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Admit it; it feels great when your manager appreciates you for all the hard work and time you put in to achieve a target. The question is, how do managers appreciate a remote, distributed team? The answer is virtual employee appreciation ideas.
Expressing appreciation for what employees achieve, has always been central to employee engagement. After all, you’re renting their time and skills to actualize your business goals. And when they succeed in meeting and exceeding your expectations, it's only fair that they get the credit for making it happen.
That being said, remote workers struggle to make their presence felt, and their contributions known. When companies do not prioritize the implementation of a virtual recognition board, they wind up losing high-performers, who will walk out the door, taking their skills with them.
I always make it a point to let the remote team I’m managing and working with, know what they’re getting right. We often take breaks from work with team building puzzles, or just a good old-fashioned group call where we go over the numbers and performance.
Seeing the difference these conversations make inspired me to dedicate a post to virtual employee appreciation ideas for those in remote workspaces, so here goes!
1. What is virtual appreciation?
Virtual appreciation refers to events and activities that a business conducts online to recognize the contributions made by their remote workforce. According to Gallup, a recognition-rich culture starts from the top. Employees look for meaningful recognition from the managers above them who they directly report to.
Interestingly, 85% of employees are satisfied with a simple ‘thank you’ for their efforts. This simple acknowledgment proves that expressing gratitude strengthens engagement and employee retention.
Remote work opens you to a global talent market, meaning that your workforce composition can be diverse from both a cultural and contractual perspective. The one thing that brings people together is recognition for a job well done.
Virtual employee appreciation ideas help you build a rapport with such employees. Publicizing employee appreciation for remote workers in particular, includes everyone on the team. It lets them know what the criteria for recognition is, and enables them to self-improve. Implementing virtual team recognition ideas help prevent instances of managers giving employees preferential treatment, or being biased in their assessment of an employee’s work, as might be the case if some workers are passed up for promotions and others are promoted quietly and privately without the rest of the team knowing why.
2. Why does employee recognition matter?
Employee recognition is a $46 billion dollar market. In fact, organizations that invest in employee recognition programs report 22% higher profit margins.
It's clear why.
Both formal and informal recognition tells employees that they are valuable. It encourages them to produce better work consistently. This in turn, improves financial outcomes for the business. Performance-based employee recognition encourages staff to keep up with the good work. It also acts as the catalyst for the others to follow suit and modify their approach or mindset to be next in line for consideration. Implementing virtual recognition ideas for distributed teams conveys to the workforce that the management is taking notice of who all are competent and putting in the efforts required versus those employees who just show up to work.
3. How do you celebrate your work anniversary virtually?
Celebrating an employee’s virtual work anniversary is one of the best virtual employee appreciation ideas. Rule Number One- maintain employee records indicating when they joined you, the department they belong to and how long they’ve been working for your firm.You’ll never miss to wish someone who has a work anniversary coming up if you modify your settings for calendar reminders. Better yet, surprise them during a scheduled call by wishing them on it. You can also prepare a small speech dedicated to thanking those who have remained with the organization the longest and encourage them to also say a few words before wrapping up the call!
Read more thoughtful work anniversary ideas and gifting options
4. Remote Employee Appreciation Day
Just because the workforce is remote is no excuse not to celebrate it this year. Employee appreciation day usually falls in the first week of March, and this year in 2021 it's on March 5th. Employee appreciation day is an opportunity for you to try out a few virtual employee appreciation ideas and reward your employees.
You can carry out a number of virtual team recognition ideas for remote teams in a variety of creative ways! Remember to acknowledge efforts in writing to support what you say to your employees verbally. Substantiate the recognition by specifying improvements, be it in attitude, presentation, skills sharing or the acquisition, mastery and utilization of skills.
5. How do you celebrate remote employee appreciation day virtually?
You can plan a remote employee appreciation day ahead by collecting feedback from different departments for a list of achievements. Map them by employee profile and department. Mention in a group channel the virtual conference platform, the time and date this meeting will take place. Schedule email invitations to ensure everyone attends. In the next step, you can then determine and allocate the budget for a raise, promotion, and even gift boxing, complimentary vouchers and time-offs. Such measures can be applied in line with the employee’s seniority, reliability, and association with the firm. This activity can be conducted regularly as one of the recognition ideas for virtual teams.
