How to Boost Your Employee Morale with Corporate Events

How to Boost Your Employee Morale with Corporate Events © Shutterstock.com | Rawpixel.comIn this article, we explore 1) why it is important to boost the morale of your employees, 2) types of corporate events for your employees, and 3) how to arrange a corporate event to boost your employee morale.WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BOOST THE MORALE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES?Employee morale is an extremely significant aspect of your business, as it can either make or break your organization. It is has been observed that employees with a higher and more positive morale, have a better attitude towards their job, maintain higher levels of customer service, and also turn out to be much more productive in their workplace. At the same time, employees with a bad morale reduce the efficiency and productivity of your business. Therefore, it is absolutely important to boost employee morale and ensure that none of them is left disgruntled.Happy employees turn out to be efficient and productive employees. Employees who have a positive attitude towards their jobs, and alw ays stay motivated, are likely to miss fewer work days. They also work more efficiently and perform fewer errors and accidents at their workplace. Your customer service too is likely to benefit from these employees, as employees with a higher morale will be much more friendly and helpful while dealing with their customers.Developing and ensuring a good morale starts with recruiting the right employees. Good employee morale affects how motivated your employees will be, suggests how efficient they will be during shifts and also influences how long they are willing to be with your organization. As a boss or a manager of your organization, it is your responsibility to buck up your employee morale and ensure that they are absolutely satisfied with their jobs.You have to ensure that your employees completely understand their roles, their impacts on the customers and how they add value to your organization. Once you ensure these factors, your employees are likely to feel much more connecte d in their workplace.While motivating the employees, you can also motivate them with your own example. If you show good conduct in business, your employees too are likely to be influenced by that. Try to demonstrate a proper and positive attitude, set high standards and show your commitment to serving the perfect example of achievement.You have to consistently communicate with your employees in order to boost their morale. Share the objectives and news about your organization with them. Tell them about your expectations and explain the different reasons behind certain rules and regulations. Ask them promptly about their ‘motivating factors’ and always take their feedback regarding handling staff issues.Try to involve your employees as equal members of the organization. Ensure that each of them feel valued and connected to your organization, by taking their feedbacks and giving them the opportunity to make decisions. Consult your employees while implementing certain policies that might affect them. Instead of dictating rules, let your staffs give their own input to create their favorable workplace environment.Besides this, you should also organize certain events to boost your employee morale and add a dash of fun to their regular jobs. These events play a significant role in inciting a positive and optimistic attitude among them. With a couple of fun and quirky events, your employees are likely to feel more motivated and more connected to your organization.TYPES OF CORPORATE EVENTS FOR YOUR EMPLOYEESA corporate event is an excellent way to let your employees know that they are important and highly valued in the organization. It is also a great way to appreciate them for their hard work. So in case you’re busy figuring out the right events for your employees, here’s a list of eight popular corporate events that’ll surely boost your employee morale.Activity-based events An activity-based event not only boosts the employee morale, but also adds team spi rit among your employees. Some of these events would include bowling sessions, go-kart racing games, and mini-golf course games. You can even arrange for a company volleyball or softball tournament where employees can participate according to their departments. These physical activities will allow your employees to blow out their stress and see their co-workers and managers in the different image outside their workplace.Pancake breakfast Arrange a pancake breakfast where your company executives, managers, and officers cook and serve a meal to the employees. The meal can be a breakfast, and it needs to feature only pancakes, sausages, and bacon. You can also add coffee and orange juice as beverages. The food and ingredients can be bought in bulk at a local discount supermarket or warehouse club. This kind of company event won’t cost much, yet it can play a vital role in boosting your employee morale. It will give your employees an opportunity to spend time with the management in a stress-free and positive atmosphere.Potluck lunch For this type of events, you can ask your employees to bring a particular dish for lunch. Your company can always provide the main entrée for such lunch. It can be pizzas, hamburgers or anything your employees would love. To ensure that all the food groups have been covered in the lunch, assign each individual department a specific food item or a course. For instance, you can ask the accounting department to bring the sides and the marketing team to bring the desserts. You can also host a cooking contest and present a gift certificate to the winner. Gift them vouchers to a local spa, a meal for two, a paid day off, or a free day. This potluck lunch will surely make your employees feel connected to your organization.Surprise afternoon snack You can also surprise your employees with an afternoon treat. For instance, set up an ice cream parlor that comes with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream. At the same time, you can eve n arrange a treat of whipped cream, muffins, any other popular dessert or snacks like popcorn and sandwiches in this counter. The items you serve doesn’t really matter. All that matters is your spirit of surprising your employees. Giving them a sudden surprise will surely raise their spirits and keep them happy.Casual day party A casual day party is a great way to keep your employees happy and motivated. In this party, all the employees would be allowed to come to office in their casuals. The event would include fun games, good music, and a hearty meal. A casual day party for your employees would give them an opportunity to relax and catch a break from their stressful and stringent schedules.Employee appreciation party Events like employee appreciation parties and award ceremonies are a great way to boost your employee morale. You can distribute certificates and small prizes as tokens of appreciation. In this regard, you should also try to keep a gift for everyone in-house. Appr eciating your employees through these small gifts will make them feel valued and important. This will also foster employee loyalty and help them to reach new heights of excellence.Happy hours Your company can also arrange happy hours once a week, or once in a fortnight. This happy hours session (usually held on Fridays) is simply an after-work drinks party. This party will help your staff to blow off some steam and relax after a hard and strenuous week. Happy hours encourage better communication and also foster