Want a motivated, high-performing, and deeply loyal workforce?
Strong employee engagement is crucial if you are to achieve this.
When you get employee engagement right, the benefits exceed job satisfaction.
Indeed, this will enable you to foster a deeper — and often emotional — connection between your employees and their work, colleagues, and organization.
The impact of engagement on productivity is significant.
Engaged employees are more focused, take ownership of their tasks, and are willing to go the extra mile.
They feel more personally invested in the company's goals - and want to contribute to achieving them.
The result?
Better quality of work and improved business outcomes.
Employee engagement also plays a crucial role in increasing retention.
After all, if you're happy at work and feel valued and supported in your role, you're much less likely to seek opportunities elsewhere.
Therefore, strong engagement strategies can cut turnover and lower recruitment and training costs, which benefits both the employees and the organization.
The benefits are clear.
However, the perceived cost of employee engagement schemes often deters bosses from implementing them.
And sure, some employee engagement schemes can be expensive.
But budget constraints don't mean you should dismiss employee engagement opportunities.
Indeed, there are plenty of low-cost, high-impact solutions to try out.
20 Inexpensive Employee Engagement Ideas for 2025
Keen to enjoy the benefits of strong employee engagement without a steep price tag?
Read on for our pick of the top 20 inexpensive employee engagement ideas for 2025.
Chats (With Treats)
#1 Coffee Chats/Virtual Coffee Breaks
A relaxed, casual meeting where employees grab a coffee from the office kitchen and chat about non-work-related topics, fostering connection and reducing isolation.
If you manage a remote team, why not schedule a coffee delivery for the team members participating in a virtual chat?
You could arrange for a warm coffee to be delivered from a local shop just before the chat or send a bag of high-end instant coffee in preparation for the meeting.
Alternatively, just send the employees vouchers for a coffee chain so they can source their own beverage.
Doing this adds a little sparkle to the meeting and makes the employee feel valued, but it doesn't cost the earth.
#2 Lunch & Learn
Set up a series of casual meetings over lunch where employees can learn as they dine.
Instead of intensive training sessions, where employees are tested and quizzed, these sessions should facilitate a more relaxed learning environment.
And you can use them to upskill your team or expand their knowledge in any way you need.
For example, you could bring in external speakers on pertinent topics, ask subject experts on your team to share their knowledge with their colleagues or take the opportunity to educate your employees on different departments within the company.
Peer Support And Recognition
#3 Peer-to-Peer Check-Ins
As well as setting up meetings with your team members, encourage peer-to-peer check-ins for bonding and informal knowledge sharing.
You could set these up for specific purposes — perhaps, for example, you'd like an experienced team member to mentor a newbie or maybe encourage a sociable member of the team to bring a more introverted employee out of their shell.
Alternatively, just set up random pairings to help everyone on your team get to know their colleagues.
These peer-to-peer meetings fulfil a different role than managerial check-ins, ensuring employees feel supported and included by other team members.
While you won't be attending these meetings (that's kind of the point), it's still super important that managers give their team members the time and space to carry them out.
#4 Peer Recognition Points System
Set up a gamified points-based system where employ ees can award points to their peers for positive actions or behaviours such as teamwork, leadership, or helping others.
These points can then be redeemed for rewards such as gift cards, extra time off, or other incentives.
For example, gamified employee recognition platform Esteeme empowers employees to reward peers with badges (shared publicly and privately) and coins, which they can redeem for prizes in a virtual store on the platform.
Themed Office Days or Remote Events
#5 Dress-Up Days
Don't underestimate the power of good old-fashioned fun when it comes to employee engagement.
The benefits of injecting a bit of fun into the working day include fostering a positive work environment, cutting stress, and strengthening team bonds — all of which boost productivity and retention.
Dress-up days are one of the most fun and creative employee engagement ideas — and they're easy and inexpensive to run.
You can run theme days (for example, superhero, under the sea, pop star, or costumes starting with [letter]), or choose a decade and let the nostalgia run wild.
Alternatively, have a relaxed, cosy day where everyone comes to the office in their pyjamas, or opt for a funky hat day to make participating a bit easier.
#6 Virtual Trivia Nights
Other fun employee engagement ideas include hosting virtual trivia nights.
Non-work-related activities are key when it comes to achieving genuine team bonding — and virtual trivia nights are one of the cheapest and easiest employee engagement event ideas to put together.
Simply nominate a few willing employees to organize quiz rounds on different topics, arrange a time, and send out invites.
It's important to incentivize people to show up — especially if you're holding the trivia night outside of working hours.
