4 Steps to a More Engaging Corporate Calendar

Corporate employees are flooded with calendar invites. From weekly team meetings to company-wide town halls to birthday celebrations to (wait…free cookie cake in the break room?! On my way!)

Not every event comes with promises of cake, so it can be tough to get employees stoked about corporate events. Any meeting that’s less than mandatory can become easy to blow off, but it’s important to keep your employees engaged. Research shows a direct connection between engagement and positive business outcomes, and when corporate culture top of mind.

How do you pique your interest in events without spending a lot of money each time?

One solution: taking your events out of Outlook. A corporate events calendar powered by another platform WordPress may just be the thing. It’s low overhead and removes the clutter of meetings.

It’s also easy to set up. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Create a password-protected WordPress site

Assuming you’d prefer not to publish your internal company business for the world to see, a secure, password-protected WordPress site is a must. Luckily, it’s super easy to set up.

Once you’ve got WordPress site up and running, choose from several plugins that offer password protection. You can keep the security simple, using a single password for all to use and access your site. You can also choose a plugin that blocks certain pages from public access.

Step 2: Use a plugin to create your calendar

You’ve got your WordPress site. You’re password protected. You’re ready to rock and roll with a calendar.

You can get your calendar up and running in minutes with a free plugin like The Events Calendar. Set-up is a breeze. Check out this guide will help you get started and on your way to creating your first event.

Pro tip: Focus on functionality first. A super slick-looking calendar isn’t so slick if it doesn’t work properly.

Step 3: Use fun features to energize employees and to organize your events

No offense to Outlook, but your stodgy corporate calendar doesn’t provide many ways to generate excitement. Your WordPress calendar can help close the gap by providing functions your Outlook calendar simply cannot.

If you create your calendar with a plugin like The Events Calendar, you’ve opened a door to tons of other amazing features. There’s even a whole family of premium add-ons to make the most of your corporate calendar:

  • Community events: Let other people, teams and departments submit events to the calendar. It’s impossible to know every planned event, so make it easier to curate events through open submissions. Crowdsourcing goes corporate!
  • Filter Bar: At a big company, it’s unlikely that every event is relevant to every employee. Use this add-on to make it easier to search and sort the events by tags and categories. If you’re using Events Calendar PRO, then you have more filtering options, like location and even custom fields.

Step 4: Use notifications to alert employees to new events and increase participation

When employees register for your events, stay engaged with email follow-ups. Even more than excitement, email serves as a helpful reminder. A tool like Promoter can help you connect with your employees every step of the way. Announce new events, target emails to specific departments or groups, automate reminders to cut back on the time you spend organizing and promoting events… there are many possibilities. The nice thing about Promoter is that it works seamlessly with The Events Calendar. Set it and forget it!

Another way to make events more enticing is by adding detailed event descriptions and photos or videos to your event listings. Show what your events entail and you’ll give your colleagues a better idea of what they can expect. This makes it much more tempting to close a laptop and show up to your morale-boosting team outings.

A dedicated corporate events calendar can drive excitement, attendance, and engagement

The Events Calendar family of products offers tons of ways to make your events more meaningful for employees. No more events getting drowned out by a sea of meetings. Instead, you get a dedicated space to plan and promote events while engaging with everyone.


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