In today’s fast-moving landscape, a company’s ability to foster a strong team identity is more important than ever. That’s where regular company events are an important part of keeping employees happy, aiding retention. Hugo Campbell, co-founder of Togather, a platform that helps you find supplier for your events…
Retaining employees is now statistically more difficult than hiring them and over a third of employees are actively searching for new roles at any given time. This means that talent retention needs to be at the centre of your company’s strategy.
When you consider the average tenure was 11 years for Boomers and 7 years for Gen X, the fact that it’s only 2 for Millennials shows how central a strong retention strategy should be.
There are many ways to improve retention, but regular internal events are a proven way of increasing staff happiness. Teams feel recognised, build stronger relationships, improve collaboration, and feel aligned with your business’s mission.
So why is throwing regular company events important?
It’s an HR clichè that teams that get on well perform well. A poll showed that teams with high levels of social interaction are 21% more productive, and a study from the SHRM showed that 67% of HR professionals believe strong social connections are essential to high performance culture.
With hybrid working here to stay and 37% of employees saying they would leave roles if they became fully office-based, companies are doubling down on keeping teams socially engaged. They are right to: according to a Government report, virtual and hybrid work leads to ‘employees feeling more disconnected from their organisations and they miss socialising and interacting with colleagues,’ while a survey by TravelPerk showed that ‘I feel disconnected from my team’ is the most disliked aspect of hybrid work.
To find that middle ground between maintaining hybrid happiness and fostering social connections, regular internal events can be a valuable bridge. According to this survey, 79% of people believe relationship building at face-to-face events cannot be replicated elsewhere, while 47% of people actively looking for new roles cite poor culture as the major reason for doing so.
The changing needs of the workforce
Millennial and Gen-Z make up 38% of the workforce, set to rise to 50% by 2030. While there are differences between these generations, what’s clear is they place a significantly higher value on experiences than previous generations. 78% of millennials and Gen-Z would rather spend their own money on an experience over a physical possession, which naturally follows through into what they desire from their work.
Michael Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work says ‘There’s a lot millennials can teach companies about work. Give them a reason, many reasons, to be proud to work for you—and they’ll stay working for you.”
These generations really appreciate recognition of their achievements and marking major wins through throwing celebratory events goes a long way to achieving this.
Further, these generations are obsessed with food and drink, and putting on catered events or bringing in coffee or cocktail suppliers will naturally cater to the desires of this generation. From an internal PR perspective, the fact that 69% of millennials post pictures of food on their social media is a further positive.
Events portray employer brand
Potential employees look at more than compensation when making a decision around whether to join a new company. In a Glassdoor poll, 77% confirmed that they would consider a company’s culture before they made a decision on whether to join, 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. 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 content from events are a great way to showcase a positive culture. Further, listing the regular events a company holds on job ads can increase the quality of candidates applying.
73% of job finders between the ages of 18-34 find jobs through social media and your business should be putting its best, and friendliest, foot forward.
Throwing events will help to retain talent and with onboarding
On the flipside, MIT research reflected that toxic work culture was the top reason for employees leaving roles.
We’re not suggesting that throwing regular events is the only way to create a thriving culture, but the fact that 79% of employees state that they look forward to internal company events clearly displays the impact they can have on a company’s morale.
Culture is ultimately about making people happy, and events are fundamentally better at generating happiness than material benefits, while regular social events are proven to lead to both better mental and physical health.
For new employees who are just getting to know the business and the team, the process of building new social connections can be slow, especially in a hybrid context. Regular events provide opportunities to form connections with immediate teams and the wider company – and should translate into stronger performance.
Celebrate your teams
Recognition is particularly important to Gen-Z and Millennials employees but the impact certainly isn’t limited to those groups. 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 your company recognises great work with celebrations.
Events are a particularly good way of celebrating team successes. For example, bringing a taco truck to your office following a successful product launch, or hosting a canapé evening for a team that hits its quarterly targets. Not only will it make the team feel recognised for its achievements, but will improve social cohesion within the team and inspire them to repeat those achievements.
Employees regard recognition as more important than promotions or pay when it comes to drivers of good work, while those who feel recognised are 2.6x more likely to drive innovation and bring new ideas forward.
When you are looking for help in putting on a great company events, start your search in our helpful Recommended Supplier pages.
