Diwali is one of the prime festivals celebrated right across India. It is very common for Diwali celebrations to enter the corporate space. A lot of people within the HR function see this as an opportunity to improve employee engagement. Come to think of it, it is an awesome opportunity to build great employee engagement during diwali and an increased sense of belonging to the employees.

After all employees work in an organization for various reasons. One of them is of course the job content and how it helps them build their career path. But think of it, most of the time, your employees will be spending upwards of 8-9 hours daily in the office premises. Won’t it work better if your employees can work better as a team and support each other in their professional as well as personal life.

Diwali offers a great opportunity to  build employee engagement go beyond the pure play professional life. It helps you connect to the personal lives of people. Organizations can bring in a sense of belonging, and a happy feeling that employees will cherish for a long time. Some common things that organizations do to improve the level of engagement include.

Branded corporate gifts

It is common for companies to provide branded corporate gifts to employees. On one side, employees feel good to have gifts that are of great utility value to them. On the other hand, organizations benefit as well, as their brand stays on these gifts and reminds employees of the employer brand through the year besides also helping to get the word out to the larger market. Some common things that are given out as corporate branded gifts include T-shirts, jackets, bags, mugs, photo frames, etc.

Decoration bay competitions

Organizations host decoration competitions for e.g. Rangoli or diya making or some other form of competition, where they invite employees to participate as individuals or as groups. There is a lot of excitement about these competitions and all of it brings in a different level of energy within the premises. Employees engagement during Diwali those who are participating in the competition are all fired up and there is a bunch of others, who offer the support from the side-lines. All in all, it creates an environment, which employees love to cherish.

Traditional day

On the day before Diwali, typically companies will hold a traditional day, where ladies and gents are at their traditional best. This also creates a festive atmosphere within the company premises. There are usually prizes given out during the evening for the best dressed male and the best dressed female.

Kids day

Kids are invited to company premises and usually parties are held, games are conducted to keep them busy and active, while they are present in the company premises. For employees, it feels great to get their families and kids to the office premises. It helps build tremendous amount of bonding and creates a feel-good factor.

As corporate, on one-hand, there is definitely the fact that productivity during the festive season goes down, but on the other hand, these pose great opportunities to increase the level of engagement with your employees.