Employee engagement thrives when people feel seen, connected, and proud of their work.
This article shows how companies like Cisco, BearingPoint, and Insperity use social walls to boost morale, share authentic stories, and safely collect user-generated content (UGC). You’ll learn ten practical ideas, each backed by real examples, that help hybrid and global teams feel part of something bigger.
Employee engagement is a great way to keep employees happy and involved with a company. You can even turn them into advocates for your business or brand. That, in turn, can help you attract new talent or make your brand more attractive to consumers. There are plenty of employee engagement ideas, and many of them involve social media and user-generated content in some way or another.
Employee engagement campaigns can help you with one or a combination of the following:
- Give back to your employees and have some fun
- Create a connection and bridge geographical distances
- Show others what your company is like
- Communicate your company culture and values
- Attract and recruit new talent
- And much more
Great content is at the heart of employee engagement
Employee engagement campaigns can be internal, external, or a combination of both. They can involve employees posting to their social media accounts with a specific hashtag or even “taking over” the company’s socials and posting there. Central to all of them is great content created by happy employees. A well-structured recognition program can further boost these campaigns by encouraging employees to share their successes and feel valued, which enhances engagement and promotes a positive workplace culture.
Whichever way content is collected, a social media wall can display and draw attention to the content created by everyone involved. A social wall can be embedded on a website, in a virtual event environment, or shown on a screen or digital signage device.
And when more privacy is needed, companies can even circumvent social media entirely by setting up a social wall with direct posts. The Direct Posts feature allows everyone to upload content directly to the social wall without having to post with a hashtag on social media first.
👉 Did you know that 85% of employees say they feel most motivated when internal communication is effective and transparent? If you’re looking for ways to engage employess, our 12 Months of Employee Engagement guide is a great place to start:
Let’s look at some ideas and examples of employee engagement done right.
Employee engagement doesn’t stop at internal communication. It extends to how potential candidates perceive your workplace culture. A social wall displaying authentic employee-generated content can become a living career story.
Example:
Austrian railway company ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) uses social media walls on its career website to highlight posts from real employees. Their hashtag-driven employer branding campaigns let potential applicants see what life at ÖBB looks like, from team celebrations to behind-the-scenes views of new train launches.
By featuring authentic employee stories, ÖBB makes its company culture tangible and attractive to job seekers. The content updates automatically, keeping the careers page vibrant without extra work from HR.
Another great example is ProSiebenSat1 elevating candidate experience with a social media feed on website. ProSiebenSat1’s newsroom social wall, powered by Walls.io, offers an immersive glimpse into the company’s vibrant work culture and daily life by aggregating content from their careers-focused Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok accounts. This perfectly branded integration ensures the social media feed blends seamlessly with the website, enhancing the candidate experience and strengthening the company’s employer brand.
Main benefits:
- Brings transparency to your employer brand
- Lets applicants connect emotionally with your company
- Reduces recruitment costs by increasing inbound interest
⭐ Related: How ÖBB Enriches Employer Branding Campaigns With Walls.io
Show your company culture through real employee stories.
Try a Walls.io social wall for your careers page—privacy-ready, accessible, and easy to embed.
2. Connect onsite and remote teams during internal events
When employees are spread across offices or time zones, creating a unified experience at company events is key. A social wall can turn hybrid or multi-location gatherings into one shared celebration.
Example:
United States HR solutions provider Insperity used Walls.io to connect 4,500 employees across 18 physical locations and virtual audiences during their internal events. Employees could share posts and selfies either on social media or using a QR code to post directly to the social wall via Direct Posts; no social media accounts were required.
The result was a vibrant feed filled with photos, laughter, and team pride, all displayed on screens at each office. This hybrid engagement approach made everyone feel part of the same celebration, no matter where they were.
Main benefits:
- Boosts participation across hybrid or remote teams
- Creates a unified visual story of company culture
- Encourages safe, private sharing with moderation controls
⭐ Related: Insperity Internal Event Engagement Case Study
Engage your audience at internal events with a social wall.
3. Unite global teams through year-round campaigns
Engagement isn’t just for single events—it should pulse throughout the year. Global companies can use social walls as ongoing platforms to celebrate culture, share achievements, and connect offices worldwide. If you have teams relocating or onboarding in other countries, offering optional language support (for example, letting employees learn German online) can make cross-office collaboration feel smoother and more inclusive. The same global-team logistics extend to hardware, too — companies use IT procurement experts like Tequipy to source and ship laptops and equipment to employees relocating or onboarding across borders.
Example:
Sandvik Coromant, a manufacturing company with employees in 150+ countries, uses Walls.io to run creative campaigns like an Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest and International Women’s Day celebrations.
Employees upload photos through Direct Posts and view them on screens across offices, fostering a sense of unity across time zones and cultures.
Walls.io became Sandvik’s go-to tool for visual storytelling, helping the brand showcase its people, not just its products.
