Employee retention often starts with positive employee engagement ideas, as all HR managers know that a positive combination of intangible and compensation benefits contribute to team morale and overall staff retention rates.

As a HR manager, or businesses leader in general, it is your responsibility to champion a culture that makes work feel either less like work, or a rewarding environment to be part of.

But coming up with Employee Engagement ideas can be difficult, sometimes a little cliche too. So where’s a great place to start in your search for engagement ideas for 2017? National days are a great place to start, but less Blue Monday (that’s on the 16th January by the way) and more National Pie Day!

So, here are 10 Employee Engagement Ideas based around national days to get you started on your engagement strategy for the New Year.

1.National Pie Day – 23rd January

Where better to start than a tasty treat for the office to start the year. January can be challenging for any business, and team morale can be a little dampened following the festive break. So to get the year into gear, National Pie Day could be a great place to start.

One idea would be to host either a departmental or company-wide (depending on company size) pie-making competition, with a prize also offered for the worst pie too in tongue and cheek fashion. Naturally, all entries can be eaten once the judging has taken place!

2.Employee Appreciation Day – 3rd March

Perhaps a little on the nose, Employee Appreciation Day could be seen by staff as a bit obvious and maybe even disingenuous as an employee engagement activity. It’s meant to be their day after all. However, with the right strategy, the day could be turned into an engagement and outward PR winner.

Ideas to fill this day may depend on your HR or engagement budget, but buying a round of drinks after work, or a personal favourite of ordering a buffet lunch into the office for your employees to snack on throughout the day.

3.International Earth Day – 22nd April

Employees, especially millennials, are becoming increasingly aware and concerned for the planet, so International Earth Day presents an excellent opportunity for your company to get involved in what is an important issue for many team members. Not only will it help boost employee engagement, but getting actively involved in International Earth Day can also act as a positive outward PR initiative. #GoingGreen springs to mind.

Some ideas could include asking all staff members to bring in a small pot plant for their desk. You could even afford staff a £5 budget to go out and get a plant to make sure they all take part. There’s plenty of research out there that shows the positive benefits of having plants in the office too, so another nice added benefit! Other ideas could be to get staff together to plant seeds or small tree samplings on the grounds surrounding the office. Keener team members could then be entrusted with caring for the plants throughout the year.

4.National Leave the Office Early Day – 2nd June

This one’s pretty obvious, but the way you play it will make the difference here. Instead of sending an email around the company a few days before, surprise staff instead by walking out of the office an hour early, coat in hand, and inviting staff to do the same.

If you’re worried about getting everything sorted on that day’s agenda, schedule a meeting for the last hour of the day and just before it stars, invite everyone to a local cafe or bar instead to hold a more informal briefing.

5.National Bring Your Dog to Work Day – 24rd June

If you do engage in this event to help boost employee engagement, expect to take a productivity hit that day. The plus side? Lots of selfies and content uploaded to social media from happy employees playing with the new four-legged staff members for the day. Great for staff morale, and a good image to portray for the company too.

With the average person having around 350 friends on Facebook, for example, if just 20 of yours staff upload pictures to social media, that’s a potential 7,000 people who will see that your company is a great, fun place to work.

Maybe don’t schedule too many important meetings or deadlines on the day itself though!

6.National Eat Outside Day – 31st August

Again, quite a self explanatory one… also an event that depends ever so slightly on unpredictable British weather. One of the most social things that a company can do together is eat together, and for a hit of fresh air and an element of team bonding as well, look to organise an outdoors meal event. This could be quite easy to organise if your business has an outside space – perhaps a BBQ lunch on the balcony for example.

If not, maybe look to booking a minibus and laying on a picnic for staff in the afternoon at a national park or local scenic spot.

7.Halloween – 31st October

There are a number of ways your company can get involved with Halloween. From ‘spookifying’ some cupcakes in the canteen to adorning the office with fake cobwebs and comically oversized spiders, getting into the Halloween spirit and making sure all staff members get involved with help boost team morale.

On the day itself you could also hold a fancy dress competition with prizes for the best and worst costumes!

8.National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day – 15th December

Another one that speaks for itself! Make sure you remind everyone in the company a week or so before the day so they have time to head to Primark and pick out the loudest, flashiest Christmas jumper they can find. It would also be good to make sure that senior members of staff join in as well to ensure it’s a fully inclusive event.

This can be flipped into a positive outwards PR story too to share across social media. Staff members could all donate a couple of quid to a collection bucket on the day with donations going to a local charity. Staff members who don’t wear a Christmas jumper may have to donate a little bit extra as a forfeit!

This day can also signal the start of festive period at your business – see the next point.

9.Christmas – last working week of December

The important thing to note here is the date – the last working week of December. This is for two reasons in particular. One: it’ll aid your productivity levels if you don’t get staff thinking about Christmas and starting to relax a little too early on in the month. Secondly, a lot of people don’t want to start thinking about Christmas and ‘celebrating’ the season too early, either!

So for the last working week of December, look to introduce some festive touches around the office. A grand tree in the entrance hall would be great, but for smaller businesses a token effort would also be appreciated! You could also ,at the start of the week, get decorations ordered in at lunchtime and have an hour where staff help decorate the way they want it, as a team.

And on the last working day, don’t forget cards to your employees. Try and make them personal, either with the design or the message inside. To make sure everyone has a present to open, run a secret Santa too, with gifts opened on the last working day.

If it’s been a very successful year, you can also consider Christmas bonuses or buying a bottle of booze for staff too.

10.Create your own employee engagement event that’s relevant to your business

Now, writing this article, I don’t know exactly what it is your company does. So to create an employee engagement event that’s truly relevant to your business, you need to have a good think about some ideas that are relevant to your company, the sector and also what type of company culture you already have.

If you’re a fun workplace with a young core-team who would be delighted if a bouncy castle turned up one afternoon, then why not create your own annual company bouncy castle day. Make it unique, make it personal and make sure it’s fun!

What are you planning during 2017 to help boost employee engagement? Let me know in the comments below!

Looking for a new role in HR? Check out our latest HR jobs here.

The post 10 employee engagement ideas for 2017 appeared first on Better Placed.