Working for 8 hours a day really stresses people out. Life can get tiring and people get bored when they follow a monotonous routine. Most working people are only able to spend their limited quality time with their loved ones during the weekends. Refreshing the mind is essential for everyone working for 8 hours a day. The time a person spends with their family and friends is important as it gives them the boost needed for getting through the working days.
In order for you to show gratitude and appreciation, you sometimes have to use something more than just words. You’ll have to show through your actions that you truly care about your employees and appreciate all the work they’ve put into your organization. At times, companies only take the most hard working and valuable employees to a dinner or lunch. This is good, but a company picnic should be different.
To provide your employees with a great eventful day, you should organize a company picnic with different activities and invite all your employees to attend it. Pick a location where your employees can engage with one another and make memories of their amazing evening. All your employees may not be interested in attending the company picnic and they may think that they’ll be better off spending the day with their loved ones. So, what should you do to ensure that a large number of employees attend your company picnic?
1. Notice
Announce the date of your company picnic at least a month before the day of the picnic. Your employees will feel left out and won’t be able to attend your picnic if it clashes with their preexisting plans. You wouldn’t want to organize a picnic where most of your employees don’t show up. You can’t please everyone and organize a picnic when all your employees are available. However, it is best to take votes on the date and announce it a month before the big day so that you get a better turnout.
2. Teaser E-mail
Once you have chosen the date, the next thing to do is spread awareness about your company picnic. Send invitations to your employees early on through teaser emails and include information like fun activities offered, food and drinks available and the entertainment arrangement for your company picnic.
Since many people are using Facebook these days, your employees will likely be active on the site too. Create a company picnic Facebook event page and send an invite to your employees that are active on Facebook. This will ensure that your employees are up to date with any changes and plans. Facebook automatically sends reminders about events, so your employees won’t forget about your picnic.
3. Post Flyers
You should send out invites at least a month before your company picnic. However, despite sending invites early, there’ll be some employees that’ll forget about your company picnic. To ensure that the company picnic stays in the mind of all your employees, design a poster or flyer. Make sure that the date and location is clearly visible. Place the posters or flyers on the cubicles, bathrooms, break rooms, meeting rooms and other high traffic areas in your office. That way all your employees will be able to see them. The posters or flyers will keep reminding your employees about the big day. Thus, you’ll be able to get a maximum turnout at your company picnic.
4. Promote the Prizes
Everyone loves rewards and prizes. A good way to increase turnout at your company picnic is to promote the prizes your employees can get from participating in the activities at the picnic. For instance, you could plan a scavenger hunt at your company picnic. In this game, teams are required to find hidden items with the help of clues. You can reward the winning team with a great prize. You can promote the scavenger hunt activity and the prize your employees can get from winning it. This way your employees will have an incentive to come to your company picnic.
5. Include Families
Many big firms struggle planning company events during working hours and if picnics are organized during the weekends, it decrease attendance because employees prefer spending their free time with their families. One way you can increase turnout at your company picnic that isn’t inside the working hours is to invite families of your employees to attend the picnic.
This will boost attendance of your company picnic and also add more meaning to your picnic while reminding your employees that you care about their families and the time they spend with them.
6. Get Your Picnic Trending
Make your company picnic trend so it’s more appealing to your employees. Create a unique hashtag for your picnic and feature it in everything that leads up to your company picnic. Use it to get your company picnic trending throughout the organization. A hashtag is also great for your company picnic because it enables employees to access memories associated with the picnic long after it is over.
7. Involve Your Employees in Major Decisions
The more you get your employees involved in the planning process of the picnic, the stronger connection they’ll have with the picnic and the higher their chances of attending the picnic will be. There are several ways you can get your employees involved in the planning process of the company picnic. For example:
- Have your employees vote on the theme, location, food and drinks or entertainment for the company picnic.
- Create a special t-shirt for your company picnic by taking ideas about the design from your employees.
- Tell employees about the contests at your company picnic so that they can prepare for them before the big day. For example, you may decide to hold a cooking competition at your event. Or you can have a contest for the most versatile dress of the evening. That way you can get the fun going even before the picnic actually starts.
- Nominate employees for particular activities of your company picnic.
- Take special requests from your employees for music before the picnic. Ask your employees about the songs they want to be played at the company picnic.
8. Offer a Variety of Food and Drinks
You can entice your employees by offering a variety of food and drinks at your company picnic. For food and drinks, you have a number of options.
You can cater the picnic if you do not want to directly deal with food preparation, serving and clean up. If you wish to offer a variety of food and drinks, another option is to book a food truck. Food trucks are great for company picnics as they can go anywhere you go and provide a variety of dishes and drinks to your employees.
You should also consider offering snacks like snow cones and cotton candy before the fun activities like a scavenger hunt. That way your employees will be able to participate in them with a full energy.
9. Offer Your Employees Several Good Reasons to Show Up
No matter what you do and how well you plan your company picnic, your employees won’t attend it if they aren’t interested in everything you have included in your company picnic. For example, if you plan a single fun activity like a scavenger hunt for your picnic, you won’t be able to get a good turnout. The reason is that some of your employees may not like participating in the scavenger hunt. Therefore, it is essential for you to give your employees several good reasons to show up at the company picnic. You can do that by offering several great fun activities and making arrangement for a variety of entertainments like comedy shows, magic shows, dance party, etc.
If you follow the tips mentioned above, you can organize an amazing company picnic that majority of your employees will attend. You’ll get a great turnout if you do everything we have discussed above. If you are struggling to organize a company picnic and think that you can’t get a good turnout at your picnic, leave this job to a professional picnic planner. When it comes to professionals, there’s no one else to trust but the Bay Area Picnic Planner. We are experienced in planning amazing company picnic and can organize a truly awesome picnic for you. We can increase the turnout at your company picnic to ensure that it is a huge success.
Feel free to reach us out for organizing a company picnic.
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by dolgachov - yayimages.com
by leeser - yayimages.com
