Do you believe Employee Engagement means conducting some fun activities at office?

OR

Can you engage your employees and make them happy in what they do by organizing fun activities and offering recreational facilities at office? If yes, then what will be the mind set of those employees who fall under the following circumstances:

• His day to day job becomes boring and is not challenging.
• He does his job just for a paycheck but doesn’t take that extra mile in meeting organizational goals.
• He is simply running along with the flow because of not having any interest in the work that is assigned to him.
• He is getting distracted by his poor relationship with his boss and coworkers

All those fun fridays you organize or recreational facilities you provide are just a means for making the employee happy on a temporary basis. Of course these programs do help create a friendly and fun atmosphere at work where employees can socialize and build relationship with their collegues.

But that doesn’t mean an employer can keep their employees engaged through fun activities. Now let me ask you, can you force your employees to be engaged? I don’t think so.

‘Employee Engagement is an emotional commitment that an employee feels towards his work by understanding he does something that adds value to the organization.’

If an employee needs to feel this way or feel engaged, it involves a lot of factors:

• Access to the sufficient resources that is required for him to do his job
• Understanding on how his work contributes to the organization’s performance
• Getting his work recognized within the organization
• Have the freedom and flexibility to get the results in his own innovative ways
• Have trust in his manager that his effort will be appreciated and will consider him for career advancement opportunities.
• Have pride in their organization and knows clearly what their organization stands for
• Supporting coworkers that help them to achieve their team goals
• Have opportunity to get trained and improve his skills and help him to grow as a professional and as a person

So what do you think? Is a fun atmosphere alone enough to keep your employees engaged?