Let’s Get Digital: 4 Engaging Ways to Create Virtual Events With Your Employees

We’re continuing to bring you blogs for Let’s Get Digital, which focuses on how to thoughtfully plan and execute successful digital events. Keep an eye out for monthly articles. 

Do you know how engaged or motivated your employees are? A 142-country Gallup report revealed 63 percent of employees were not engaged at work and 24 percent were actively disengaged. When you break that down, that’s 900 million employees that aren’t engaged and 340 million who are actively disengaged. 

It’s also important to note that this report was created before the pandemic. Now that many workers are at home, companies are getting creative — from creating company-branded TV shows, virtual clubs, and events to ensure employees are motivated and engaged.  

The benefits of a strong culture and why employees need engagement

Studies show passionate employees can have as much benefit as loyal customers. Specifically:

• The probability of job turnover in a weak company culture is 48 percent, while the turnover in a strong culture is only 13 percent. 
• Happy workers are 12 percent more productive while unhappy workers are 10 percent less productive.
• Engaged workers are likely to solve difficult problems faster.

Who doesn’t want to work with happy, problem solvers?

The importance of internal digital events 

At AppLovin, we’ve hosted exciting worldwide events that connect our customers so they could learn and grow from each other. These events, which are now completely digital, have inspired us to create similar events for AppLovin’s employees. At its core, we want to create events that enrich and enhance our employees’ lives, both personally and professionally. 

Our team has been working remotely for months now, and even though we’re making the best of the situation, it can be challenging to not have office face time. 

Therefore, we regularly host events around various themes, including:

• Virtual happy hours
• Meals
• Professional development sessions
• Activities and games

Here are four ways we’ve crafted our events to boost employee engagement through virtual events.  

1. Brand it and make it official

A big part of any event is about presentation. From eye-catching brand designs and logos to grab-worthy swag, there’s no question you’re participating in something fun. 

AppLovin translated this concept to our employee events. At a recent FemLovin (which brings together women and men at AppLovin) happy hour, for example, we had our design team create designs and logos specifically for this event. In the weeks leading up to the event, we used the logos in our signups and reminders. 

If you find one event has a higher attendance rate than others, turn it into a series of events and create a logo for it. For example, one company posts a “Photos at 4” prompt each day based on various topics such as dream vacation, unique household item, or favorite quarantine snack. 

2. Make virtual events accessible for a global team

If your team is spread out in different time zones, it can be hard to schedule time for everyone to meet. 

AppLovin faced this same challenge so we made virtual events more accessible by recording them and sharing them out with the rest of the company. 

We also encouraged our regional offices to host their own events. AppLovin’s team in Berlin and China have hosted their own FemLovin events. 

We also plan on taking turns for scheduling live events, globally. As an example, in July we’d schedule an event at 8 p.m. for the team in Asia, August would be 8 p.m. for the team in the U.S., and so on. That way it may motivate team members in different regions to participate in a digital event at a decent hour. 

3. The power of swag

We love our swag at AppLovin! Over the years, we’ve made it a point to delight our customers with useful and high-quality gifts at our live events. 

We regularly offer incentives to encourage team members to sign up for events so they can receive a free shirt, bottle of wine, or yummy snacks. At a recent FemLovin happy hour event we hosted, participants were given a free bag of granola from Michelle Pusateri, owner of Nana Joes Granola.

Other ideas may include:

• Lunch and learns: You can give out Uber Eats gift cards to attendees 
• Virtual coffee meetings: Make your favorite beverage
• Activity-based events such as yoga or Barry’s Bootcamp virtual classes: Attendees can sweat it out together

4. Spread the word and show them what they’re missing

Use your company’s method of communication such as Slack or email to promote the event. Following up after the event is also a great way to thank attendees and let others know about what took place at the event. 

Ask team members to share their photos and post them on Slack or share them in an email to attendees. 

This would also be a good opportunity to add in a survey, asking what kind of virtual events employees would like to see more of in the future. 

Creating a positive team culture

Developing virtual internal events is just one way to strengthen bonds and keep the lines of communication open. 

Through these events, our hope is to support AppLovin’s team and make sure core needs are being met. It gives us a chance to be seen, connect, and feel valued so we can continue to grow as a company and serve the needs of our customers.