How to Plan An Event Employees Will Be Excited to Attend

 

So you’ve planned a super sweet company volunteer event with an impactful nonprofit in your community. You can’t wait to tell employees about it and start collecting registrations. This is going to be a good one!

 

But a few minutes after the invitation goes out…crickets. No responses and no sign-ups. 

 

What went wrong? Why does nobody want to attend the event you spent weeks planning? 

 

Truth is, there are many reasons employees may not be excited to attend your event. If an event is too complicated, aimed at the wrong audience, or doesn’t get enough hype, it’s doomed from the beginning. But it doesn’t have to be!

 

Here are some ways to plan an event employees will be excited to attend. 

 

Keep the event simple

 

Who’s going to register for an event that requires a 12-hour shift, 3 costume changes, and memorized lines? 

 

Nobody, that’s who. 

 

The more complicated your events are, the fewer people who will be interested. Your events need to be simple, enjoyable, and easy to attend. 

 

Yes, it’s your job to plan fun events, but that doesn’t mean you have to go over the top and fit everything you can possibly think of. Slow down and think about what attendees will enjoy. Do you really need that extra dunk tank for the annual fair? 

 

Simple events will attract not only employees, but also community members and anyone else who might be invited. That said, some events do need a little extra pizazz. Use your best judgment and plan events employees will enjoy.

 

 

Volunteer with the nonprofits that employees care about

 

Another part of planning events employees will be excited to attend is planning events with nonprofit organizations that employees actually care about. 

 

While most nonprofits are doing good work and trying to help a cause, that doesn’t mean their cause will resonate with employees or bring much excitement. Figure out what causes employees care about—animal care, homelessness, hunger, financial education, etc.—and plan events that cater to those needs.

 

When an employee who is passionate about ending homelessness is invited to help a nonprofit provide permanent housing for the less fortunate, that employee is almost guaranteed to be interested. 

 

To learn what employees are passionate about, try sending an annual survey to gauge interest and get event ideas. When you add employee responses to their Kadince volunteer profile, you’ll have a curated list of people to invite to your next event! 

 

Plan an event everyone can enjoy

 

Some events just don’t work for some employees. Not everyone can lift a 50-pound bag of concrete or be on their feet all day. Some people can’t spend hours at a desk looking at old documents or organizing papers. 

 

That said, do your best to plan events that cater to different fitness levels and abilities. Maybe one event has several opportunities that cater to different employees. Be as inclusive as possible and make sure everyone has a good time. If an event simply can’t cater to everyone, that’s okay; plan another event soon that includes those who were left out last time. 

 

 

Make sure the right employees know about it

 

You can’t expect someone to register for something they don’t know about. But instead of blasting every event to every employee, try inviting the right employees to each event.  

 

What does that mean?

 

Not every employee will be a good fit for every event. A financial education seminar happening in Summit County isn’t going to interest bank or credit union employees who live across the state in Iron County. So only invite employees who are already in Summit County or nearby areas. Same goes for niche interests. Maybe some employees love working with tools, so inviting them to a Habitat for Humanity build would be a good idea. 

 

Now that you know whom you want to invite, put the event in front of them however you can. Kadince volunteer profiles make it easy to invite the right employees to the right events. Each employee has a profile in Kadince that includes their location, interests, T-shirt size, and anything else you want to track. Once you’re ready to invite people to your event, just select the location and interests you want to target, and Kadince will send a mass email to those employees.

 

Easy peasy! 

 

Make it easy to register 

 

Have you ever been asked to register for an event and had to jump through a bunch of hoops to do so? You click one link and that takes you to another. And then you have to log in to another system, where you have to find the registration form and finally open it. Only to be met with a bunch of questions you don’t even know the answers to. And once you’ve finally registered, whoever’s in charge still needs more information and you get emails asking for T-shirt size and availability. You’re busy! You don’t have time for this!

 

This might be how your employees feel if your event registration process is complicated. 

 

It should be really easy for employees register for events. The easier it is to register, the more employees who will actually complete the process. 

 

Start by making your event registration form easy to access. Send this form via email, put it on your company’s intranet, and hang physical flyers with a QR code around each branch. 

 

Now that employees can easily access the registration form, make sure the actual registration process is simple. But not so simple that all employees have to do is reply “yes” to your email. You know you’re going to need more information than that, so why not collect it up front? If you get their T-shirt size, shift availability, and anything else you need when they’re signing up, you won’t have to send follow-up emails asking more questions.

 

After someone has registered for the event (yay!), make sure they get a confirmation email or calendar invite so the event stays top of mind. 

 

Hint: Check out Kadince software if you want this whole process to be easy and automated. 

 

 

Hype it up

 

You know how it goes. An employee signs up for an event and promises to be there. But on the day of, they’re nowhere to be seen. Now you don’t have enough hands to complete your goal and your event isn’t as successful as it should have been. 

 

To avoid this happening, employees should receive consistent reminder emails about the event. These emails should hype it up and get employees excited. If it’s a volunteer event, share with employees how this event will impact your community. Who will it serve? How will their lives be better after this event? Everyone loves a feel-good story, and these kinds of events are the perfect opportunity. 

 

By keeping the event top of mind, employees are much less likely to forget, and your event is more likely to go off without a hitch. Mission—or event—accomplished!

 

Reward employees

 

Let’s face it, some company events are less than exciting. You need volunteers to pick up trash along the highway, but who wants to deal with the smell? 

 

Guess what? If you add a little incentive, even the most boring events can get employees excited. 

 

Many financial institutions incentivize employees with a rewards program. While these programs are typically geared towards volunteer hours, you can also create a rewards program for company events (which often go hand in hand with volunteer hours anyway). Rewarding employees for attending events is a great way to get them excited. (It’s also a great way to get them to fill out the dreaded volunteer form.) 

 

Maybe the employee who attends the most company events each quarter will receive a gift card. Maybe the department with the most event volunteers wins a pizza party.  

 

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to running a successful employee rewards program. Figure out what works best for your institution and go from there. 

 

Use Kadince to manage events

 

Planning and managing events can be difficult and time-consuming. There’s so much that goes into it, and this article has only scratched the surface. 

 

Many financial institutions manage all of this with spreadsheets and emails. If this doesn’t appeal to you (because it shouldn’t), there’s a better way…

 

Kadince software makes it easy to plan events, invite employees, collect registrations, track volunteer hours, and more. 

 

With Kadince, you can:

 

• Track and manage all events, including financial education classes, parades, galas, golf outings, 5k’s, volunteer initiatives, and business development opportunities. 

• Send event invitations based on branch location, employee interests, affinity groups, and more to ensure the right people see the right volunteer opportunities.

• Manage all event details in one place, including venues, dates, volunteer shifts, tickets, event coordinators, descriptions, registrants, and needed items.

• Measure key event metrics (# of people benefited, population groups, impact focus categories, CRA development activities, # of LMI people helped, etc.) to see where your institution has made a difference. 

 

Here’s a sneak peek at an employee-facing events calendar you might set up in Kadince:

 

 

Schedule a demo to see how Kadince can help your institution plan events employees will be excited to attend. 

 

Next time you plan an event and send the invite email, get ready for a rush of registrations! 

 

Schedule Demo

Check out the other articles in this series

 

• How to Create A Volunteer Form Employees Will Actually Complete

• How to Create A Donation/Sponsorship Request Form Organizations Will Actually Submit

• How to Make the Scholarship Application Process Easy for Students and Your Institution

None of Kadince, Inc., its affiliates, or its respective employees, directors, officers, and agents (collectively, “Kadince”) are responsible or liable for any content or information incorporated herein. Read full disclosure.