Editor’s note
Global employee engagement is going the wrong way.
Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace data shows that global engagement fell from 23% in 2023 to 21% in 2024, only the second decline in the past 12 years. That drop in engagement is estimated to cost the world economy around $438 billion in lost productivity.
Whether you call it quiet quitting, loud quitting, or the newer quiet cracking trend, the underlying problem is the same: people feel disconnected from their work and their teams.
For HR leaders, that turns one question into a priority:
How do we keep people engaged and loyal in a remote or hybrid environment?
In 2026, the answer is rarely “more policies” or “another survey.” The teams that win on retention are the ones that design regular, purposeful employee engagement activities, especially for remote and hybrid employees, and treat them as part of their talent and employer branding strategy, not just “HR fun.”
That’s where Confetti comes in.
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You can explore Confetti’s experiences and book events for your team here:
👉 Browse Confetti experiences via HR Jobs Hub
Table of Contents
Who (or What) Is Confetti?
Confetti is the leading all-in-one platform for booking virtual and hybrid team building experiences. Instead of acting like a slow, custom event agency, Confetti works as a tech-enabled marketplace of curated experiences that HR teams can browse and book in just a few clicks.
A few key facts:
Confetti offers hundreds of team-building, DEI, wellness, and learning experiences for virtual, hybrid, and in-person teams.
Experiences are professionally hosted and designed for remote-first teams.
You can plan many events in under 10 minutes, entirely online, with transparent flat-rate pricing (no “contact sales for a quote” for most experiences).
Confetti is trusted by companies like Google, Amazon, Shopify, Salesforce and many more as a partner for team building and culture programs.
Confetti vs traditional agencies (at a glance)
Traditional event agencies | Confetti | |
|---|---|---|
Booking speed | Days or weeks of back-and-forth emails | Online booking in minutes |
Catalog | Limited vendors & experiences | Hundreds of vetted virtual & hybrid experiences |
Pricing | Custom quotes, hidden fees | Transparent, flat-rate pricing on the website |
Fit for remote teams | Often adapted from in-person events | Designed for remote and hybrid teams from day one |
For HR Jobs Hub readers, HR leaders, Talent Acquisition, and HR tech buyers in India and globally, Confetti is effectively a plug-and-play engagement stack for your remote and hybrid culture.
🎁 HR Jobs Hub x Confetti
You can explore Confetti’s collections and book experiences for your team via our partner link:
👉 Plan virtual engagement with Confetti
Why Virtual Engagement Is a Retention Strategy Now
Three simple truths for 2026:
Engagement is falling. Global engagement dropping from 23% to 21% means only about one in five employees feels truly engaged in their work.
Hybrid and remote work are normal. Employees expect flexibility, but flexible schedules without connection can turn into isolation and eventual turnover.
Moments of connection drive loyalty. Employees stay where they feel seen, recognized, and part of something… not just where they get a payslip.
Virtual employee engagement activities are no longer “nice extras.” When they are:
Recurring (monthly or quarterly, not once a year)
Purposeful (onboarding, DEI, wellbeing, recognition)
Well-designed (hosted, inclusive, and accessible across time zones)
…they become one of the most practical tools HR has to reduce churn, improve employer branding, and keep culture alive in distributed teams.
The 4 Engagement Archetypes Every HR Team Should Design For
The best HR leaders do not start with, “What’s a fun activity?”
They start with: “What business problem are we solving?”
Below is a simple framework you can use to map engagement activities to retention goals
Engagement Goal | Activity Type | Example With Confetti |
|---|---|---|
Onboarding & connection | Icebreakers, scavenger hunts, team games | Virtual escape room + scavenger hunt combos, onboarding collections |
Culture & DEI | History & culture trivia, storytelling, talks | Black History & Culture Trivia, DEI collections |
Burnout & wellbeing | Mental health workshops, meditation, wellness | Workplace mental health & wellness experiences |
Recognition & milestones | Mixology, cooking classes, celebration experiences | Team-building classes, kits & celebration collections |
Let’s go through each archetype in more detail.
1. The Onboarding Connector: Fix Remote Isolation from Day One
Pain point: Remote hires often say:
“I joined the company, but it still doesn’t feel like I’ve joined the team.”
They meet a manager and a buddy, but they do not get the informal “hallway collisions” that in-office employees take for granted.
Goal: Make onboarding an experience that builds social connections, not just logins and policies.
Best virtual onboarding activities
Virtual escape rooms with scavenger elements
Confetti offers virtual escape room experiences that combine an online escape room and a scavenger hunt. Teams solve puzzles, hunt for clues, and talk constantly, which cuts through awkwardness in a fun way.Game-show style icebreakers (like Coworker Clash)
Confetti’s Coworker Clash transports your team to a virtual game show where they answer survey-style questions and learn surprising facts about each other.
How HR can implement this
Schedule an onboarding Confetti event for every new hire cohort within their first 1–2 weeks.
Mix attendees across teams and locations, so new hires meet people beyond their immediate function.
Give managers 2–3 follow-up prompts like:
“Ask your new hire what their favourite moment from the game was.”
“Reference a funny scavenger clue in your next 1:1.”
Engagement impact:
Onboarding activities like these help new hires feel connected faster, which increases the chances they stay after the first 6–12 months.
2. The Culture Builder: Make DEI Experiential, Not Just Policy
Many companies talk about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), but the only visible artifact is a slide deck or policy page.
Goal: Turn DEI into visible, recurring experiences that show employees you are serious about inclusion.
Confetti has a dedicated DEI collection with experiences like Black History & Culture, Pride-themed events, AAPI history and more. These are designed as cultural and educational experiences to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in a fun, accessible format.
