25+ Employee Engagement Ideas For Hybrid Teams (2023)

During COVID-19 lockdown, organisations ramped up employee engagement ideas to support their people through rapid change. This investment in engagement paid off; our survey data shows that overall employee engagement went up by 7% during April-September of the pandemic.

Now that hybrid working is here to stay, finding new ways to engage hybrid colleagues is vital.

A refresher on why employee engagement matters

Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to their work, the organisation and its goals. The more engaged employees feel, the more likely they are to be productive, innovative, give great customer satisfaction and want to do their best every day. Employee engagement ideas should focus on the areas with the biggest impact on how employees feel.

Before looking at how to improve employee engagement at your organisation, use an employee engagement survey to understand how employees are feeling, what’s working well, and what needs to improve for hybrid teams. Our 2023 trends report shares 24 survey questions organisations are asking, to understand what matters most to employees now.

Then, use your employee engagement survey results to identify the issues that have the biggest impact on employee engagement. These items are known as your Key Drivers. Creating action plans that focus on your key drivers is essential to improving your employee engagement strategy and boosting employee morale.

Involving line managers with employee engagement

It’s also important to consider whether employee engagement strategies should be throughout your entire company, or run at a local level. Some engagement activities for hybrid teams will have the biggest impact when lead by managers.

We’ve spoken to organisations leading the way with creative ideas to increase employee engagement momentum and support their employees as the Covid pandemic continues.

A special thanks to Emma Burley from Nottingham Trent University, Simon Newton from Cromwell and Suzanne Christopher from Imperial College London for sharing their employee engagement ideas.

Here are our pick of the best ideas to shape your employee engagement strategies in 2023 and help your teams thrive through hybrid working.

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 – Lead with compassion

Our survey database is full of comments from employees thanking leaders for acting with empathy and honesty during the pandemic. Informal video messages recorded from home went a long way in keeping employees engaged and motivated.

“The videos have given us a good view of the current situation and also makes the senior leaders more ‘human’ in ways you wouldn’t necessarily see in the formal office environment. We’ve seen our values being upheld…THANK YOU”

Keep this up post-pandemic by sharing regular updates, video messages and virtual Q&A or Town Hall sessions where employees can ask questions directly. To provide hybrid working colleagues with direct access to news, Nottingham Trent University created a virtual ‘Newsroom’ where the Vice Chancellor shares regular updates.

– Check in with your people

Encourage line managers to set aside a regular spot in team meetings or 1:1s and refresh the conversations we had at the start of the pandemic. With so much change going on, everyone will be impacted in different ways.

Simple questions like ‘How are you feeling?’, ‘How are things outside work?’, and ‘What do you need from us to perform at your best’ will encourage staff to open up.

Once employees start telling you what they need, managers must feel empowered to act on it. In response to varying employee needs some organisations are contributing to heating bills, providing additional paid leave, or blocking out meeting-free days to give employees space to breathe.

– Consider the needs of your managers too.

Cromwell, a supplier of industrial tools and equipment, organise weekly bitesize sessions for managers where leaders share advice on themes like trust and happiness. Recorded to share with their global team, these sessions offer virtual interaction and practical tips to help managers cope with the frequency of change.

– Find little ways to say thank you 

Since the Covid pandemic started we have seen shining examples of colleagues pulling together to help organisations come through the pandemic stronger. With awards nights off the cards for now, consider other ways of recognising employees for their hard work.

More inspiration: 7 non-financial rewards to motivate employees

For example, Imperial College London hosted a Thank You day which included sending personalised cards from the President and Provost to 2,000 key workers. Other organisations encourage colleagues to nominate ‘Hidden Heroes’; use post-it notes to create a Wall of Praise; or host virtual events with video messages from leaders and colleagues to celebrate individuals.

– Get colleagues talking

Alongside messages from leaders and managers, encourage colleagues to talk to one another and share their experiences of the pandemic and hybrid working. Nottingham Trent University do so via a blog, written by different colleagues. Other organisations have introduced a dedicated Intranet channel or informal WhatsApp groups where teams can talk to one another.

