programs, and being a culture champion are some ways to help employees engage with their workplace beyond their work goals.

10. Launch Cultural and Literary Clubs

Official company clubs can be a great way to unite employees with shared interests and hobbies. Literary clubs, music clubs, office bands, dance clubs, drama or acting clubs, sports clubs, and several other clubs within a company’s intranet assure employees that their work will not drain them of their hobbies and interests.

Such clubs can have monthly or bi-monthly meetings to let employees unwind and engage with their peers on the latest news and happenings in their clubs. Such clubs also represent the company at several corporate events and competitions.

11. Implement Low-Cost Wellness Routines

Software, apps, and plugins can be integrated with a company’s employee engagement portal to monitor health and wellness. For instance, periodic timers can notify employees to stare away from the screen and give their eyes a break.

Similar notifications and apps can help employees practice mindful breathing during work hours, maintain good posture, and take sufficient water breaks. Such sessions involving meditation, breathing exercises, and similar activities can be done together as a team to get better benefits.

12. Host Motivational Speakers and Experts during Special Occasions

Getting popular speakers and domain experts to speak on relevant work-relevant or informal topics can unite employees and encourage healthy discussions and debates. Depending on the rate of participation, such meetings can happen online or offline.

For instance, on events like Mother’s Day, the company can get famous mom influencers working in a similar corporate setup to share their experiences of balancing work and personal lives, share tips, and address concerns from new mothers who have returned to work.

Such opportunities help employees, like new mothers, identify others facing similar challenges and how they can collectively approach the company to meet their fair demands.

13. Create a Recommendation List

The universal entities that help employees engage with each other include their tastes in food, music, movies, and literature. Recommendations on the latest movies, food joints, music labels, magazines, and other articles encourage employees to try the same and share their views.

So, encourage your team members to come up with their go-to food joints and plan to visit each place on subsequent team outings. Similarly, encourage each member to recommend a good book or movie every week or month, and share your reviews to understand how other members feel about them.

14. Bring Your Kids or Pets to Work

While a family day or a company-wide annual day can involve huge budgets, occasions like Children’s Day, Father’s Day, or Mother’s Day can involve fun activities at relatively lower costs.

Letting employees bring their kids or pets to work and show them around their workplace on such special days makes employees and their dependents feel valued and treasured. Creating designated play areas for kids and pets, activity and selfie zones, and offering special gifts can be the icing on the cake.

15. Conduct Impromptu Weekly Wellness Activities

Getting all employees involved in regular fitness and wellness routines can be challenging with conflicting work schedules. For this reason, weekly sessions involving a 15-to-30-minute dance routine, meditation, Zumba, or stretching exercises are great for all employees on a designated floor or area.

Such sessions are best when they’re impromptu, so everyone participates immediately from their cubicles. Also, all employees, regardless of their roles and designations, can participate and benefit from these stress-busters amidst a busy day.

16. Run Company-Wide Health Challenges

Employees feel satisfied and work better when they find the company is concerned about their overall well-being. Companies can show this concern by conducting regular challenges where employees strive to remain healthy.

Sharing their daily step count, water intake, workout selfies, and similar data helps team members remain competitive while looking after their health. Maintaining a company-wide leaderboard and rewarding weekly winners helps employees make such health challenges a part of their lifestyle.

17. Quarterly “Good News” Company Roundup

Internal Communications within a company are an important component for engagement as they serve as a channel for employees to know about what is happening in the company. A significant communication initiative includes a quarterly event to share the market situation and the company’s performance.

Such events can be the best times to appreciate performers who have made a difference in the company’s business for that quarter, list the milestones the company has reached, reflect on failures, and focus on the goals ahead. Depending on the participation rate, they can be held online or offline.

18. Create a Mentorship or Buddy Program

New recruits joining a company right after grad school or college can find navigating the hustle of their new corporate life challenging. In recent years, companies have found it challenging to get “Gen Z” graduates to remain in the company.

Companies can assign a buddy to each new recruit to make such freshers feel welcome in their new workplace. These buddies can be employees who had also joined the company as freshers one or two years ago. They can share their experiences in adapting to the new work environment and motivate new recruits to engage with the company from the beginning.

