Jingle All the Way: 7 Interesting Ways to Engage Your Employees at Work this Christmas

This is the season of giving and receiving, of plum cakes and wine and of celebrating the birth of Christ; why then should you not treat your employees to a little holiday cheer at work. Keep them motivated for the next year that would arrive in a week, and show them who the big daddy is? The big daddy cares, and hence a little fun at work with these seven fun activities can do wonders!

Seven best ideas to choose from

They aren’t only ideas for fun, but ideas that would help employees think out of the box and help with marketing promos and ideas for your companies’ products and services too. The idea is to treat each employee as a customer; internal customers kept happy, and they would bring in more customers from outside!

1. Play Sign up

Begin now and speak to your IT team at work to set up a small portal (intranet enabled) for the office staff only. Open up a page of HACKS, which educates your employees about the products and services your company makes, and how it could help them shop, save and enjoy a better Christmas. Throw in daily deals and alerts, and encourage them to sign up too. Announce freebies and coupons at the end of the season, and let the rest keep waiting with baited breath for the bumper prize on Christmas.

2. Hide Christmas stockings around nooks and corners

Not a word to mention, but do get your housekeeping team to fill in stockings with notes (small chits which has prizes quoted on them). Hang these precious stockings in various colours across the workplace- at lunch when most are unaware and for 5 minutes only, announce a competition where the employees would have to find a note which says “Santa Claus is coming to town”- the team that finds the stocking first, gets the bumper prize.

3. Wrapping lines

Form two teams at work and make them stand in two snakes lines each. Place two tables for each team. The idea is to watch team work and to encourage team building. Place scissors, glue, paper and marbles on each table. Give each team 20 seconds (per person) to create a paper box with the props given, in which they would fill in 10 marbles (seems impossible). Each box with marbles needs to be delivered to the boss’s cubicle. The box with less than ten marbles would be rejected!

4. Play word find

Use Christmassy tags around the work place- some too big, some too small and some very tiny- place them around the cubicle, the workstation, the cafeteria and the water-drinking area too. Now send out an email with a subtle hint to what you want them to find. The team or individual who gets all ten right, wins a hamper.

5. Pose like a diva

Organize a photo session or a photo booth and ask your team to use props like temporary tattoos and to pose with them. The most creative, whackiest and funniest snapshot goes live and wins a hamper!

6. Christmas memory game

Divide the office into as many teams as possible and ask them to chant out the number of products or services impromptu your company brought out to the market, acquired or is in the pipeline for 2015! Give them no time to prepare!

7. Bake a plum cake game

Organize two teams and ask them to bake two large enough plum cakes at work (raw materials and resources provided by you) emulating the company’s products and services. The winning team gets a hamper!

It is but a jolly good season to be engaged and to engage others around in a little pokey fun! While doing so, remember you not only would keep your staff motivated, but would help them think out of the box and market your brand too!