In the actual meet-up, start with the purpose of the call and give virtual kudos to the team as a whole. Go through the names and rewards systematically and include a speaking time allowance to let everyone express how they feel. The questions to ask yourself as you plan virtual appreciation day are:
- What does your company culture value the most?
- Which personal attributes merit being rewarded?
- What sets the bar for operational success and business performance? .
Keeping these questions in mind makes it easier to pick out well-performing employees who embody and personify your company culture.
Read more on how to build an effective work culture
6. Virtual employee appreciation day events
The itinerary for virtual employee appreciation day events includes a speech commemorating the day, announcing the virtual appreciation activities you and your employees will be participating in, and closing with a moment to convey how important each and every individual is to the company. A few virtual employee appreciation ideas include:
6.1 Speakathon
Speakathons are a little unconventional but are nevertheless a great way to get your teams to open up. They are timed speaking events that discuss a selection of topics, ranging from a cause, trend, or hobby that interests employees. Those who wish to participate can apply and prepare a presentation or speech. Such engagements can happen during a time that works for all in order for them to attend.
6.2 On-demand podcasts
If the idea of public speaking is too overwhelming for some of your virtual employees, consider creating a webinar or podcast playlist that they can listen to on-demand. Brownie points if the topic also doubles up as means to pick up new knowledge!
Learn about ways to build team morale
6.3 Pet Project
If any of your employees have pets, encourage a bring-your-pet-to-work day remotely where they can show their pet to coworkers! Caring for a pet is shown to lower stress, enforce routine and boost your mood.
6.4 Poster designing
Conduct a poster designing contest using tools (anything from the rudimentary Paint program to Canva!). The most creative design can be used as a prize or award for future contests!
6.5 Virtual cookoff
Make brunch or other meal times interesting with a virtual cookoff. Either set a dish for the teams to try recreating and sampling, or have teams cook a specialty. They can share recipes and instructions and have someone else on the team try making it. Such contests help your team bond and appreciate a different culture or tradition!
Learn how to host your own virtual cook-off
7. The best practices for virtual employee recognition
There are two types of motivation that push employees to do well and to maintain that status. These are:
Intrinsic
Intrinsic motivation refers to a virtual employee’s inner ambition. Factors that add to intrinsic motivation include one’s ability to put their expertise to effective use. Hence, it is crucial that managers delegate or assign tasks, functions, employee appreciation activities and projects to employees that offer them opportunities to learn and diversify their knowledge. At the very least, the work should harness their current skills set.
And
Extrinsic
Extrinsic motivation refers to the work environment and supports extended to the employees to enable them to grow. Rewards programs such as salary hikes, performance bonuses, job promotions, and professional development also fall under extrinsic motivators.
Extrinsic motivation gives career progression the visibility needed to fuel enthusiasm for the job. Put simply, when employees know how they can grow with the organization, they are more likely to give their best consistently.
Learn about ways to recognize your remote employees
The following virtual recognition practices can help you support and inspire your remote employees:
7.1 Define the recognition criteria
Structure the rewards and recognition framework in order to define the parameters for merit. It can be around the execution of work responsibilities, being proactive and showing initiative, problem-solving skills, and the effort and dedication to completing work within the constraints of deadlines and priorities.
7.2 Democratize the process
Create a poll, questionnaire, or survey with questions pertaining to the rewards that your employees would appreciate and get the most out of. The feedback would help you tailor the rewards around what would make your employees happy to be recognized. It can be monetized (such as a pay hike or bonus), or incentivized (such as awards). You can also document a policy for complimentary time offs and when they are applicable, such as birthdays, compensation for overtime, etc.
7.3 Equal Footing
All employees should be regarded impartially in work evaluation. This is where documenting the performance metrics comes in handy. The path to progress should be visible to employees by aligning growth opportunities to the relevance of their present roles.
And this has to be more deliberately performed in an office less culture due to geographic barriers.
7.4 Time-bound opportunities
It should be clear to virtual employees that rewards and recognition will not be a one-off event, and that there will be opportunities down the line that they will be considered for.