Best DEI-focused engagement activities
Cultural trivia & history game shows
DEI trivia or Jeopardy-style games turn learning about history and culture into a shared experience rather than a lecture.Storytelling and discussion sessions
Many Confetti DEI events bring in expert hosts to share context, stories, and lived experiences in a way that invites reflection and questions.
How HR can implement this
Build a DEI calendar with 3–4 Confetti events per year (e.g., Black History Month, Pride Month, Women’s History Month, regional festivals).
Pair each event with:
A short intro from leadership or your ERG.
One micro action (e.g., a reading list, ERG sign-up, or a follow-up discussion channel).
Engagement impact:
When employees see their identities, cultures, and histories reflected in company events, they feel seen and respected, a core driver of long-term loyalty.
3. The Burnout Breaker: Wellness as Risk Management
Burnout is not just a personal issue; it is a business risk. Research across multiple sources shows rising burnout and stress for employees and managers in distributed teams.
Goal: Embed wellbeing into your engagement strategy, not treat it as a one-off HR campaign.
Confetti runs virtual wellness activities specifically designed to promote healthier, happier teams, including stress relief, meditation, and holistic health workshops.
Best wellness engagement activities
Mental health and stress workshops
Confetti’s workplace mental health experiences teach practical tools for managing stress, boundary setting, and resilience in modern work.Guided meditation & wellness classes
Experiences like sound bath meditation and mindfulness classes are designed for remote teams that need a structured pause.
How HR can implement this
Add a quarterly wellness event to your HR calendar, ideally aligned to peak stress periods (e.g. performance reviews, year-end close).
Invite managers explicitly and frame participation as part of their leadership role, not just “something for employees.”
Combine wellness events with small behaviour nudges (e.g. no-meeting blocks, “deep work” days).
Engagement impact:
Wellness activities communicate a simple but powerful message:
“We see the pressure you’re under — and we’re willing to invest time and budget to help.”
That message has a compounding effect on trust, engagement, and retention.
4. The Milestone Celebrator: Recognition That Actually Feels Like Recognition
Recognition is one of the strongest drivers of engagement. But in remote environments, it often gets reduced to emojis, Slack shout-outs or a generic e-voucher.
Goal: Mark important moments with shared experiences that feel personal, memorable, and social.
Confetti’s catalog includes cooking classes, mixology classes, wellness elixir making, and other experiences with kits shipped to employees. These are perfect for celebrating team or individual milestones.
Best recognition & celebration activities
Project completion celebrations
Celebrate a big launch with a team activity like a sushi-making class, cocktail workshop, or pizza-making night. The team shares a fun, live experience and anchors a positive memory to that project.Anniversary or promotion experiences
For 1-year anniversaries or promotions, pair a personal note from leadership with a small-group Confetti event attended by the team.
How HR can implement this
Define two or three milestone types that always come with an experience:
1-year work anniversary
Completion of major cross-functional projects
Company or team birthday
Use Confetti’s booking platform so HR is not manually coordinating kits, hosts, and time zones.
Recognition impact:
Experiences create stories. Weeks or months later, employees still talk about “that hilarious cooking class” or “that Pride Month trivia game,” not the digital voucher they received.
Why Experiences Beat Swag (and Sometimes Even Cash)
Traditional recognition often looks like gift cards, mugs, or small bonuses that disappear into everyday life.
Shared experiences are different:
Retention: Teams that bond regularly through structured experiences report stronger trust and a higher sense of belonging, both are strong predictors of lower turnover.
Recognition: A memorable event with colleagues is discussed, remembered, and associated with the company. Small cash bonuses are appreciated, but they rarely become part of the team’s story.
HR-friendly operations: Confetti is built for HR teams with centralized billing and enterprise-ready processes, so you are not trying to manage dozens of small vendors across regions.
From an ROI perspective, a well-timed Confetti event can cost less than a spot bonus per person but drive far more lasting engagement.
A Simple 90-Day Virtual Engagement Plan
If you’re not sure where to start, here is a practical 90-day sequence you can adapt.
Month 1 – Onboarding & Culture
Week 1–2: Run a Confetti virtual team-building event (escape room / Coworker Clash) for all new joiners that month.
Week 3–4: Host one DEI experience aligned to your global or regional calendar.
Month 2 – Wellness & Check-Ins
Week 2: Hold a virtual mental health or stress-management workshop.
Week 4: Run a meditation or wellness class to close the month.
Month 3 – Recognition & Celebration
Tie a Confetti celebration to:
A major project launch
End of a hiring sprint
A company milestone
After each event, send a 2-question pulse survey on:
“Did this activity help you feel more connected to your team?”
“Would you like to do similar experiences again?”
Over time, this gives you evidence to show in QBRs and leadership meetings: engagement activities → participation → sentiment → retention.
Final Thoughts: Connection Is the New Retention Advantage
Global engagement has dropped to 21%, and trends like quiet quitting and quiet cracking show that disengagement is no longer an edge case — it is common.
You cannot fix that with:
One annual offsite
One “Employee Appreciation Day” post on social
Or one HR email campaign
You fix it by designing deliberate, recurring virtual engagement moments that:
Welcome new hires properly
Reflect and celebrate your people’s identities
Protect your teams from burnout
Recognize hard work in a way that actually feels human
Confetti gives HR teams a ready-made toolkit to do this without becoming full-time event planners.
🎁 HR Jobs Hub x Confetti Partner Perk
Ready to turn engagement into a retention strategy?
👉 Explore Confetti’s virtual, hybrid, and in-person experiences via HR Jobs Hub
Start with one goal — onboarding, DEI, wellness, or recognition, and book one event in the next 30 days. Watch how quickly your team starts to talk about work in a different way.
In 2026, retention follows connection. And connection is something you can design.
Until next time,
Kay, HR Jobs Hub