Why your company’s events calendar should be full this year

In today’s fast-moving landscape, a company’s ability to motivate its employees and foster a strong team identity is more important than ever.

The reality is that retaining employees is now even more difficult than hiring them and over a third of employees are actively searching for new roles at any given time. This puts more impetus on creating strong internal benefit packages and means that talent retention needs to be a vital part of your company’s plans for 2024.

Here we go into the reasons as to why throwing regular events is so important.

Fostering social connections

It’s a constantly repeated HR message that teams that get on well socially are teams that work well professionally together. A poll showed that teams with higher levels of social interaction will be 21% more engaged and productive, and a study from the SHRM showed that 67% of HR professionals agree that fostering strong social connections is essential to a high performance culture.

With hybrid working here to stay and 37% of employees saying they would look to leave their roles if they became fully office-based, many companies are doubling down on the need to keep teams socially engaged. They are right to: according to a UK Government report, virtual and hybrid work can lead to ‘employees feeling more disconnected from their work organisations and miss socialising and interacting with colleagues,’ while a survey show that ‘I feel disconnected from my team’ is the most disliked aspect of hybrid working. 

To find that middle ground between maintaining hybrid happiness and fostering social connections, regular internal events can be a vital bridge, enabling employees to build strong, natural relationships outside of the working environment. 79% of people believe that the relationship building at face-to-face events cannot be replicated elsewhere, while 47% of people actively looking for a new role cite a lack of company culture as the major reason for doing so.

The changing needs of the workforce

Millennials and Gen-Z currently make up 38% of the workforce, with this set to rise to 50% by 2030. While there are many well documented differences between these two generations, what is incredibly clear is that they both place a significantly higher value on experiences than previous generations have. 78% of millennials and Gen-Z would rather spend their own money on a desirable experience over a physical possession, which naturally follows through into what they desire from their place of work.

Michael C Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work says ‘There’s a lot millennials can teach companies about work. How they spend their time and who they spend it with matters to them, as it should to all of us. Help them find meaning in their work. Give them a reason, many reasons, to be proud to work for you—and they’ll stay working for you.”

Further, these generations really appreciate recognition of their achievements and recognising major wins through throwing celebratory events can go a long way to achieving this. A piece by Sarah Landrum in Forbes states that ‘Building a comfortable and welcoming work environment’ is the most important aspect for millennials and states that a workplace should be like a ‘second family’ to workers.

Further, these generations are obsessed with food and drink, and putting on catered events or bringing in coffee or cocktail suppliers will cater to the natural desires of this generation very well. From an internal PR perspective, the fact that 69% of millennials post pictures of food on their social media should be seen as a huge positive.

Making DEI visible

It is almost impossible to overstate the importance that companies must place on the recognition of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to maintain an effective and happy workplace. 78% of employees state that it’s important to them to work for a company that prioritises diversity, equity and inclusion, while 58% describe it as very important.

DEI is of course something that needs to be applied across all facets of a company, from hiring processes and recruitment strategy to retention and any necessary accommodations. However, many of these strategies and processes take place behind closed doors. Making sure that your company is outwardly celebrating diversity of all kinds can go a long way to achieving visibility and inclusivity across a company. 

Recognising religious festivals and celebrations, such as Diwali, should become a keystone of your events calendar, while events such as Black History Month, Pride and International Women’s Day are opportunities for education and recognition in ways that are also enjoyable and social for the whole team. 

We have put together a list of Cultural and Social events that companies can look to celebrate across the course of a year which you can see here. This is simply a starting point: we’d recommend talking to your teams to see which events might resonate best with them and their interests or communities and planning a curated calendar from there.

Events & employer brand

It’s no secret that potential employees look at more than just compensation when making a decision around whether to join a new company. In a Glassdoor poll, 77% of respondents confirmed that they would consider a company’s culture before they made a decision on whether to join it, while 56% stated that workplace culture was more important than salary for job satisfaction. Thus it’s important for your company to outwardly display how strong its culture is to the potential candidates and the outside world. Events are a perfect way to do so.

Candidates will regularly check out a company’s social media pages, across Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, and videos and photos from events are a great way to showcase a positive culture across social media and make joining the company a more attractive proposition to potential candidates. Further, listing the regular events that a company holds on job ads can help to increase the quality of candidates that apply for the role.

73% of job finders between the ages of 18-34 have found their jobs through social media and your business should be putting its best, and friendliest, foot forward across its accounts.

Throwing events will help to retain talent + onboarding

On the flipside of creating a positive company culture, MIT research reflected that toxic work culture was the top reason for people leaving their roles.

We’re not suggesting that throwing regular events is the only way to create a thriving and effective company culture, but the fact that 79% of employees state that they look forward to internal company events clearly displays the impact that regular events can have on a company’s morale and overall culture.

Company culture is ultimately about making people happy, and events are fundamentally better at generating happiness than material benefits are, while regular social events are proven to lead to both better mental and physical health. 

Events are fundamentally a great way to increase social bonds within your team and it now seems extraordinary just how outdated the phrase ‘I’m here to work, not make friends’ is. Alan Kohll writes goes into detail in Forbes around how employees with friends and social connections within the organisation will have increased engagement on a day-to-day basis and increased loyalty in the long-run. 

For new employees who are just getting to know the business and the team, the process of building new social connections can feel long and slow, especially in a hybrid setting. Regular events provide opportunities to form connections both with their immediate teams and with the wider company - which should translate into better performance at work.

Celebrate your teams

Recognition is particularly important to Gen-Z and Millennials employees but the impact certainly isn’t limited to those groups. A staggering 69% of workers said they’d work harder if they felt appreciated by their organisations.

Praise and appreciation can go a long way to recognising good work, but in the same way it’s important to have a party to celebrate a birthday, it’s vital that your company marks great work with celebrations. 

Events are a particularly good way of celebrating team projects or cross-departmental work. For example, bringing a taco truck to your office following a successful product launch, or hosting a cocktail and canapé evening for a team that hits its quarterly targets. Not only will it help the team feel recognised for its achievements, but will also further improve the social cohesion within the team and inspire them to go and repeat those achievements. A little incentive goes a long way! 

Employees regard recognition as more important than promotions or pay when it comes to drivers of good work, while employees who feel recognised are 2.6x more likely to drive innovation and bring new ideas forward and twice as willing to go above and beyond to make great work happen.