7.5 Verbalize gratitude
Gratitude is free, and can be expressed as and when appropriate. Be it in a group call, daily stand up, weekly check-in or one-on-ones, thanking an employee and praising them for a job well done boosts morale and validates their efforts.
The feeling of employee appreciation for remote workers is what they’ll remember when they unplug from work.
Learn more about virtual thank yous
7.6 Praise publicly, criticize privately
A mistake some managers make is to only remember employees when they want someone to blame and hold them accountable. Never put down team members in public and subject them to criticism with everyone listening. As important as constructive criticism is,it has to be contextual and in-private to give the employee the chance to rectify them. And when they get it right after a few tries, praise them to let them know they are on the right track.
7.7 Read the social cues
Observe how your virtual employees respond to the virtual team recognition ideas. Some prefer to be praised verbally while others prefer it in writing to avoid being put on the spot. You can take notes from social and visual cues to see which medium of communication individuals respond to, and accordingly plan how you convey your admiration and appreciation for them.
7.8 Gamify appreciation
This is one of the creative and exciting virtual employee appreciation ideas. Hold contests that test how team members work and think. Announce prizes for winners and runner-ups to make things interesting. It can be a custom trophy, certificate, gift or food coupons, or something personalized such as a laptop decal or coffee mug. It gives employees something to look forward to and engages them.
7.9 Social recognition
A high-performing virtual employee can be recognized on social media networks such as a LinkedIn post. It raises their social profile and makes their contributions more prominent for the business community.
Here are some more ways to recognize your employees
7.10 Buddy and reverse mentoring
Programs such as buddying up and reverse mentoring can not only bring down communication barriers but also create a facility for managers to help unhappy workers. In fact, growth engineering reported that having just one close connection in the workplace makes employees 50% happier. And happy employees are more productive, communicative and engaged.
These practices build morale and give visibility into what both the remote employer and employee expects. In the next section, I’ll go into a few creative virtual recognition ideas to start you off on appreciating your remote staff!
Learn more about reverse mentoring
8. 20 Creative employee recognition ideas
8.1 Celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries
Work anniversaries and birthdays are landmark days in an employee’s life, and is cause for celebration. Simple mails that you can automate and send out and group chat announcements are measures that show you remember. You can even give virtual employees the option to take the day off or work shorter, flex hours.
Here are some great ideas on celebrating work anniversaries
8.2 Send a care package
A curated or custom-built care package is an excellent way to recognize your staff for hard work after completing a big project, celebrating a milestone, hitting a sales incentive, or for simply working hard. The team at Caroo puts together care packages with all sorts of themes and include healthy snacks, corporate gifts, branded swag, and sweet treats. This kind of gift is also easy to order, send, and ship straight to remote employees who will find this token of recognition on their doorstep.
Check out some of these care package ideas to get some inspiration.
8.3 Host virtual parties
Who doesn’t love parties held in their honor? You can recreate the party atmosphere by having everyone dress up and have snacks and gift allowances that can be sent over before the date of the actual party. It's also great fun unwrapping things on camera and showing the other on call what the gift item was.
8.4 Wall of Fame
A wall of fame can be on a whiteboard tool where the person’s name, picture, department, and reason for going up on the wall are listed. In remote working offices, it is a virtual recognition board that is meant to appreciate top performing employees. The tool administrator can moderate what goes into the wall and add employees of the month as and when appropriate.
8.5 Dedicate a website page on the team
You can give visibility to the team by including a brief writeup about them (with their consent) on the “team” page of your company website. Record a reel of your teams working together, giving individuals the option to voiceover their parts or be featured in a ‘why work for us?’’ segment. Visitors to a website want to see faces and read about experiences, and such measures boost the credibility of your company. You can even attract prospective job applicants who are interested in being part of the team and want to know how the present work culture and team composition is before applying. Such teasers provide a glimpse of the company's values.
8.6 Conduct virtual contests
Virtual contests are fun for virtual teams to participate in while challenging them. For example, you can do trivia hour with questions about your company, and whoever gets most or all answers right goes up on the wall of fame or the gratitude channel. Other examples of virtual contests include puzzles with a time limit, online board games, and sports such as mini Carrom or snooker. Such activities as virtual recognition ideas pump up employees and help them to come out of a productivity slump.