Main benefits:
- Connects global teams with shared campaigns
- Strengthens company culture through creative participation
- Encourages consistent, informal communication year-round
⭐ Related: Sandvik Coromant Employee Engagement Case Study
Create your year-round employee engagement hub.
Celebrate global culture and keep connections strong, from product launches to holiday fun.
4. Show your employees some love
Yes, a little bit of appreciation won’t make up for terrible working conditions and low salaries. However, if your company is already doing the basic things, like payroll processing, right (which I hope you are), why not show your employees some love by publicly praising them? And as teams grow, HR benefits management can make enrollment and benefits changes easier for employees—so appreciation and engagement initiatives are supported by a solid HR foundation.
Show off their work, celebrate their achievements, create a social wall of fame to announce and celebrate professional achievements, promotions, etc.
Example:
A great example is the German bank Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken, who have set up a social wall to celebrate their trainees’ achievements.
The wall collects content via a hashtag and also gives some advice for the application process. It doesn’t just make the featured trainees feel great but also encourages more young adults to join the programme.
Main benefits:
- Makes featured employees feel good
- A boost for your image
- Helps you attract and recruit more of the right talent
⭐Related: Employer Branding Social Media
Show your employees some love using a social wall.
Part of engaging your employees is trusting them to bring their ideas and thoughts to the table and not just letting them but asking them to share them with the world. Allow them the space to communicate their ideas and what they care strongly about.
Example:
Capgemini created a social media series called “Her Story,” asking female employees to share their thoughts and stories.
Asking employees to tell their stories in their words is way better and more effective than a company tooting their own horn. Furthermore, you allow your employees to use their talents, knowledge, and skills to establish themselves as thought leaders.
In the case of Capgemini, it also communicates the company’s values and shows that gender equality matters to them. It also has an effect on recruiting, as it might encourage a more diverse set of people to apply for jobs there because “if you can see her, you can be her”.
Main benefits:
- Create thought leaders within the company
- Communicate company culture and values
- Helps with recruiting
Let employees share their thoughts on a social wall.
6. Create a hashtag campaign for your employees
Similar to external hashtag campaigns, which are primarily for your customers or users, you can also create internal hashtag campaigns aimed at your employees. They’re a great option to break up the monotony and add something fun and engaging to everyday company life. It brings employees together and fosters communication.
Example:
Wholesaler METRO created a two-phase social media campaign to engage both employees and its main customer base, which is predominantly made up of independent business owners. The campaign initially encouraged METRO employees to take selfies (so-called #ownies) with METRO customers. They were posted on internal channels, and employees could win a reward. In the next step, the campaign went public, encouraging METRO’s customers to post selfies with their customers to social media. The content was collected with a hashtag, and incentives were offered.
A campaign like that works on multiple levels. It engages both employees and customers and, ultimately, their customers as well. It sparks conversations and creates a bond between employees and customers. Once the campaign is in its public phase, it also boosts the company image and has a chance to create buzz.
Main benefits:
- Engages both employees and customers
- Creates bonds between the company, employees, and customers
- Creates a positive brand image and promotes the company as a workplace
⭐Related: Hashtag Campaign for Employees by METRO
Create a hashtag campaign for your employees and collect authentic content that helps promote your company as a great workplace.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is definitely something to show off and inspire others with, but it’s also a lovely way for employees across borders to engage and communicate what each team has been doing.
Example:
International consulting company BearingPoint organized an internal CSR campaign called 10 Days of Caring. BearingPoint teams around the world picked activities to give back to the community and documented them in social media posts. A hashtag brought all their content together on a social media wall, which was displayed in BearingPoint offices everywhere.
Read up on BearingPoint’s CSR campaign to learn more!
Main benefits:
- Create a connection between employees in different teams across the globe
- Show accountability for the meaningful work you’re doing
- Inspire others to give back as well
Create a corporate social responsibility hub.
9. Create an employee advocacy program
Employee advocates are employees who will actively promote your company or brand to the public. It’s a chance for your brand to connect with people you as a company may not be able to reach as well with your own communication efforts as a brand. By using a Deel discount to manage and reward a global team, you can incentivise this advocacy, building trust through authentic employee voices rather than company-led promotion.
Just like consumers trust other consumers and user-generated content, they will also put more trust in employees speaking well about a company rather than the company tooting its own horn.
Example:
German insurance provider LV 1871 launched an innovative corporate influencer program. About 30 employees who volunteered for the position now have the task of presenting the company to the outside world. They post on social media using a set hashtag, and their posts are collected on a social wall together with the company’s social posts.
The wall is embedded on the company’s website and displayed prominently at headquarters, where it draws attention from employees. You can find out more about LV 1871’s corporate influencer program in our blog post.
At the end of the day, a corporate influencer program is merely a more organized and formalized version of employee advocacy. Employee advocacy can bring fantastic results, both internally and externally. It boosts a brand’s image, creates trust, and it gives employees agency.
