Should Employees Be Required to Attend Work Social Functions?

Think about the immediate reaction you have to seeing a work happy hour invitation come into your inbox. What about a team bonding bowling night or the annual holiday party?

For some people, work social functions are an exciting time to get together with colleagues outside of the office in a more relaxed environment. However, for others, the simple mention of these events is enough to stir feelings of immediate annoyance and dread. 

Regardless of how employees feel on their own, seeing one little word on the initial invitation can put a sour taste in anyone’s mouth: mandatory.

As corporate cultures try to provide employees with better perks and experiences, a debate has formed about the pros and cons of mandatory work social functions. Even if leaders have the best intentions, not executing these events properly (or planning them without a human mindset in the first place) can actually put both attendees and your company culture in jeopardy.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of making social functions mandatory and explore a few ways that you can ensure you plan events that employees actually look forward to.

The Good Side of Making Work Events Mandatory

If work-based social functions didn’t come with a few positives, they wouldn’t happen in the first place. Team leaders may try to make these events mandatory in order to boost participation and reap as many benefits as possible.

Your Team Can Form New Bonds

Especially in larger companies, it’s easy for employees to limit their interaction to only teams they work directly with. That leaves plenty of room for new friendships to form. They just need the opportunity to meet and connect. 

By requiring employees to attend social functions, they get the chance to interact with teams and colleagues they normally wouldn’t and form new relationships that can grow in and out of the office.

You Can Build Rapport with Clients

Sometimes, the social functions you plan aren’t just for employees. They’re for your customers as well. In cases like these, having certain team members attend and interact with those clients can allow them to build a deeper rapport than they would be able to via email or a phone call. 

Especially as you grow your business, this allows potential customers to see the more human side of your company and who they would be interacting with on a daily basis.

You Build a Fun Culture

Simply put, some employees really look forward to work-sponsored happy hours or outings to sporting events. After a long day of work or a particularly challenging quarter, it’s a nice treat to be able to have a couple of drinks with their coworkers and blow off steam on the company’s dime.

While the pros certainly have their benefits, there are still some downsides to requiring employees to attend social functions, especially ones scheduled outside of business hours.

The Bad Side of Making Work Events Mandatory

No matter your intentions, requiring your employees to attend social functions can actually backfire in a big way.

You Make People Uncomfortable

Not everyone considers themselves a social butterfly. On the contrary, some of your employees are introverts and don’t like being forced to chit-chat with their colleagues at social functions. Beyond that, if there are any tensions in the office, those parties now have to fake smiles and continue to be around each other in what is supposed to be a fun environment.

This can also apply to employees with disabilities. Consider your employees who use a wheelchair or have limited mobility. If you don’t take their needs into account, they can show up at the location with no way to get to the actual event on the third floor. This shows a lack of empathy on your part and can make your employees feel disregarded.

You Force Them to Pay to Attend

Your employees have lives and responsibilities outside of work. Whether you realise it or not, making social functions mandatory can actually require them to spend money just to follow the rules.

Parents will have to hire a sitter to take care of their children until they get home. If the event involves alcohol, employees may have to pay for rideshares in order to avoid drinking and driving. For more formal functions that call for a specific dress code, they may have to go out and buy an entirely new outfit.

You Break The Work/Personal Boundary

While some people don’t mind blurring the lines of their work and personal lives, other employees prefer to keep a hard boundary between the two. They don’t necessarily want to be close friends with those they see every day at work. 

It’s not uncommon for people to have a work persona that differs from their everyday behaviour, and not everyone wants to keep up that more formal pretence once the clock strikes five. 

You Put Them in Harm’s Way

Happy hours and team dinners are among the most common types of social functions. However, you never know if any of your employees are recovering from addiction or trying to maintain a sober lifestyle. 

Requiring them to attend these events leaves them with two options: putting them on the front lines of temptation, or all but forcing them to disclose a very personal detail about their life to avoid option one.

You Make Them Feel Ostracised

In the event that an employee does get out of mandatory social function, other colleagues may not take too kindly to it. If you’ve built a culture around constant participation in these events, those who don’t attend may feel judged by their peers and even ostracised. They’ll never want to attend future functions if that’s the case.

How can you find the balance between offering social events to employees and actually getting participation and not forcing teams to attend against their will? The answer lies in planning functions in a way that encourages inclusivity and takes your employees’ personal lives into account.

Six Tips for Hosting a Social Event Your Team Won’t Stress Over

While you likely won’t be able to please every single person in your organisation, there are a few ways you can plan social events that most employees are excited to attend.

1. Create a Culture of Inclusivity

Before you plan any event, consider what you can do to make it inclusive and respectful of your employee’s lifestyles and personal schedules. 

Ensure that any venue you consider is accessible for all attendees. Be mindful of the timing that you choose, such as directly after work or even during business hours. Put policies in place that warn against the mistreatment of colleagues who choose to skip social functions.

2. Make Events Optional

You would be surprised how much more open employees are to attending social events when they are optional. There isn’t the added pressure of going to something because you are required to, and it makes the event seem more easygoing. 

Unless it’s absolutely necessary, keep all social events optional and give employees a chance to opt out if they choose.

3. Pay Employees for Their Time

This might be a controversial one, but outside of their contracted work hours, employees don’t owe you their time. 

If you really want them to attend social functions – either to build rapport with clients or strengthen internal bonds between teams – compensate them for that time. If you don’t feel like adding a little extra to their paycheck, offer them the chance to be reimbursed for the cost of their rideshare or even a sitter that they had to pay for in order to attend the social function you planned.

4. Give Plenty of Notice

No one likes having something sprung on them at the last minute. Whether it’s a round of mini golf or your annual holiday party, give employees at least a few weeks’ notice before the event takes place. 

This way, they can keep their calendars open and make any necessary arrangements so they are entirely free to attend.

5. Keep Events Short

Especially for weeknight events, don’t plan something that goes all night. Your employees need to get home and rest after a busy day, so limit social events to a few hours max. 

If you opt for a function that can run a bit longer, such as a sporting event, make sure your employees know they’re free to leave whenever they need to. The last thing you want is someone sticking around and getting grumpy because it’s past their bedtime.

6. Change Things Up

Sure, you can have a bi-weekly happy hour or monthly team dinner, but don’t plan the same thing every time. 

Keep things fresh and garner more excitement from employees by switching up the types of events you offer. Maybe one month, you take employees for a game of laser tag, and another you raffle off tickets to a theatre performance.

Have you found certain tactics helpful in planning successful company social functions? Share them in the comments!