19. Develop an Office Library or Book Club

Reading and borrowing technical and fictional literature from the office can encourage several employees to develop reading habits, which becomes a source of engagement with like-minded readers in the company.

However, developing a book collection need not be the sole responsibility of the company alone. Employees can donate books from their personal collections, encouraging a sense of sharing knowledge with everyone. Moreover, volunteers can distribute surveys and feedback forms on what books employees wish to see on the bookshelves.

20. Encourage Publishing Employee-Led Blogs and Newsletters

Apart from the company’s official newsletter, every team or group can share information regarding their contributions towards the growth of the company's business. Such information is best shared through blog posts and newsletter articles coming from key performers chosen regularly from different teams.

Blog posts on the next big work skill or technology ruling their workplace, reviews on engagement initiatives, ideation challenges, and reflection opportunities, help employees analyze how they can improve their productivity. Moreover, such opportunities to publish their knowledge help employees improve their writing and language skills, which are crucial for effective communication.

21. Maintain a “Wall Of Fame” for Achievers Along With Perks

Creating new ways to appreciate and recognize employees helps them push harder and improve productivity. Maintain a wall of fame online or near your team leader’s desk to recognize the best performers for the week or month.

Come up with interesting and suitable ways to honor the best employees. For instance, the best employee can take a few hours off their work schedule, or leave early one day to make up for their efforts.

22. Hold Informal Brainstorming Sessions

Occasional sessions to debate company culture and progress can be great ways to measure the pulse of employees. These sessions can give ideas and innovative ways to lead the company on a different path.

Such sessions can also be held within the team, with team leaders mediating healthy discussions and debates among team members. Employees get to learn and hear different viewpoints, thereby promoting a culture of accommodating shared interests.

23. Encourage Outdoor Team Building Activities

The next time your teams plan a team outing for lunch or dinner, encourage them to combine it with an outdoor activity. Paintball, bowling, karaoke sessions, escape room adventures, and similar activities can help employees take their minds off work while still being with the team.

Such outdoor activities, followed by lunch or dinner, can help organize outings within a budget while helping employees engage better and more regularly.

24. Organize Workshops and Technical Exhibitions Within the Company

Exhibitions from different teams and groups in the company provide opportunities for every team to display their work and products that are set to impact the company’s business. For other employees, such exhibitions are opportunities to learn the work done by other teams, and they can look out for collaborations in the future.

Similarly, each team can organize workshops or training sessions to share their acquired skills and knowledge with interested parties. Such methods are cost-effective ways of training and imparting knowledge among employees, boosting engagement.

25. Provide Flexible Working Hours

Probably the most prioritized by employees, although it can mean less time spent at the office, several studies show the improvement in employee productivity with flexible working hours.

Working from home and maintaining a work-life balance can be a cost-effective way to engage employees. We will learn more about how remote working can save company costs, without compromising on engagement.

10 Inexpensive Employee Engagement Ideas for Remote Teams

Encouraging a part of its workforce to work from a remote setup, on a rotational or permanent basis, can actually save a company money. Reducing transportation, cubicle space, food, and electricity costs are some benefits for the company. For employees, it means achieving a better work-life balance without losing productive work time.

However, the only visible downside of remote working is the inability to physically connect with team members and leaders. Thanks to several tools and apps, this drawback has been turned into an advantage.

Here are some of the latest team engagement activities for employees who are working remotely:

1. Virtual Coffee Chats or Happy Hours

Thanks to tools like Teams and Slack, it’s become easy for teams to connect virtually. Hassle-free video calling has been a game-changer in connecting teams beyond work meetings.

From casual virtual coffee chats to discussions on literature, movies, sports, and beyond, remote employees need not worry about disengagement.

2. Host Virtual Trivia or Game Nights

In the place of weekly wellness activities in a physical office, online trivia and games can achieve the same with remote employees. An impromptu charades session, a trivia quiz with gift vouchers, or karaoke contests can be fun ways to engage remote employees.

Similarly, creating online arcade gaming with leaderboards can help remote employees take time off from work and team up with their teammates outside of work.

