Research-based team building activities for employee engagement

Employee engagement is the mental and emotional connection and commitment that people have to their job roles, their organization, and its goals. 

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When your employees feel enthusiastic about and connected to the work they do, they are more likely to consistently perform well, be satisfied, and remain with your company. This is why it is important to build and sustain your employees’ engagement in the workplace. 

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How to build and maintain employee engagement in the workplace

A recent study conducted by SHRM.org (Society for Human Resource Management) sheds light on some of the most effective ways to keep your employees engaged. These include: 

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• Training and development: Offering training opportunities for employees to acquire more knowledge and build skills relevant to your organization’s goals. 

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• Job enrichment: Adding variety and autonomy to employees’ jobs, allowing them to embrace a broader view of their roles and responsibilities. 

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• Strategic compensation: Recognising and rewarding good performances to encourage hard work and engagement. 

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• Performance management: Setting and communicating job or department-specific goals with employees and providing quality, constructive feedback. 

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Activities for training and development 

1. Instructor-led team training 

Just like the name implies, instructor-led training or ILT is any team training led by a professional instructor. It typically involves inviting industry experts to teach your teammates specific skills needed to perform their roles better. 

Training can be conducted on all kinds of valuable skills including leadership, communication, or IT skills. ILTs can also be made more engaging by incorporating open discussions, games, polls, and role-play. 

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Team building activities to improve job enrichment 

2. Put together kaizen groups 

Kaizen groups, otherwise known as quality circles, are groups of employees that are brought together to identify ways to resolve problems and improve productivity in the workplace. This employee engagement team building activity allows teams to exercise more job autonomy and be actively involved in the organisation’s decision-making process. 

While it is a free activity, you can offer cash rewards to groups whose ideas are implemented to motivate employees to participate.  

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3. Autonomous work teams

This activity allows you to engage employees on a group level. To create an autonomous work team, select team members and outline the goals of the team, but allow teammates to assign individual tasks, schedules, break periods, and modes of evaluation. 

This team structure allows employees to enjoy some level of control over their jobs, and it also helps them develop leadership and management skills. 

Team building activities to increase employee engagement through strategic compensation

4. Organise free team lunches 

 A great way to keep your employees engaged and reward them for all their hard work is by taking them out for lunch every once in a while. By doing this, you’re ensuring that your teammates are fed and have enough energy to get through the rest of their day. Plus, this works as an excellent opportunity for your teammates to bond and get to know each other better outside the office. 

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Team building activities to improve performance management

5. Peer-to-peer reviews 

Peer-to-peer reviews have become more common over the years, and for good reason too. This review system works because it gives teammates with different perspectives the chance to give and receive unbiased feedback. 

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For this activity, divide your team into smaller groups of 2 to 5 people. Ensure that the people in each group work closely together or are familiar with each others’ work. This would allow them to offer more accurate feedback.  

Have the groups start by giving feedback to one person at a time. You can also communicate a few rules with them, for example:

• Be clear and specific
• Don’t withhold positive reinforcement 
• Focus on the problem (if there is one) and not the person
• Listen to what your peer has to say

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This practice takes some of the pressure off performance reviews and helps employees better understand their work and that of their teammates. 

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Employee engagement team building activities - a strategic design

When it comes to employee engagement, while fun, lighthearted team games are great, you’ll often find that strategic activities and structural changes are more effective at producing lasting results. If you notice a drop in your team engagement, feel free to try out any of the activities listed in this article. 

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To learn more about how to be a team building pro, you can check out some of our other resources, including team building activities for work, how to improve team building online, and the best team building apps and software. 

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