Here are 40+ ideas on team engagement activities and games
8.7 Merch giveaways
This virtual recognition idea can get two birds with one stone. Announcing giveaways boost your company’s presence and prominence on social media while recognizing and appreciating employees. You can send gift mystery boxes or self-care packages to employees who in turn can share pictures and unboxing videos with their followers and friends. This directs more social media users to your business.
8.8 Social media shoutouts
You can write out a social media post chronicling the employee’s journey on either professional networks like LinkedIn or microblogs like Twitter. Social media shoutouts are a type of virtual kudos where everyone in your and your employees’ network sees the post and interacts with it. These interactions are measurable through social analytics tools indicating the traction the post gets. The employee of honor can even share the update on their timeline and increase the number of impressions, or retweets.
8.9 Custom vouchers and gift boxes
Another great way is to present employees with their favorite brand vouchers or coupons using a unified employee engagement software that does all the hard work for you. Not only can it be used to deliver the rewards or gifts straight into their inboxes, but also offer a public platform where employees can be acknowledged among peers and colleagues to further boost their morale. Sorry, I was on Mute offers one such integrated platform that can be used to acknowledge and reward excellent work or contributions at an individual or team level across your organization. Make accurate data-driven decisions based on the in-depth reports and analytical information that this software provides to create customized rewards and recognitions. You can then take it one step further and align these with your company mission and value system to create a dynamic performance recognition centre.
8.10 Custom vouchers and gift boxes
This virtual recognition idea depends on the team size and the budget you’re willing to set aside for gifting options. Be realistic about how much you’re willing to spend on wellness packages or vouchers. You can take personal preferences into account and put together an assortment of things that employees will like and use. If gift boxes are impractical against the workforce strength, you can instead email vouchers to e-commerce stores that the employees frequently buy from.
Read more for some great Work from Home gift ideas
8.11 Meal coupons to select restaurants
Meal coupons with discount codes can be used as one of the best virtual recognition ideas for great results. After all, we all need to eat! And if they are valid for a certain number of orders or months, virtual employees can apply them on orders on more than one busy workday. They can look up restaurants near them that deliver, helping them save both time and money.
8.12 Invite employee feedback
Be intentional about giving and getting feedback. Inviting feedback from employees lets you know how they react and respond to your style of leading and managing. It is a learning opportunity for managers to understand how to manage remote teams better. If an employee’s productivity is fluctuating and tanking, managers can get to the root cause and work with the employee to overcome what they’re struggling with. It also gives employees the chance to know what they are getting right and the course-correction measures they will need to take in order to improve and maintain consistency in performance.
8.13 Complimentary offs
Virtual employees who have worked overtime hours on billable projects can cash in complimentary offs for those weeknights and weekends. They can avail it subject to approval from the manager or team lead they report to and set their status online to DND so that they don’t need to take work calls or answer emails on a complimentary day off.
8.14 Paid overtime
If complimentary days off are not practical for your business model, you can consider paying employees overtime after assessing the effort hours, utilization reports, and time spent on projects, tasks and functions.
Here are some of the top employee recognition software that can help you
8.15 Referral bonuses
Referral bonuses refer to the encashment a current employee receives for referring someone in their network to vacancies you’re trying to fill in. If the person the employee refers is right for the job and is offered it, you can thank the employee by crediting the bonus with their salary, accompanied by a special mention in the group or private chats(this is entirely optional but worth considering if you want to reduce the lead time to hire and onboard new employees by involving more of your current employees).
8.16 Use caricaturists and artists
Collect photos of your team and employ a caricaturist or artist to sketch them. The employees can have something to remember and keep as a memento! Some companies even commission oil or watercolor paintings of their leadership team as a form of respect and a way of recognizing their contribution in the field.
8.17 Nominate a co worker
Virtual employees can be surveyed digitally where they can name a coworker that they think deserves recognition. It involves and includes virtual employees in the structuring of a rewards and recognition program. They can even vote on the name for the program, such as the Best of the Beasts (this is just off the top of my head, and a play on the Best of the Best!). Such measures encourage teamwork and prevent colleagues from taking each other for granted.