Announce an attractive incentive for first, second, and third place, and — if you use Esteeme — reward all participants with coins they can redeem in the shop.
Digital Leaderboards And Team Competitions
#7 Live Competitions on Digital Leaderboards
Foster friendly competition on your team via task-based competitions.
Employee engagement contest ideas include challenging your team to reach a goal before another team or awarding a prize to the individual with the highest output.
From a managerial perspective, this enables you to focus your team on the tasks that are most important to you — and helps ensure they're completed quickly, too.
And from an employee's point of view, completing a task as part of an incentivized competition is more exciting and rewarding than simply plugging through their workload as usual.
Using Esteeme, you can set up custom leaderboards to track who is in pole position, who's challenging them, and who needs to work a little harder.
These leaderboards come with those all-important rewards, too.
Employee Engagement Board Ideas
#8 'Shout Out' Boards
Launch a 'shout out' board for peer recognition.
This space — whether physical or virtual — gives employees a place to write or post notes recognizing their colleagues' achievements, big or small.
You could set up a 'shout out' board for individual teams and the wider department or company and customize each board with photos.
To ensure your board packs a punch, integrate Esteeme and empower your team to exchange digital kudos in the form of badges and coins, which can be exchanged for real-world prizes.
This method of public recognition should motivate employees, foster gratitude and goodwill within the team, and strengthen teamwork overall.
#9 'Employee of the Month' Board
Why not take one of the most traditional employee engagement ideas and supercharge it with Esteeme?
This may be one of the more corporate employee engagement ideas on the list, but it can still work very nicely when executed well.
Set up a board with the purpose of using it to highlight an employee each month who has demonstrated exceptional performance, positive attitude, or teamwork.
Include a short bio or fun facts about them, too.
Again, this can be a physical or digital board (ideally both).
But instead of simply rewarding the employee in question with the 'Employee of the Month' title, why not use Esteeme to reward them with a set number of coins?
You can also use this opportunity to invite peer recognition on the platform.
Budget-Friendly Employee Gift Ideas
#10 Social Media Recognition
If you're looking for employee engagement ideas that work without breaking the bank, turn to social media.
Social media recognition is a super public but completely free way to reward top employees.
Not only will the post itself make them feel valued, but the positive effect is amplified when their former bosses and colleagues can see the praise, too.
Top tip — keep this to LinkedIn, where work-related posts are most appropriate.
#11 Customized Badges For Employee of The Month
On Esteeme, colleagues can award each other badges to (publicly or privately) recognize outstanding work.
These badges are customizable — you can change them to reflect company values — and designed to boost morale and motivation.
This means it's super easy to customize a badge to make your employee of the month feel even more special!
#12 Coffee Talk With The CEO
Esteeme's gamified reward system offers custom gifts without extra spending.
This means you can choose completely free employee engagement gift ideas — such as the chance to have a chat over coffee with the CEO — in the shop.
While these rewards may not cost the company anything, employees will still need to exchange virtual coins for them.
Volunteer And Give-Back Initiatives
#13 Company-sponsored volunteer day
This is one of the best ideas for employee engagement, as few employees will turn down the opportunity to help others while also injecting a bit of variation into their working week.
Indeed, this is a pretty popular scheme — and not only does it boost employee engagement, but it also strengthens your corporate social responsibility proposition.
So, how do company-sponsored volunteer days work?
You simply provide employees with paid time off to volunteer for causes they care about.
The employees themselves will arrange their volunteer work, so all employers have to do is provide the extra days off.
#14 Group Volunteer Events
If you want the company to be more involved in volunteering, why not organize group volunteer events?
These events — for example, helping at food banks, cleaning up parks, or supporting local shelters — will boost morale, create a sense of purpose, and strengthen employees' connection to the community while fostering teamwork.
Esteeme allows you to set up events on the platform with associated rewards for participation.
You can post your group volunteer events on Esteeme and give out coins to participants.
Learning And Development Challenges
#15 Micro-Learning Sessions
Micro-learning sessions are short, focused learning experiences.
The aim is to teach specific skills or concepts in a brief time frame, typically ranging from a few minutes to 15 minutes.
These sessions often take the form of videos, quizzes, or interactive content and are designed for quick consumption.
They allow employees to learn at their own pace, enhancing knowledge retention and making it easier to apply new skills in real time, improving overall productivity.
By setting up microlearning sessions as events on Esteeme, managers can reward progress with virtual coins, which can be redeemed for real prizes.
#16 Cross-Department Collaboration Challenge
Encourage employees to participate in projects outside their departments or shadow their colleagues to learn new skills and build relationships across teams.