Consider the needs of different groups within your organisation and provide safe spaces for them to connect with one another. For instance, Imperial College London organise a monthly virtual baby and bumps meet-up for pregnant colleagues and new parents, and host a regular support group for carers.

 – Shift to output over hours 

We’ve seen this shift coming for a while, but lockdown restrictions highlighted the importance of employers assessing performance by employee output rather than the time spent at a desk. Organisations tackled this in different ways, for example by maintaining full pay for employees working fewer hours due to parental or caring responsibilities, adjusting work patterns to suit individual needs, and refreshing their assessment processes.

Lockdown has given employees new expectations for hybrid working, and compassionate employers should build this into their organisations post-COVID. Spending more time at home has changed employees’ priorities and given them a new perspective about their work/life balance. Organisations that adjust their expectations and trust their employees to work in a way that suits them will be ahead of the curve. In 2023, doing this will become even more crucial as hybrid job vacancies increase meaning employees have plenty of options for more flexible, more autonomous work elsewhere.

– Keep them entertained

While lockdown quizzes might have dropped off, there are plenty of employee engagement ideas that can bring your hybrid team together. From geo-caching treasure hunts to virtual Bake Offs and ‘mystery Zoom meetings‘ the pandemic has encouraged us to get creative with how we connect. Share a calendar of events for the month and mix up lunchtime and evening activities to include colleagues with caring responsibilities or flexible working hours.

– Balance business recovery with employee wellbeing

Organisations have increased their focus on employee wellbeing this year to support colleagues through intense turbulence and change. Royal Mail Group recently announced that it has trained an additional 300 mental health ambassadors in the past 6 months and upskilled their physical first-aiders to include mental health training. Organisations are also supporting employees’ physical and financial wellbeing by offering subsidised gym memberships, running webinars on financial education, or using employee surveys and manager 1:1s to open up conversations around financial wellbeing.

Everyday Employee Engagement Ideas for 2023

– Encourage pet projects

Encourage employees to put themselves forward for projects beyond their day-to-day role that appeal to their interests. For instance, they might want to organise hybrid team building socials, or join a steering committee looking at product research, diversity & inclusion or even employee engagement!

– Ask for employee feedback

An employee engagement survey is an engaging exercise in itself. You are valuing the employee voice, asking for honest feedback about the organisation and promising to act on it. To build employee trust and help people feel more engaged, you must act on their feedback too. Zeelo is a great example of a company doing just that.

Read our article for the latest HR trends in employee listening.

– Prioritise wellbeing

Offer benefits that can help employees manage their physical, mental and financial wellness. Discounted gym memberships, cycle to work schemes, financial education or flexible working patterns for instance. For more targeted wellbeing support, add a wellbeing index into your next employee survey. This will measure how energised and focused your people are feeling, and highlight any areas of concern.

– Get out and have fun!

Team building activities can improve team dynamics, strengthen relationships and influence engagement. Encourage managers to socialise with team members out of the office (and not just over a drink). From lifesize Monopoly to go-kart racing, get creative with your ideas! For hybrid teams – you are spoiled for choice for online events. At People Insight, we’ve recently enjoyed virtual escape rooms, cocktail making and an afternoon at the races!

– Rethink how you meet

In the UK, we spend an average of 26 days a year in meetings. Challenge your people to change the way you meet. For instance, try and keep meetings to no more than 45 minutes. Alternatively, introduce weekly or monthly meeting-free days or ‘ban’ phones from meetings to avoid distraction.

Employee engagement ideas to engage new hires

– Start as you mean to go on

During the hiring process, reflect your company culture at every stage and act with consistency throughout. Create a new starter checklist to ensure everything is ready for their first day. Encourage managers to hold regular check-ins to find out how new team members are feeling and what support they need.

– Assign a buddy/mentor

New employees might be hesitant to ask their manager all their questions. Pair them up with a team buddy as a friendly face to ask for help, go for lunch with ( even virtually!)  and show them around either physically, or around the digital workspace. Buddying could even begin during the hiring process, so they have a peer to ask about the culture.

– Ask your new joiners for feedback

A new joiner survey is a great way to understand how effective your onboarding experience has been, whether new employees expectations have been met and identify any areas to improve. In addition, after an annual survey you can explore the responses of your new starter group to understand how their experience differs from longer-term employees.

