Engaging Employees Through Virtual Events By Stephanie Mangrich, Events Coordinator, VGM Group, Inc.
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arge employee engagement events and fun gatherings have always been a part of what makes VGM such a great place to work. When COVID-19 began, we all started working from home, and restrictions were given regarding large group gatherings/events. I wondered how we would continue to show employee appreciation and have fun at work. Fortunately, with all the technology we have available, virtual events have become a reality for the employees at VGM. Answering Employee Questions During this time, there are obviously a lot of questions from our employees. When will we be able to go back to the office? Is our company going to be okay? These questions (and countless others) could be answered and explained by our senior leaders, so we created virtual events where employees could get answers directly from our senior leaders.
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Virtual events are a great way to network with other employees and stay connected with what is going on in the company.
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Employees are invited to sign up for afternoon calls with our CEO Mike Mallaro to ask questions and get updates about the state of our company. We also have another set of events—Coffee & Cocktails—where employees can sign up for calls with other senior leaders, either in the morning hours for coffee or the afternoon for cocktails. We have gotten great feedback both from senior leadership and the employees who attended the events. It’s a great way to network with other employees and stay connected with what is going on with our company and other employees.
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Our Employee Owners’ Annual Update actually saw an increase in attendance when it was moved online.
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Family Fun Fun for our employees and their families outside of work hours is a big part of VGM’s culture, and we wanted to maintain that as much as possible. We still held our Employee Owners’ Annual Update on May 5. The event is usually hosted at Gallagher Bluedorn in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with around 350-400 in attendance (including spouses). It’s an event full of important information—and fun—for our employees and their families. Since we were not able to hold this event live, we turned it into a successful virtual event. We were able to create video recordings of our speakers and put them together into a one-hour video that was broadcasted to our employees and their families at home. The presentation included live elements such as company trivia and comments section, and we even hosted a “pre-party” in our internal Facebook page ahead of time (since we usually have a cocktail hour before the live event). Our ESOP Communications Committee members asked engaging questions to our employees, and we had nearly 500 comments and almost 1500 “likes”/ reactions to the posts during the “pre-party.” For the main presentation, 428 individuals logged in to watch and participate (that does not include the spouses/ family that also viewed), so we saw a jump in our attendance and participation for this event since it was turned virtual.
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Virtual events can engage ALL employees, not just the ones who traditionally work out of the main office.
VGM Playbook: Technology and the Patient Care Continuum: Guide to Remote Work
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