
Here is our list of the best online lunch and learn ideas.
Online lunch and learn ideas are sessions where employees can learn more about different topics and skills. For example, time management, goal setting, or financial wellness. The purpose of these activities is to provide opportunities for employees to grow personally and professionally.
These ideas are similar to examples of online coffee break ideas, online leadership activities, and online morning meeting ideas.
This list includes:
- online lunch and learn ideas for work
- online lunch and learn topics
- online lunch and learn subjects
- online lunch and learn activities
Here we go!
List of online lunch and learn ideas.
Online lunch and learns are workshops, seminars, and courses on Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams. Here are lunch and learn ideas to help employees learn new skills.
1. Time management seminar
Time management is one of the most important skills that employees everywhere should master. This skill can help team members prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and avoid procrastination. Time management is one of the best online lunch and learn topics. At your time management seminar, give attendees tips and pointers on how to manage their time better.
We suggest setting aside a few minutes during your seminar to help employees organize their weeks using a weekly planner template. You can find planner templates online, including monthly, weekly, and daily spreads. Be sure to provide helpful tools and resources, such as planners, online calendars, and note-taking software.
2. Speed networking event
A speed networking event is one of the best online lunch and learn ideas for work. Like speed dating, speed networking allows participants to meet and interact with new coworkers. To host your speed networking event, split your Zoom meeting into several breakout rooms.
In each breakout room, pair one participant up with an employee from a different department. Be sure to give team members five minutes in each breakout room. Once the timer goes off, employees should move onto a new breakout room to meet a different employee. If you have a larger group, then you can do small groups instead of pairs in the breakout rooms. You can continue the exercise for at least 45 minutes. Employees can eat lunch together during the speed networking event, making it the perfect lunch and learn activity.
3. Mock presentations
We encourage you to host mock presentations if you want to help employees improve their public speaking skills. A mock presentation is an exercise where participants can practice presenting by speaking in front of an audience.
For this activity, assign different topics to each team member. We recommend allowing participants to speak about topics they are passionate about, such as hobbies, movies, or music. For example, if one team member has a passion for songwriting, they can give a presentation on composing a pop song. Be sure to give each presentation a three-minute limit to allow enough time for each member to speak.
Mock presentations can help team members sharpen their public speaking and presentation skills.
4. Goal-setting workshop
A goal-setting workshop is one of the most inspirational online lunch and learn activities.
Here are a few activities for your goal-setting lunch and learn workshop:
- Reflect on past achievements
- Create a vision board
- Make a bucket list
- Set SMART goals (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound)
- List actionable steps to achieve new goals
Teaching employees how to set specific, actionable goals is an excellent use of time during the lunch hour. We recommend following up with a second lunch and learn session a few months later to check in on team members’ progress with their goals.
5. Organization lessons
Exceptional organization skills are essential both in and outside of work. We suggest using 30 minutes to teach employees the importance of organization and different organizational practices.
A few topics to cover during your organization lessons can include:
- Scheduling a weekly calendar
- Organizing email inboxes
- Prioritizing key projects and tasks
- Creating a clean office space at home
- Scheduling social media posts
An organized environment can make it easier for employees to keep a methodical mindset. In addition, organization lessons can help team members get one step closer to being clutter-free.
6. Diversity and inclusion training course
A diversity and inclusion training course is a great lunch and learn activity to promote positive behaviors and attitudes among your team. Hosting a training session can help your employees become more aware of diversity and inclusion issues, such as bias and barriers.
Here are a few topics to cover in your training course:
- Cultural competency
- Inclusivity
- Unconscious bias
- Microaggressions
- Difficult conversations
- Allyship in online offices
Diversity and inclusion are crucial topics in which all team members should be well-versed. Therefore, we recommend hosting a required lunch and learn training session to educate employees on diversity-related issues.
7. Stress management webinar
Your team may appreciate learning about how to manage stress in the workplace. We recommend hosting a stress management webinar covering topics like strategies to overcome stress, time management tips, stress management at work, and stress management at home.
You should have an activity prepared to keep participants engaged during your seminar. For example, as part of your seminar, we recommend having a list of talking points ready.
Here are some discussion prompts:
- What stresses you out the most?
- How does your mood affect your stress?
- What is your happy place?
- What work task stresses you out the most?
- What activity helps you relax the most?
- Who or what makes you laugh?
- What is your favorite exercise?
- What is your go-to hobby?
- How would you use two extra hours in your day?
You can use a random choice generator website to distribute questions and prompts to employees. Online tools like Picker Wheel allow you to paste your questions into an interactive wheel. Then, each employee can spin the wheel to generate a random question for each attendee. This activity will help keep the conversation going while getting all team members involved.
This topic can be beneficial for remote workers since the signs of employee stress are often invisible to virtual managers, and telecommuters must do much of the heavy lifting of balancing their workloads.
8. Product demo session
If you are part of a sales team, then a product demo can be one of the most helpful online lunch and learn ideas for work. For your session, invite a member of your product team to demonstrate one of the company’s newest products. In addition, this employee should review key selling points, such as features and uses.
As your guest shares helpful information on the product, encourage employees to take notes and ask questions. Product demos are especially helpful for sales employees to become familiar with the products and services they sell to customers.
9. Benefits info session
Whether you have a few new hires or existing employees who need a refresher, your entire team will appreciate a crash course on company benefits.
These are a few specific topics you can cover in your info session:
- Medical, dental, and vision plans
- Paid time off
- 401(k)
- Flexible work schedules
- Tuition reimbursement
- Life insurance
Teaching new and existing employees about company benefits is a valuable and educational way to spend an afternoon.
