Making sure your employees are happy is a key factor in ensuring the financial success and overall performance of a company. One way to increase engagement is to make sure the workplace is, well, fun! Strained corporate team building is out, and now social committees are leading the way to increased employee engagement.
Reason #1 Having fun with colleagues builds stronger teams.
Laughing and having fun with colleagues boosts all those feel-good hormones which create lasting bonds between team-mates. It is simple really. If your colleagues actually like each other, they are more likely to pull together when times get tough and there is a deadline to meet.
It’s worth remembering that employees need regular feel-good fun and not just an annual party. Social Committees are masters of bringing fun to the workplace, after all, their primary function is to make sure everyone has a good time.
Reason # 2 Boosts collaboration and innovation, and generally increases your “feel-good” factor as an employer.
Today’s employees are more focussed having a positive work-life balance, maintaining good mental health, and living an enriching life outside of their job description. An increased salary – whilst welcome – is no longer enough.
Monotony is a killjoy – so why would you think that having the same old social incentives would keep people motivated? The Social Committee work with employees to bring them a much needed boost, and provide creative solutions to providing events that meet budget expectations.
By the way – do you know Social Circle can help your employees find that perfect work-life balance? Click here to find out how.
Reason # 3 Having a Social Committee is proven to increase employee engagement.
There are many reasons for boosting employee engagement, and it has been proven time and time again that happy employees work harder, go the extra mile, and deliver their best performance. Allowing fun ‘on-the-clock’ allows for employees to take a break from their routine and increases loyalty and engagement. However, what works for one company may not work in the culture of another, so it is important to seek out the opinions of employees as to what would be welcome. This is where the Social Committee come in – who is better to come up with ideas than the employees themselves.
Bottom line: if building a positive company culture and strengthening your employer brand is your aim, forming a social committee is a great step in the right direction.
But what if I don’t have a social committee?
Wait. Your office doesn’t have one? Well, now’s the time to pull one together. Nothing increases staff engagement and satisfaction faster.
The committee’s quest is simple: create fun events for the office. You don’t need a ton of people on the actual committee itself- three to five should do the trick, depending on the size of your business.
What should the committee do? It’s up to you, of course, but here are some guidelines. Your office social committee should:
- Meet monthly or every other month to plan future events and finalize ones that are just around the corner
- Get input from people throughout the company on what everyone wants to do
- Delegate tasks, as needed
- Manage the budget
Budget?
Yes, the social committee needs one. It doesn’t need to be huge, but someone needs to foot the bill for fun, right?
Provide the committee with a quarterly budget, set up guidelines for expenses and revisit the number each quarter to make sure it’s being used, and used properly. Don’t forget – Social Circle can also help provide hundreds of events per month from as little as £1 per employee, per month.
If money is too tight, here’s another idea: hold a bake sale. All funds raised will go to the social committee for event planning. Not only will a sale be fun in itself but it can provide a much needed boost for the rest of the year.
We would love to hear how your social committee has created a fun workplace.