5 Ideas for Your Social Committee to Use

February 22, 2022

Every social committee wants to plan fun and engaging events for their employees. The ever-changing hybrid and remote working environments are tough to navigate when considering event-planning, especially when you have some people joining virtually and some in-person. How do you create team building activities that work for everyone? We’ve come up with a few ideas for online activities that will help you plan your next employee event:

1. Organize Speed Networking

Speed networking, or speed meetings are short 1-1 meetings for 5 minutes. This idea is particularly good for companies that have had a lot of employee growth and most employees have not yet met in person. This activity can get people to move out of their team “bubble” and comfort zone and help build professional connections that may not have happened organically.

To organize: Schedule your event (using Zoom) for about an hour. Utilize the “breakout rooms” function in Zoom which allows you to divide people into pairs and after a certain time (e.g. 5 minutes) stop the session and start a new one. For more information on how to use the breakout room function, check out this handy video.

2. Set up Health and Wellness Challenges

Employees can be naturally competitive, and the right teams love to challenge each other, while building team relationships. There are plenty of challenges you can agree to do in your team, and it’s even better if it involves health and wellness (win-win!). A great example of this is a step challenge.

To organize: Ask employees to download an app on their phone which counts their daily steps. You can divide your employees into teams or keep scores individually. Keep track of steps for a pre-designated time period (i.e. a month) and award prizes to the highest number of steps. For added team building, set up a channel on your internal messaging app of choice (i.e. Microsoft Teams, Slack etc.) and ask everyone to post pictures of them getting their steps every day.

3. Host a Virtual Party

Turn those dull town hall meetings into a time for fun! While companies often want to share what’s new and what’s coming in the organization, it’s a good idea to take a break every now and then to have some fun.

To organize: Consider using a platform like Gather town that allows employees to participate in fun gaming activities. Ask employees to setup their avatar ahead of time. Users can interact (either using video and/or voice) with anyone who may be close by in the virtual game. Each game is meant to be a team building activity where teams can solve problems together.

4. Organize a Photo Sharing Contest

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but when it comes to employee social interaction, it would be nice to at least share a few words.

To organize: Use your internal sharing app of choice (i.e. Microsoft Teams, Slack etc.) and set up a channel specifically for this contest. Ask participants to upload interesting and fun photos of where they live, their pets etc. For an added layer to the contest, consider offering a pre-determined list of what they can take photos of, and treat it like a scavenger hunt. For example, asking everyone to take a photo of an obscure building or object will create a lot of conversation in your contest channel. Participants can vote on their favourite photos and the winners can receive prizes (plus bragging rights).

5. Host a Book Club

Book clubs are a great way to have employees engage with one another. Plus, they can be set up virtually, in person or both.

To organize: Come up with a book list for the first few books and determine what cadence your book club should meet. Most often book clubs meet once a month to allow people to either borrow the book from a local library or purchase the book. For each meeting, come up with a list of discussion questions and assign a moderator to keep the conversation going. Take recommendations from book club members on what types of books they would like to read next. Consider covering the cost of the books as an option added to employee’s Honeybee Allowance Accounts.