In a recent meeting with the Events Head of a large IT company, a problem statement was shared with us by the client. He said, “We take our ranking in the Great Place To Work study very seriously and therefore employee engagement is of paramount importance to us. We have groups and clubs within the organization for nurturing startups, for women empowerment, for gender equality, for LGBTQ rights, for environment protection, for animal rights, for cultural activities and for Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.

Each one of these groups are given an annual budget for conducting events and activities to further their chosen cause. Yet we see a pattern where these groups become proactive in the last month of the financial year ending when they wake up to realize that they have not utilized the budgets allocated to them and they do some last-minute events just to exhaust their budgets without really measuring the impact of what they have done. How do we deal with this situation?”

As DreamCraft Events, we jumped in and did a program for the core committees of all these groups within the organization and taught them the 4 key elements to have meaningful employee engagement initiatives:

1. Define your Destination – As an employee group or club, we need to define clear goals that we want to accomplish as a result of our existence. If there are no clear goals that these employee groups have, then it just has meaningless existence in the organization. We cannot embark on a journey without knowing the destination. So the key is clear goal setting or objective defining for each employee group.
2. Design your Vehicle – Once the goal or objective is defined, the next step is to choose the best vehicle to reach that destination. In this context, the vehicle refers to the events, activation’s and activities to be done to accomplish those goals of each employee group. This is where we need to let the creative juices flow and design engaging ideas and initiatives to deliver the desired objective.
   
3. Delegate to the Drivers – Now we have the destination (goal), we have the vehicle (events and activation ideas), the next step is to have clear drivers (owners) for each one of the initiatives. A great idea is useless without a good team. This is where the groups have to define which initiatives will be created and executed internally and where will there be a need to bring in experts and event managers from outside to support in the execution.
   
4. Fuel the Engine – Employee engagement is less about an event and more about the energy, buzz and vibe created before, during and after an event. Therefore the 4^th key element in having meaningful employee engagement is to have a strong Internal Communication and Engagement strategy to hook people with the various initiatives. Internal Communication campaigns and activation is the fuel required to move the vehicle towards the destination. There has to be a theme and a story weaved with every event and its objectives. The goals of the employee groups are the destination, the events are the vehicle to reach the destination, the designated teams are the drivers but without the fuel of communication and campaigns, everything falls flat.

Working on creating clarity on these 4 elements is the key to meaningful employee engagement. These 4 elements ensure there is a clear objective and there are creative initiatives tied to the objectives and there is preparation in advance so there is no more last-minute activities and events just to exhaust a budget.

Share your views with us on what was your key take away from this article and what could you relate to when it comes to planning events and employee engagement initiatives at your workplace.

By DreamCraft Events & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.