3. “Recognition” Channels for Shoutouts

Tools like Slack help moderators and leaders create separate channels or threads for different topics. A separate channel for recognition and appreciation provides opportunities for remote employees to appreciate their peers.

Such shoutouts can be significant in recognizing even the smallest contributions made remotely, without going unnoticed.

4. Weekly “Show & Tell” Video Calls

Since face-to-face direct communication can be lacking among remote employees, it is important to ensure their communication skills do not remain dormant. “Show & Tell” video calls can be icebreakers to help employees voice their thoughts without fear.

Such sessions can involve speaking on any topic of interest as agreed upon by all team members. Preparing for such activities can also help employees unwind and take their minds off work.

5. Send Surprise Snail Mail Gifts

Nothing beats the personal touch and excitement that one feels while receiving gifts delivered to them. It can be more exciting to receive the gift we have wanted to buy for a long time.

Although several rewards and recognition portals offer coupons and vouchers to benefit remote employees, team members can occasionally pool costs and send each other surprise gifts, preferably under $10, when working remotely. The weekly sessions can be a great way to discover employees' interests and choose gifts that match their tastes.

6. Create Informal Chat Channels

Similar to the channel or thread for appreciating employees, apps like Slack allow moderators to create separate channels to discuss informal topics like their hobbies and interests. Sharing memes, cracking jokes, and sharing photos and videos of their fun times can help employees feel more connected.

7. Conduct Remote Wellness Challenges

Encourage team members to share their daily workout routines with a selfie or video in relevant discussion channels. Monthly weight loss challenges, healthy eating challenges, recipe contests, and many other initiatives help employees stay motivated in a remote setup.

8. Virtual “Lunch & Learn Sessions”

Virtual sessions during lunch hours can be held every month, during which office employees connect with remote team members. Such sessions help hybrid teams share knowledge and insights without disturbing their work hours.

9. Highlight Remote Team Members in the Spotlight

Monthly recognition and appreciation events at the office must not ignore remote employees. Such employees must be allowed to participate and view such events live through the company’s broadcast channel. Moreover, such events should also appreciate the contributions of remote employees as much as physical employees are recognized.

10. Host a “Home Office Showoff” Contest

Remote employees may not be able to be in a physical cubicle at the office and decorate it to show their taste. However, they can be encouraged to participate in contests where they show off their workspaces at home. The best-decorated and ergonomic workplace, showing employees how to balance their work and personal lives, can be rewarded.

Final Thoughts: Engaging Employees on a Budget

An overwhelming list of ideas, isn’t it? Don’t forget to bookmark this post to decide on inexpensive employee engagement ideas and activities for your employees.

Engaging employees need not necessarily involve huge costs. With prior planning and budgeting, you can develop various initiatives to engage employees working offline, remotely, or in a hybrid setup.

Feel free to connect with us to shortlist the best engagement initiatives that suit your employees without overshooting your budget.

FAQs

1. What are some free activities for employee engagement?

Team potluck lunches, themed dress-up days, impromptu wellness sessions, informal ideation sessions, topic-based online discussion channels, and health challenges are fun ways to engage employees free of cost.

2. What are the 5 C’s of employee engagement?

Employers can ensure engagement among their employees by following these 5 principles:

• Contribute: Value employees’ contributions, ideas, and suggestions.
• Care: Empathize with the overall employee well-being.
• Congratulate: Appreciate and reward employees for small and big wins.
• Coach: Train your employees to be the best in the industry.
• Connect: Bolster healthy relationships with teams and leaders.

3. What are the 3 C's of engagement?

Employees must follow these principles to ensure active engagement with their co-workers and the company leaders:

1. Communication: Transparent and effective ways to voice opinions at the right time.
2. Connection: Interact and collaborate with colleagues during formal and informal events.
3. Culture: Stay true to the company’s goals and policies while uniting over a common culture with diverse employees.

4. How to create a budget for employee engagement?

Companies must allocate at least 1% to 2% of their payroll budget for employee engagement activities. Failing to allocate this amount can result in twice the losses during employee turnover.