Main benefits:
- Create trust through employee social proof
- Attract customers
- Attract new talent
Turn your employees into brand advocates with a social wall.
Social walls are often embedded on websites, but you can also display them on screens in a physical space. Sometimes, people use TV screens; other times, they put social walls on large LED screens. However big the screen, it turns a social wall into a social hub that draws attention and foot traffic.
Example:
Case Western Reserve University has two social media walls that are shown on a large screen at a central building on campus. It’s part of a two-story, multi-touch video wall that displays various media and informational content.
Students, staff, and visitors can post to the wall, and people who book the space for events or conferences can also book the social wall to have their hashtag added to it for the duration of the event. Learn more about CWRU’s massive multimedia display!
Yes, CWRU is a university using a social wall on campus. But there’s no reason a company can’t set up a large social wall in their lobby with similar goals.
Main benefits:
- Foster a sense of community
- Create a hub that transcends the offline-online divide
- Immediately show visitors and potential students/employees who you are
A quick warning about employee engagement ideas
Here are a few caveats about using these employee engagement ideas that look perfect and tempting on paper. You probably don’t need to hear these warnings, but I just want to make sure we’ve talked about it.
Keep the momentum going
Employee engagement thrives when it’s continuous. Combine the ten ideas above to build a holistic program that celebrates people, connects teams, and proudly shows the world what makes your company special.
🎯 Start now: Create your employee engagement wall and turn your team’s daily moments into stories that inspire, internally and externally.
First, fix your culture
Before you take a deep dive into employee engagement, make sure your company has a culture that employees actually want to engage with. If they’re not happy, they won’t want to promote your brand to the outside world, whether that’s to customers or potential talent.
Don’t force it
Employee engagement should never be foisted upon anyone. Authenticity is one of the critical drivers of employee engagement, and forcing participation undermines it. Whatever your campaign is, don’t make it compulsory to take part in it.
Look for volunteers; look towards the people who are natural leaders. Once they are on board, it’s likely others will follow.
Be clear about what you want
Be clear and concise about what kind of content your campaign could make use of, and communicate why you’re doing it and what the benefits are for the company and for the employees. Brief managers and let them set good examples.
Make it fun
Make employee engagement fun and give back. Organize competitions and raffles to encourage people to take part. Regularly showcase or highlight interesting content created by employees. And, most of all, let people enjoy this communicative aspect of working together, and make sure you enjoy it as well.
Engage your employees and let them tell your company’s story.
1. How can social media improve employee engagement?
Social media helps employees feel more connected to their company by allowing them a space to share stories, achievements, and team moments. When this content appears on a social wall, it builds community, encourages recognition, and shows authentic company culture, both internally and externally.
2. What is a social wall, and how does it work for internal communications?
A social wall collects posts, photos, and videos from multiple social platforms—or through direct uploads—and displays them in one place. For internal use, teams can share updates, celebrate wins, and interact on a secure, moderated wall that can be embedded on intranets, digital signage, or event screens.
3. Why should companies use employee-generated content for engagement?
Employee-generated content (EGC) feels genuine and relatable. It gives employees ownership of your brand story and helps potential hires see the real people behind the company. EGC also performs better than branded posts in terms of reach and trust.
4. How can Walls.io help increase employee engagement?
Walls.io provides a GDPR-compliant platform for collecting and displaying employee and company content. Features like Direct Posts, moderation tools, and custom branding make it ideal for campaigns, internal events, and hybrid team communication—without privacy risks.
5. Can I use a social wall at private events or campaigns?
Yes. With Walls.io’s Direct Posts feature, employees can upload photos and messages directly to the wall without posting publicly on social media. This makes it perfect for internal or hybrid company events where privacy and moderation are essential.
6. How do social walls support hybrid and remote teams?
A social wall bridges distance by creating one shared digital space for everyone to post and interact in real time. Whether displayed on screens in multiple offices or integrated into virtual event platforms, it helps hybrid teams feel connected and part of the same story.
7. How do social media walls support employer branding?
A social media wall on your career site or company intranet showcases authentic moments from employees—photos, testimonials, and celebrations—that tell your culture story better than stock images ever could. This helps attract and retain talent by giving candidates a real sense of belonging before they apply.
8. What are the privacy and compliance considerations?
Walls.io is fully GDPR-compliant, offering content moderation, consent workflows, and the option to bypass public social networks with Direct Posts. This ensures companies can safely collect and display content while protecting employee data and reputation.
9. How can I start an employee engagement campaign using Walls.io?
You can launch a campaign in minutes:
- Create a Walls.io account
- Choose your social sources or enable Direct Posts
- Customize your wall design
- Share the link or embed it in your intranet, event platform, or digital signage.
👉 Start your free Walls.io trial and bring your employee engagement strategy to life.