This promotes knowledge sharing, improves teamwork, and broadens employees' understanding of the company — making them more loyal.
#17 Running a Virtual Book Club
Not all learning and development challenges must be directly related to the employee's role.
If they're keen to take on more responsibility, then why not set them the task of setting up and running a group?
For example, this could be a virtual book club, volunteering, or wellness group.
Again, you can gamify this learning and development task by rewarding progress with Esteeme coins.
Free Employee Engagement Ideas for Everyday Motivation
#18 Shout-outs during meetings
This one is a winner when it comes to easy employee engagement ideas.
Whether an employee has hit a significant milestone, brought in a chunk of new business, or successfully completed a massive project, give them a shout-out in a meeting.
It will mean more to them than you might think.
Not only will a public shout out make them feel valued and boost their morale, but it will encourage positive behaviour in the future.
And it doesn't cost a thing!
#19 Quick Mindfulness Breaks
Quick mindfulness breaks are moments for employees to reset, reduce stress, and refocus.
Offering these breaks gives team members time to perform mindfulness exercises, such as deep breathing or guided meditation, which can improve mental clarity and emotional well-being.
These breaks help employees recharge during busy workdays, leading to increased productivity, elevated resilience, better decision-making, and enhanced creativity.
Mindfulness also reduces the chance of burnout.
What's more, by prioritizing mental health through regular breaks, employers show they care about employee well-being, fostering a positive work culture and improving overall job satisfaction and engagement.
#20 No-Cost Team-Building Exercises
There are plenty of effective team-building exercises that don't cost a dime.
Need some inspiration? Here are five creative ideas:
Virtual or In-Person Scavenger Hunt: Create a list of items or challenges for employees to find or complete in a set time frame (for example, find something red, something old, or a picture of their pet). This encourages collaboration, problem-solving, and friendly competition while being an easy and fun way to engage the team.
Show and Tell: Take it back to elementary school with a classic show and tell. Ask each team member to share something personal or meaningful to them, like an item from their home, a hobby, or a favourite book. Empowering employees to showcase their personality outside of a work setting should build empathy and strengthen connections on your team.
Problem-Solving Challenge: Present a fictional or real problem and ask the team to brainstorm solutions together within a set time. This could be a work-related issue or something fun like "How to survive a zombie apocalypse."
How to Choose the Best Engagement Activities for Your Team
Not every team will respond in the same way to every employee engagement activity, so it's crucial to consider which ones will actually be effective on your team.
Here are three key points to consider.
1. Assess Company Culture And Employee Preferences
This means considering your industry, the level of formality in your business, the seniority of your team members, their relationships with one another, and their personalities and interests.
Here's an example.
Say you're aiming to boost employee engagement in a team of senior leaders who work in the finance industry.
Putting them in charge of running a book club may not be particularly useful — they already have plenty of leadership and organizational experience, and they likely have a lot on their plate without extracurriculars.
In fact, in some situations, setting them this task could feel a little patronizing and have the opposite effect than you want it to.
Similarly, they may be a bit serious for a lighthearted "how to solve a zombie apocalypse" session (a junior team in a creative sector would be an excellent fit for this, however) and a little too senior for an employee of the month award.
However, your senior finance leaders may be enthusiastic about micro-learning, which allows them to refresh their skills, add to their professional development, and remain relevant in an efficient manner.
They may also have charities close to their heart and be thrilled by the opportunity to volunteer during the working week.
2. Balance Low-Cost Activities With High-Engagement Impact
Place a laser-sharp focus on activities that emphasize connection, recognition, and personal growth rather than monetary investment.
For example, implement peer recognition programs, host team-building exercises, or encourage open communication through regular check-ins.
These activities foster a positive work culture, strengthen relationships, and improve morale without significant financial investment.
The result?
Sustained employee engagement and productivity.
3. Use Esteeme To Create Engagement Programs With Minimal Costs
Harness Esteeme's gamified recognition features to encourage consistent employee motivation without significant financial investment.
The employee recognition and rewards platform allows employees to earn badges, coins, experiences, and tangible rewards for their contributions, fostering a culture of appreciation and recognition.
These rewards are tied to meaningful milestones, such as achieving team goals, demonstrating core values, or simply being helpful to colleagues.
By integrating Esteeme with tools like Slack or Azure, employers can seamlessly embed recognition into daily activities, promoting engagement in real time and reducing the need for expensive incentives while rewarding employees for their efforts.
Additionally, Esteeme's analytics provide valuable insights into employee behaviour and sentiment, helping employers tailor engagement strategies based on accurate data.