10. Email etiquette training
If email is the most common method of communication among your team, then we recommend hosting a training course on email etiquette.
Here are a few essential topics and tutorials to cover in the session:
- Crafting professional subject lines
- Proper email formatting
- Proofreading and editing
- CCs and BCs
- Reply versus reply-all
- Inbox organization
As an activity, pair participants up so they can send test emails to each other. Be sure to remind employees to use the proper formatting and techniques in their test emails. This activity will allow attendees to put the information they have learned into action in the real world.
11. Password management training
If you are looking for effective and educational use of your employees’ time, then we recommend teaching your team about password management. Educating team members on cybersecurity and online safety practices, such as password management, can help companies prevent unauthorized access to employee accounts.
We suggest giving your team a demo of a password management system like Keeper. Like other online tools, Keeper allows users to store passwords and credentials at the enterprise level safely. These online resources can also help employees update passwords that have appeared in data breaches and leaks.
12. Relationship-building session
Building relationships and making connections at work is vital in creating a unified team. Using the lunch hour for a relationship-building session is a great way to get team members to mingle with each other.
We recommend hosting a blind date social activity as part of your relationship-building session. To conduct blind work dates, pair team members up randomly. Once you have your pairs, send each group into a separate breakout room where they can chat. This exercise aims to help team members get to know each other better.
Be sure to assign one to two moderators or hosts for your blind work date activity. These moderators should check on each breakout room, providing motivation or talking points for teams if needed.
13. Mental health webinar
Hosting a mental health webinar can help your employees develop a positive mindset. As part of your mental health webinar, we suggest taking your team through a guided mediation session.
Here are a few steps to facilitate a guided mediation lunch and learn:
- Choose a leader to guide the team through the session
- Find a meditation audio clip on YouTube
- Ask participants to choose a quiet and relaxing area to take the meeting
- Have the leader guide the team through the meditation session
- Make sure the team focuses on deep breathing and clearing the mind
Meditation is an excellent way for team members to eliminate negative thoughts and maintain a positive mindset at work.
14. Leadership skill development workshop
Lunch and learns are a great opportunity to develop essential skills, such as leadership. We suggest playing leadership icebreakers as part of your leadership skill development workshop. One of the most engaging games is one-word leadership.
To play the game, ask team members to answer the following questions in just one word:
- How would you describe your leadership style?
- What is the most negative trait that a leader can have?
- What is the most positive trait that a leader can have?
- What is most important to you as a leader?
- What is the best leadership style?
Leadership can be a tricky topic to navigate. This icebreaker helps to simplify the concept in a fun and engaging way.
15. Journaling session
We recommend a journaling session if you are looking for deep and insightful online lunch and learn activities. Journaling can help team members put their thoughts and feelings onto paper to communicate more clearly. For your journaling session, give employees 20 minutes of free writing time.
You can use these writing prompts as a starting point:
- Write about your top achievements of the past week.
- What is one project you need to accomplish this week?
- What are you thankful for at work?
- Are there any skills you would like to improve or develop?
- Describe your ideal day at work.
- Walk us through your first day on the team.
You can reserve the last ten minutes for a group discussion. During this time, team members can share their writing with the group. Be sure to encourage employees to move the conversation by sharing their thoughts, insights, and feedback with the group.
16. Personal branding workshop
One of the most popular online lunch and learn subjects is personal branding. A personal brand is how an employee defines themselves in a professional and online setting. Creating a personal brand takes a lot of effort, but doing so allows employees to stand apart from other candidates while leaving a positive impression.
LinkedIn is a great platform to express your brand. During your workshop, we suggest taking participants through all the steps toward updating their LinkedIn profile. Creating a bio, adding work experience, and sharing posts are key areas where users can express themselves on the platform.
Be sure to ask attendees to create a vision board on Google Slides or Microsoft Powerpoint. The vision board should contain images, quotes, and decor representing what your team member wants their brand to resemble. Creating a vision board is especially helpful in allowing participants to solidify their tone, content, and online persona.
17. Work-life balance seminar
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for all employees. We recommend hosting a recurring work-life balance seminar that covers different ways to enjoy a healthy work-life balance. These monthly lunch and learn sessions should cover employees’ activities in their free time.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Sports
- Knitting
- Cooking or baking
- Volunteering
- Painting
- Crafting
Each seminar should offer insights into potential hobbies that team members might find interesting. Taking up a new hobby can help boost employees’ moods as they maintain an optimal work-life balance. For example, employees can use their time away from work to hone their skills and work on their hobbies. Hosting work-life balance seminars is a great way to show your team that you are personally and professionally invested in them.
18. Financial health workshop
Giving your employees a crash course on financial health is a great way to spend the lunch hour.
For your financial health workshop, we suggest finding a speaker to talk about the following topics:
- Budgeting
- Saving money
- Debt management
- Passive income
- Financial goals
- Taxes
- Retirement funds
After your speaker has covered key information regarding financial health, give participants time to prepare their financial plans. We recommend finding a universal budgeting template online. Once you have a template outlining income versus expenses, reserve the last 15 minutes of your session for attendees to create personal budgets using the templates.
Conclusion
Online lunch and learn sessions are essential in employees’ personal and professional development. Through these workshops and seminars, team members can educate themselves on new topics and skills, such as mental wellness, financial health, and work-life balance. You can also use lunch and learn sessions to host fun team building activities like speed networking or leadership development.
Online lunch and learns allow employees to come together for skill development and education. These gatherings are also great for cultivating a culture of learning at your company.
Next, check out online fun Friday ideas and online wellness ideas for work.