Celebrations are on. And it’s not going to stop till the end of the year. Yes, the last quarter of a calender year marks the most important aspect of our lives – festivals. Almost the entire world is in the celebratory mood. The HR sees festivals as opportunities to engage employees in a proactive and incremental way. Here are five reasons why celebrating important festivals are good for employee engagement.

Don’t be formal, ya!

The major reason why celebrating festivals at offices work is its informal environment. It is a perfect way to socialise in a very serious office environment. Employees freely engage in informal games, are excited about the prizes/gifts, and find it almost therapeutic to take part in them. Torsha B, an editor with a market research company in India says, “I enjoy the general mindless games we play during the festivals. Team-building or educative games are best kept for company parties or programs. Also, HR puts a lot of thought behind gifts now, which are not just some chocolates or dryfruit stuff.  So, it’s exciting to get some special vouchers. The informal aspect of the celebration is a breather in an otherwise businesslike environment.”

Chill! Am just your manager

The celebrations shatter the myth that senior leaders or managers are not fun to be with. Employees believe that this helps in easy accessibility of their senior managers. It’s a level playing field. There are instances where senior managers, who are otherwise known as no-nonsense personnel, engage themselves in some silly chats/talks or even crack jokes.

Fellow feeling

Because HR looks after all the departmental processes; they are usually believed to be neutral. The celebration helps in inter-departmental bonding. Normally, each department have absolutely no direct work-based connections, except for common events. And inter-departmental events are sometimes difficult to pull through because of hosts of issues, like incompatibility among colleagues, different work methods etc. Keeping these issues in mind, the HR department hosts common festival games where teams with different departmental employees enlist. “We arrange good, exciting competitive games to boost creativity of the employees. We also give out equally interesting gifts which is a way to say that our employees are important for us. These celebrations further motivate employees to participate in the company activities with much fervour,” said Shraddha, one of the members of the cultural committee in a Mumbai-based MNC.

Easy induction for newbies

New recruits, including freshers have the strong desire to blend in. These celebrations are a perfect way to do that. Employees get the chance of meeting a new person, and because it’s informal the induction process becomes easier to comprehend. Some tips by experienced employees regarding the organisational processes immediately give the new ones a strong sense of belonging. “I find formal induction very boring. I joined a company just at that time of their Diwali celebrations. And I knew no one there except one HR person and my manager. However, the HR team made sure my name was included in team games, and even a small introduction was done by them. I immediately felt at home,” said Vidisha Sharma, a digital marketing professional.

Just not be a work zombie

Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO rightly pointed out that time and attention are getting scarce. In this complex world where work has become too mechanical, the celebrations come as a stress-buster. “We receive regular emails on health, family matters, stress under Employee Assistance Program but that becomes very impersonal. Employees don’t want to respond to those because of work pressure and also they don’t want to be judged out rightly for their responses. So celebration games work for us as those gives us break from work. Even my colleagues who stay without their families, they enjoy these celebrations as it is not possible for them to travel everytime,” said Sangitha Chakravarthy, legal professional in a corporate law firm in Bangalore.

Happy Festivities, folks!