As a result, organizations can create dynamic, low-cost engagement programs that boost morale, improve collaboration, and increase retention without straining budgets.
Why Esteeme Stands Out for Employee Engagement in 2025
Employee engagement is hugely important for any successful business — but it's not always easy to get right.
Indeed, common challenges include a lack of participation, workplace culture issues, and poor communication.
Esteeme's gamification features help businesses overcome these challenges to boost employee engagement, retention, and morale.
Here's how:
Gamified Engagement
Esteeme offers gamification designed to increase participation in employee engagement efforts.
Participation is crucial in employee engagement schemes because it fosters a sense of ownership, inclusion, and accountability.
If you launch an employee engagement initiative, and there's low takeup or a lack of enthusiasm, this only highlights a negative workplace culture and can worsen the situation.
On the other hand, when employees actively engage, they feel valued and connected to the organization's goals.
This involvement boosts morale, strengthens team dynamics, and drives higher levels of productivity and satisfaction.
Fully Customizable
Whether you work remotely or in the office, Esteeme is highly customizable to meet the unique needs of any organization or team.
For instance, employers can tailor recognition programs by setting specific criteria for rewarding employees, such as recognizing milestones, achievements, or behaviours aligned with company values.
The platform also allows customization of reward options, from points to badges and even physical gifts, ensuring they resonate with employees.
Its analytics can also be customized to track and measure engagement metrics that are most relevant to the organization, helping refine strategies for improved results.
Conclusion
To recap, here are 20 of the best budget-friendly ideas for employee engagement activities:
Coffee chats/virtual coffee breaks
Lunch and learn
Peer-to-peer check-ins
Peer recognition points system
Dress up days
Virtual trivia nights
Live competitions
'Shout out' board
'Employee of the month' board
Social media recognition
Customized badges for employee of the month
Coffee talk with the CEO
Company-sponsored volunteer day
Group volunteer event
Micro-learning sessions
Cross-department collaboration challenges
Running a virtual book club
Shout-outs during meetings
Quick mindfulness breaks
No-cost team-building exercises
What's more, the effect of many of these inexpensive employee engagement tactics can be amplified using Esteeme.
You can easily integrate the employee recognition and rewards platform into your employee engagement strategy by awarding coins for participation or success and filling your gift shop with attractive prizes.
To find out more about how you can take your engagement strategy to the next level with Esteeme, book a demo here today.
FAQs
- Need to engage your team but don't have the budget for chunky monetary bonuses or flashy prizes? No problem! Not all ideas for employee engagement come with a price tag. Here are 11 free employee engagement ideas to try out: - Virtual chats - Virtual team building activities - Recognition and appreciation (from managers and colleagues) - Performance leaderboards - Employee feedback surveys - Employee spotlight in the company newsletter or internal comms - Mentorship programs - Skill-Sharing sessions - Celebrate personal milestones - Wellness challenges - Suggestion box
- Esteeme helps boost engagement by gamifying recognition, allowing employees to earn badges, coins, and experiences for their contributions. It fosters a positive workplace culture by promoting consistent appreciation, improving morale, and boosting motivation. The platform's integration with tools like Slack enhances real-time engagement, making recognition seamless and impactful.
- Getting workplace culture right is key for employee engagement, productivity, and morale. Improving the culture of your workplace doesn't have to cost the earth. In fact, some of the best employee engagement ideas are inexpensive. Try out these low-cost techniques: - Fostering open communication - Recognizing employee achievements - Encouraging team-building activities - Offering flexible work options - Implementing regular feedback surveys - Celebrating milestones - Promoting a positive work-life balance - Encouraging skill-sharing among employees
- In 2025, the recruitment landscape is more competitive than ever thanks to skills shortages, lightning-speed technological development, and shifting employee sentiment. What does this mean for businesses? You don't want to lose good people. This is where employee engagement comes in. In addition to boosting productivity and enhancing overall performance, keeping employees engaged is crucial when it comes to retaining great workers. Indeed, engaged employees are more motivated, innovative, and committed, leading to higher job satisfaction and improved performance. This means they're much more likely to stick around. Furthermore, as businesses adapt to remote work and changing dynamics, maintaining engagement fosters a strong, resilient workforce.
- To keep remote employees engaged, prioritise regular check-ins, create virtual social spaces, and implement consistent recognition practices. Use engagement tools like Esteeme to gamify contributions and ensure everyone feels seen and valued. Encourage feedback loops and professional growth opportunities to build a sense of purpose and inclusion over time.