Values-based employee engagement ideas

– Build reviews around your values

Encourage employees to live your company values by building their objectives around each value. Use 1:1s and performance reviews to explore how aspects of their role connect to a value and celebrate when a team member has represented them well.

– Align what you say with what you do

Ensure what employees see on an everyday basis reflects the vision for your culture and values. During the Covid-19 pandemic when many employees were juggling work with caring responsibilities, many employers revisited their policies around annual leave, parental leave and sick pay to ensure colleagues had flexibility and security. Their compassion went a long way to keeping employees engaged.

Employee Engagement Ideas For Hybrid Teams

Remote employees and hybrid teams require us to think about how we can keep employees engaged and connected, wherever they are. It is important that remote employees feel like they are part of the team and that their work is valuable.

– Find little ways to say thank you

Use virtual channels like Microsoft Teams, Workplace or your intranet for employee performance recognition and to celebrate the efforts of team members. Personal notes or handwritten cards also go a long way.

– Get colleagues talking

People risk missing those ‘watercooler’ moments while working from home. So set up virtual groups, chat channels and meet-ups for topics like pets, boxsets, art, fitness and knitting. You could also connect specific groups, such as running a ‘baby and bumps’ meet up for pregnant colleagues and new parents.

– Measure output not input

The shift to working from home during Covid-19 highlighted the importance of employers assessing performance by output rather than the time spent at a desk. Put your trust in your employees and build this into your organisation by updating policies, contracts and performance reviews.

– Have clear working from home behaviours

To promote a healthy work life balance, encourage employees to personalise their email signature to be clear about their working hours. One of our favourite examples comes from TSB, where they have hybrid teams working in a very agile culture.

“At TSB we work flexibly. While it suits me to email you just now, I don’t expect a reply outside of your working hours.”

Which employee engagement ideas should you prioritise in 2023? 

Creative employee engagement ideas alone won’t fix fundamental issues proven to correlate with. These include career development opportunities, leadership with purpose and connection and supportive line management.

Instead, organisations need to choose ideas that will tackle the factors with the biggest impact on engagement.

People Insight’s model of employee engagement, PEARL, is a great place to start when considering how to engage hybrid teams and provide the best employee experience.

There are 5 PEARL themes. By looking at employee engagement ideas in the context of these, companies can tackle the main drivers of engagement at work.

Employee engagement ideas in the context of PEARL

• Purpose: What do you stand for and where are you going?

Promote your company values with a peer-nominated award that recognises employees for embodying each value. You could do this weekly during team meetings, gather regular votes via your intranet or host an awards event each year.

• Enablement: Do your employees have everything they need to do a good job?

Encourage managers to discuss what tools or training any team member need to do their role most effectively. Many organisations offered a ‘remote work’ stipend during Covid-19 lockdown, for instance. This enabled people to create a productive workspace at home.

• Autonomy: Are you promoting healthy and positive behaviours?

During Covid-19, employees appreciated the trust placed in them by employers during the move to remote working. Continue this by encouraging flexible working patterns that suit individual needs and personal responsibilities. Use video messages, virtual events and regular updates to help employees feel included whatever their schedule.

• Reward: Are employee efforts and aspirations being recognised?

‘My career aspirations are being met here’ is one of the most common drivers of employee engagement. Support employee learning and personal development by offering access to online courses (and carving out time so people can complete these), connecting employees with mentors or hosting ‘Lunch & Learns’.

• Leadership: Are your leaders supporting and enabling change?

Covid-19 shone a spotlight on compassionate, human leadership. Keep this up with Town Halls, Q&As and virtual newsrooms where leaders can share updates directly with employees. Ramp up your comms efforts during times of change to ensure people understand what is going on and, crucially, why.

How do employee perks support engagement?

Your employee engagement ideas in 2023 need to be targeted, meaningful and appropriate for your employees. When refreshing your programme, take the chance to ask your employees what they want.

The most effective organisations communicate, highlight preferences, then target a range of perks accordingly. The perks you offer your coworkers should depend on what you are trying to achieve for your company culture.

Which perks could you offer?