better inter-departmental and company-employee relationship.Fun departmental trivia A fun departmental trivia is one of the best ways to build better team working abilities and boost the morale of your employees. Come up with quirky and interesting questions in this trivia to raise the spirits of your employees and motivate them. You can also arrange small gifts for the employees who manage to give right answers. An event like this, entertains, engages, and informs through a wonderful mix of fun and quirky challenges.HOW TO ARRANGE A CORPORATE EVENT TO BOOST YOUR EMPLOYEE MORALEIf you think about a bigger corporate event for your company, here is the step-by-step process of how you can arrange it for your employees.Step 1: Decide to arrange an event and define its purpose In order to boost your employee morale with a funky and innovative event, you have first to decide the type and purpose of the event. Plan and figure out what type of corporate event you want to organize, whether it will be a cocktail party, lunch, picnic or any other activity-based event. Deciding to prepare an event and having a proper goal for it will help you to conduct the activities smoothly.Step 2: Conceptualize a proper plan for your event Right after deciding to arrange an event and defining the purpose of that event; you have to conceptualize now a proper plan for it. You have to decide the budget, figure out the location, plan out an innovative invitation card/email for your employees and also plan the activities for the event.Budget of the corporate event: While deciding the budget, you have to consider every possible expense and contingent expenses that are to be incurred in the event. If you don’t set proper budget restrictions, you’re likely to spend more than you had expected. Be realistic about the budget and try to keep your costs low (unless you’re planning something really grand).Location of the corporate event: You also have to give equal importance in choosing the venue, date and time of the event. Unless it is an activity-based event, your office itself can be a convenient location. However, you can also choose any other venue if you’re planning something much more innovative. Book the location beforehand in order to avoid any hassles just before the grand party. Regarding the date, you have to choose it strategically, avoiding major statutory and religious holidays. It is also better to avoid the school holiday time periods whi le choosing the date.Invitation for the corporate event: Besides planning the budget and location, you also have to come up with an innovative invitation card for your employees. Make the invitation card as innovative as possible. Add a catchy tagline, use some bright colors and make the card look incredible. You can either hand the invitation cards individually or send them electronically to the employees. In both cases, make sure that the cards are quirky and unique.Activities at the corporate event: Another important aspect of conceptualizing a proper plan is deciding which activities you want to make at your event. As you’re planning a corporate event, you have to ensure that the activities of the event involve all your employees. Decide how the event will proceed; figure out a set of games or activities that your employees will be involved in. In case you’re planning an award ceremony, decide the prizes and tokens of appreciation for the employees beforehand.Step 3: Start o rganizing things Now that you’ve conceptualized a major part of the event, start organizing other relevant things like the tagline of the event, necessary switch-ups and a proper photo and video unit.Name theme of the corporate event: If you want your corporate event to stand out, you need to choose a compelling theme that’ll keep your employees connected and happy. Your overall theme needs to be absolutely dynamic, and your event name too has to be unique and out-of-the-box. Once you’ve figured out a name, craft a short and smart tagline for the event. This tagline should describe the event, and it should also be attractive enough to keep your employees interested about the main event. You can also add a logo and come up with special and personalized merchandise for this corporate party. This is likely to grab the greater attention of your employees.Other necessary arrangements: You will also have to make the necessary arrangements for the photos and videos. At the same tim e, ensure that there is a proper arrangement for chairs, tables, podiums, microphones, speakers, LCD projectors and every other necessary element of the event. Gather all the necessary items of the event including small prizes, gift vouchers, medals, certificates, and mementos. Once you get these things ready and buck up on the organization part, your event will be automatically conducted smoothly and easily.Step 4: Create a master plan Right after organizing certain aspects of the event; you have to come up with another master plan that would encompass every aspect of the event.You should check all the contracts, permits and logistics of the event as a part of this plan. There should be logistics for everything. Whether it is about utilizing the space of the venue or deciding a proper parking spot; everything should come along with your logistics.As the event is going to be an in-house one, you won’t have to spend much on marketing and promotion. Yet, if you want to go an extra mile for your employees and render a grand appeal to the event; you can always organize a web page for the event, popularize it on social media and promote it via personalized goodies. However, this is only viable if you’re planning the event on the slightly bigger scale.If you’re looking forward to an interactive event, arrange for the speakers and presenters who will host the show. Choose the right professionals and confirm them in advance.Creating a master plan is extremely significant as it helps you to determine the administrative process and the process of evaluation of the event.Step 5: Determine the administrative process Determining the administrative process is an extremely significant aspect of the conducting the event. This involves the ways how you keep track of your plans, goals, budget, venue, and speakers. While determining the administrative process, you are required to keep a track of all your event information and every other factor associated with it.Step 6: Determine the evaluation process This is the last, and yet, one of the most vital aspects of conducting the event successfully. While setting the initial goals and objectives of the event, you should also consider ways to determine its success. In this regard, the best way to evaluate the success of the event is by checking whether your employees are enjoying themselves or not.Step 7: Make sure every employee participate in the event and enjoy themselves As the main aim of your event is to boost employee morale, you should personally make sure that every employee participates in the event actively. Encourage them to take part in the fun and games. Help them to relax and make them feel connected with some informal conversations. Your event is successful only when your employees get a ‘real break’ from their duties. It is successful when your employees feel happy about their jobs. Due to this reason, you have to particularly ensure that the event you’re conducting is quirky a nd innovative enough to keep everyone engaged. You should also appreciate your employees as a part of the event.If you want to improve the efficiency of your employees and keep them motivated all-way-round, a good corporate event can be the perfect solution.