Culture of Fun, Teamwork, Social Activities Help Employees Feel Connected to Company

Ghosts and goblins fill the halls of Lois Paul & Partners (LP&P) for the annual Halloween party, but employees’ children will not be the only ones decked out in costumes.

Each year, the Boston-based public relations agency invites employees to bring their children in costume to visit the office, participate in a “Halloween Parade,” and trick-or-treat along the way. “We decorate our café and have games and prizes for the kids,” says Kristin Kilmain, Human Resources manager for LP&P (www.loispaul.com). “‘Scary bingo’ is the all-time favorite game. We play movies and music and have pizza, drinks, and ‘scary’ desserts.”

The company also encourages employees to join in the fun. Employees are divided into four groups (by location in the office), and each group selects a costume theme, which remains unknown to the other groups until the party, says Kilmain. Past themes have included Pez^® dispensers, “worker bees” dressed in costumes, and the characters from Grease.

Employees from neighboring companies in the building typically judge an LP&P employee costume competition, and the winning team receives a gift certificate to a local restaurant, “so the group can get together again after work or for a team-building luncheon,” she explains.

‘Extracurricular Activities’

The Halloween party is one of numerous “extracurricular” activities offered by LP&P that are consistent with its “culture of fun and team orientation,” Kilmain says. Other popular events include an annual holiday party, a summer outing, and two “Fenway Nights” each baseball season at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Employees purchase group-discounted tickets through the agency and attend the games together, Kilmain says.

Agency alumni, who often provide referrals—and sometimes become clients themselves—are invited to attend one of the baseball outings.

Throughout the year, employees are encouraged to take advantage of the two foosball tables, a flat-screen TV, and Wii™ games in the café/break room, explains Kilmain. Every winter, employees pair up to compete in a foosball tournament, a long-standing tradition at LP&P that culminates with the names of winning team members being engraved on a plaque.

Foosball, TV, and Wii are available to employees at any time, unless a session is underway in the adjoining training room, according to Kilmain. That availability is important, she says, “because people feel stress at different times, and people take breaks at different times.”

Social hours during and after work, softball games in which a team of employees plays against other corporate teams, and company-sponsored philanthropic activities provide additional opportunities for employees to connect with each other, she says.

Activities Spur Retention

Many of the social events that LP&P sponsors grew out of employee suggestions. For example, this July, employees started a monthly “Movie Night” at work, after approaching HR with the idea. (The first showing was The Princess Bride.)

Offering a variety of social activities for employees has led to high levels of teamwork, productivity, and morale at LP&P and helped create a culture where people have fun and want to stay, according to Kilmain. She notes that 38 percent of employees have worked for the agency for 5 or more years, and 25 percent have been there for at least 10 years.

LP&P’s Boston office was recently ‑named to the “Best Places to Work” list by the Boston Business Journal, and its office in Austin, Texas, received the same recognition from the Austin Business Journal.

What to Do

Here is some advice to consider when sponsoring social activities for employees:

• Offer a few “anchor” events. Having an annual holiday party, for example, allows the company to budget and plan ahead and gives employees something to look forward to each year. “Make sure you are doing something to make people feel they are connected with their co-workers,” Kilmain says.
• Seek employee input. Encourage employees to share their ideas for social activities. If employees are responsible for organizing some of the events, have them check in with HR or a manager first for approval. “I think you have to provide some structure in terms of who ultimately should be consulted when people are organizing things,” she says.
• Allow for variety. Offering different types of activities helps ensure that there is something for everyone and increases the likelihood that all employees will get involved.
• Set up a schedule. Plan events at times when the greatest number of employees can attend, and keep workloads in mind when deciding whether to schedule events on-site or off.