How to Encourage Team Bonding During Diwali Celebrations

✍️ Opinions

Varun Bhardwaj

Oct 27, 2024 — 4 min read

Encourage Team Bonding During Diwali Celebrations

This article has been contributed by Unnikrishnan Raghavan, Chief Human Resources Officer, greytHR.

Popularly known as the Festival of Lights, Diwali (or Deepavali) is a celebration of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. This five-day Hindu festival culminates on October 31 this year. Even other religions observe it with pomp and splendor. Diwali is that time of the year when the omnipresent diyas, candles, lanterns, and fireworks become the talk of the town.

A Celebration at the Workplace

The modern workplace is an amalgamation of professionals from all quarters. It’s not uncommon to see people from different faiths and states of the nation. We all know that members from different teams come together to complete different projects. But some occasions, like Diwali, bring everybody together. Unlike specific festivals restricted to certain areas, Diwali is a much-awaited occasion at every workplace.

Modern HR teams now have the onus of turning routine interactions into opportunities for cultural enrichment. An annual activity in most organizations, Diwali is one such opportunity for them. Employers and HR teams across organizations use this occasion to foster a culture of camaraderie, celebrate achievements, and give every voice a platform.

In this article, we shall look at a few good ideas for celebrating Diwali in any workplace. Not every activity might be practical in every organization. However, HR can customize the same to suit the requirements and culture of their organization.

Create a Festive Ambience

Decorate your office lavishly. Ask your employees to take it up as a project and plan every bit of it. Urge them to ideate, collaborate, and execute the entire process meticulously. Let them use diyas, colors, paintings, rangoli designs, and more. Allocate a budget to develop and stick posters, danglers, balloons, ribbons, and more. Inspire teams to deck up their bays in their own way. Mix up team members to decorate areas and offer prizes/goodies for a job well done!

Plan a Sumptuous Feast

Host a sumptuous Diwali lunch or dinner! Add as many spicy and sweet items as possible. Ensure that you have something for everyone. Alternatively, run a survey to understand the expectations of employees. Only then can you cater to the tastes of employees from different regions and cultures. Send coupons to those who work remotely from a different location. Food for thought: Form teams and conduct a physical/virtual treasure hunt with hidden sweet/snack boxes.

Delight the Shutterbugs

Great memories linger forever! Deploy a customized photo booth at a common location and encourage employees to take snaps of themselves and their colleagues. Ask people to post pics (with captions) in an internal group so they stand a chance to win a few cool goodies! There is no better way to help them spread the festive cheer. Post the winning entries on the company’s official social media channels. Let the world know why your employees consider your company as a great place to work.

Offer a Sweet Challenge

It’s another opportunity to challenge your employees, individually and collectively as teams. Show slides with multiple Diwali-related articles for a few seconds and see how many they can recall. Conduct a game of ‘food charades’ where people must guess the food by looking at the way the individual demonstrates how it is relished! Offer gifts with your company logo, so your brand gets an image boost whenever and wherever they are flaunted!

Create a Space for Creativity

Draw a vibrant Rangoli at the front office of your company. That’s a great way to welcome your employees with a festive spirit. Also, choose a space and plan to conduct a Rangoli competition for all your employees. Include everybody. Everybody, because you never know who has latent talent. Announce the same on internal company groups and mount creatively designed posters. Form teams based on a draw of lots. Yes, you guessed it right: It’s easy for the design team to whisk away that coveted prize!

Define a Dress Code

Let people exhibit their pride in their culture. Announce an ethnic wear day, where the employees are urged to come to work in their traditional attire. It’s an exciting way to introduce a culture of mutual respect and appreciation. What’s more, it’s a chance to see the cultural richness of the different Indian states. Common in many workplaces, this activity helps cultivate a sense of unity in diversity.

Ending Notes

A Gazetted Holiday throughout India, Diwali has been celebrated since time immemorial. Although the occasion was initially confined to families and communities, organizations eventually began to welcome it with open arms. In fact, the Diwali celebration is a major annual event in every HR calendar.

The extent of celebration varies according to the location, nature, and scale of a business. Even the activities depend on the type of industry and employee engagement plan of the HR department. In this article, we have touched upon a few practical activities every HR can execute in their respective organizations. There are numerous ways to encourage team bonding at the workplace during Diwali. However, these ideas should provide some food for thought when planning the activities. Happy Diwali!