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Having an internal method of communication such as a newsletter is a useful way to share information across your entire organization. Unfortunately, a lot of people will immediately send a company missive to the virtual trash can without reading it, regarding it as just one more email in the mass of emails that enter their inbox every day.
Bearing that in mind, the bigger question you need to answer is, what do you write in a newsletter for employees to ensure they actually want to read it? That’s where fun employee newsletter ideas come in.
1. What Are Employee Newsletters and Its Benefits?
An employee newsletter is a regular piece of digital communication sent to all company staff, usually featuring a mixture of announcements, reminders, success stories and lighter content. There are many reasons an organization might choose to dispatch these bulletins. First and foremost, they ensure everyone is informed and up to date regarding changes in the company, alterations to existing regulations or other essential information that may arise. Through this kind of transparency, businesses can build employee trust.
Newsletters can also be a good way to restate the company’s missions and objectives, as well as promote diversity and inclusion policies. This helps to foster the company culture and keep it fresh in the minds of distributed teams.
From a wellbeing perspective, fun employee newsletter ideas can be utilized to help people destress. Personal stories from individual staff helps build a sense of camaraderie and develop bonds within the business.
Finally, newsletters are a good medium for sharing success stories and celebrating achievements, which boosts morale and makes workers feel recognized and valued.
2. Fun Employee Newsletter Ideas
2.1 New Recruit Profiles
A newsletter is a great place to welcome new staff to the team. Highlighting fresh hires in this way encourages existing staff to say hi and makes the onboarding for recent additions less stressful and isolating. In addition to the basics regarding a newcomer’s name, position and department, it’s also worth considering adding some more personal tidbits, such as their hobbies or favorite food. This gives them a chance to express a little individuality to their peers.
It's not only new recruits who can benefit from a profile in the company newsletter. You might also consider having a regular feature on existing staff, particularly in larger companies where not everybody will know everybody else. This can help build bonds beyond departments and encourage more interaction across job functions which, aside from the social benefits, can also be conducive for future collaborations.
2.2 Birthday and Anniversary
Recognizing staff birthdays and/or anniversaries is a no-cost way to show a little personal attention to members of your workforce. As with new recruits, you may wish to add some fun facts to the message to go along with the congratulations. If there is going to be some kind of minor gift presentation ceremony, you can also note the date and time of this in the newsletter so that any staff who wish to attend (either physically or virtually) have the opportunity to do so.
While anniversaries are generally safe territory, you should always make sure you ask each member of staff whether they are happy for their birthday to be highlighted in the newsletter. Some people may feel uncomfortable having their personal information publicized in a workplace setting or prefer to only share the news with a select number of office friends.
2.3 Highlight Employee Vacations
Another fun employee newsletter idea is to encourage your staff to share their holiday snaps (at least the safe for work ones). These can be accompanied by any amusing anecdotes or travel tips they picked up along the way.
As anybody who’s been on Instagram ever will tell you, travel photography continues to be a popular subcategory of images with people in general. Adding it to your newsletter may not only pique staff interest, but it can also provide some inspirational ideas for other employees about how they can spend their own future vacays. Plus, if they have any questions about a potential holiday destination, they’ve got the perfect resource to ask right in their own company.
2.4 Write up Favorite Food Recipes of Staff
As the famous author Virginia Woolf once said: “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Sharing food is one of the most communal of all pastimes and a great way to not only engage your staff in the company newsletter, but also promote cultural diversity in the workplace. Ask people to share either dishes from their own heritage or culinary experiences from their travels around the world.
If you’re finding it difficult to regularly crowdsource recipes for a food column from your staff, you can also consider asking one of your foodie colleagues to be in charge of curating a regular recipe segment.
2.5 A Story of Your Pet
There’s nothing easier to solicit from staff than stories about their pets. Everyone loves to talk about their dogs, cats and birds, possibly even more than they like to talk about their children. Make sure the anecdotes are feel-good rather than tragic – after all, the point of these fun employee newsletter ideas is to get staff engaged in the company missive rather than weeping into their mugs of coffee or tea.
If you can get people to submit funny photos of GIFs of their furry friends, so much the better. There’s nothing better than keyboard cat or skateboarding dog memes to brighten the workday.
2.6 Remind Workers about Special Offers
Does your company have a partnership with a local gym to provide staff with discounts? Is the office canteen subsidized? Are there any other company perks like the monthly masseuse or a staff happy hour?
Especially in a large company with a regular turnover of staff, some of the great extras you’re offering can get overlooked or missed. A company newsletter is a great place to remind people of what’s an offer – and it doesn’t have to just be out-of-office entertainment. Make sure people know about any training opportunities that are available as well as any wellbeing classes that can be accessed.
2.7 Bad Office Jokes
Fun employee newsletter ideas don’t get any more classic or easier to include than bad office jokes. These little snippets are brilliant at destressing people, providing a little moment of groan-inducing joy. Plus, the internet is full of resources to keep the giggle tank full. Here are some of our favorites:
“My memory has gotten so bad it has actually caused me to lose my job. I’m still employed. I just can’t remember where.”
“Boss told me that as a security guard, it’s my job to watch the office. I’m on season 6, but I’m not sure what it’s got to do with security.”
“Boss: How good are you on PowerPoint?
Me: I Excel at it.
Boss: Was that a Microsoft Office pun?
Me: Word.”
“My new colleagues are so much fun, they write names on all the food. Yesterday, I ate a yogurt named ‘Susan.’”
2.8 Highlight Employee Recommended Books, Movies, TV
Any initiative that promotes interpersonal relationships can only be of benefit to a business. Get an office book club going using your company newsletter as a foundation. You could even include a selection of quotes from different people in the company explaining what they thought about last month’s reading.
Newsletters can also be used to share film and television recommendations. Considering the sheer amount of content available these days, having an office full of people helping to separate the wheat from the chaff is just an incredibly useful tool.
2.9 Employee Milestones
Has somebody just set a new sales record? Is it an individual’s 10th year in their role? Are there promotions to celebrate? Regardless of the type of employee milestone, a company newsletter is the perfect place to share the achievements and successes of the wider business.
In addition to celebrating the persons directly involved, acknowledging employee milestones can help create a more general sense in an organization that management is paying attention to hard work and rewarding it with public praise.
2.10 Crazy Stories
As an alternative to jokes, consider including amusing stories ripped straight from the headlines as one of your fun employee newsletter ideas. Trust us when we say that there’s always something absolutely bonkers happening somewhere in the world that’s sure to bring a smile to your coworkers’ faces. Sky News, for example, has a section of its online portal dedicated to Offbeat tales, while the Associated Press has titled its weird news subsegment simply as Oddities.
Alternatively, each of your company newsletters could include a fantastical fact to get everyone in the office scratching their heads. For instance, did you know that both ketchup and Coca-Cola were originally sold as medicine? How about the fact that crows are able to hold grudges against humans because they have the ability to remember faces?
3. FAQs
- What Are Fun Things to Put in a Newsletter?
Dad jokes are almost always a winner, combining harmless humor with some truly terrible puns. Having said that, the easiest way to find out what works is to experiment, monitoring the results using data analysis. After all, it’s usually a fairly easy thing to change a newsletter template.
- What Makes a Good Internal Newsletter?
The best newsletters are a mixture of informative, engaging and digestible. Think about combining important announcements with more fun employee newsletter ideas to increase staff interaction with your newsletter.
- What Should Not Be Included in a Newsletter?
Avoid long articles, dull headlines and any images or stories that might cause embarrassment. Remember that even though this is an internal newsletter, it still needs to obey the usual rules about style and content if you want people to actually engage with it.