8.18 Celebrity Live feeds
Does your team have a favorite sport, star, author, or actor? You can arrange to reach out to the team managing the celebrity for a livestream. This virtual recognition idea is a bit unconventional and potentially expensive. But they do give the employees something to look forward to, especially if you manage to keep it under wraps till it's confirmed!
8.19 Company Merchandise
Commission t-shirts, mugs or stationery personalized with the company logo and employee name or number. It's also a form of advertising for your business when employees use or wear the merch and prompt conversations about it.
Here are more ideas on gifting company swag to your employees
8.20 Online photobooth
Get your virtual team together for a group meet and surprise them with a candid photo booth session! Use an app and play around with filters to make it more fun. You can snap several such shots and create a timelapse of the photos that developed best. Upload these onto a watercooler hangout for employees to look at!
8.21 Form a music band or dance studio
Your remote workforce are rockstars, and what screams that better than allowing them to form a band? Employees can show off their talent at the arts, and host karaoke nights and a host of other post-work hours fun activities amongst themselves! It not only recognizes who your employees are outside of work but lets them be more comfortable working with each other, building a rapport.
8.22 Create a gratitude channel
A gratitude or kudos channel is a place that all members of departmental teams can be added onto. You can use a micro recognition system for messages to credit daily efforts and successes. For example, a developer who resolved bugs on a code and got it up and running can be mentioned in the channel and thanked on a daily stand-up. This is one of the most needed virtual recognition ideas for software teams!
9. Virtual Employee Appreciation Gifts
One way to appreciate your remote staff is by sending them gifts. These could be something useful to them at work, or in their daily routine, or just to enhance the ‘feel-good’ factor for them. A mixture of these items can be given as a set or a hamper. Some of the virtual employee appreciation gift ideas are:
9.1 Personalized gifts:
You could personalize goodies for the employees with their name and their photograph (you can add cool nicknames such as rockstar, superhero, champion, etc.). The goodies can be things like:
- Diaries and planners
- Tshirts, caps, and hoodies
- Pens and desk accessory holders
- Passport covers
- Coffee mugs and coasters
- Keychains
- Customized cupcakes (names or images with the frosting)
9.2 Tech pack and virtual assistant
With virtual meetings on the rise, Bluetooth headphones and speakers are a really useful gift you can give your employees as an appreciation gift. They could connect to the conferences hands-free which will help them be flexible and efficient. You could also include power banks, colorful USB cables, keyboard light, wireless mouse, blue light glasses, and pen drives to the pack. A virtual assistant appliance like Echo or Nest is also a good addition to the pack, to help employees plan and schedule their day.
Read for excellent ideas on intern gifts, but hey! You can gift them to employees too!
9.3 Stainless steel water bottles
It is very important to remain hydrated throughout the day and equally essential to be mindful of the environment. You can gift your employees stainless steel water bottles which are durable, safe to use, and easy to clean. You could also include stainless steel straws, recyclable bags, and bamboo toothbrushes in addition to the bottle.
9.4 Healthy snacks
Most of us have a habit of munching something in between meals, especially while working from home. You could give your virtual teams healthy snacks and nibbles, energy drinks, and dry fruits to quell their hunger pangs while helping them avoid junk food at the same time (Who is the coolest boss? You are).
9.5 Quirky table lamps and desk accessories
Catch the aesthetics train and get your virtual employees interesting and funky accessories for their desk. It could be a magnetic table lamp, a balancing man, pendulum balls, an hourglass, and more. These toys help bring focus, reduce distractions and increase productivity as a whole. A customized bobblehead toy could also be an exciting addition.
9.6 Self care pamper kit
What shows more appreciation than sending someone a self care kit? You could create a hamper of products pertaining to skin care, bath, hair care, and other related accessories (a cool bath bomb, maybe?) which would help reduce stress and find their inner zen. You could also include coupons to spas, massages, and stores like Bath and Body Works.
9.7 Aromatic ambience
To help employees keep their workspaces refreshed, you could gift them aromatic diffusers, humidifiers, incense sticks (with interesting scents), aromatic oils, or even scented candles to help remain attentive and have a pleasant working experience. You could include scent flavors like apple cinnamon, afternoon breeze, ocean, autumn flowers, etc. Succulent plants could complement well with the candles and add to the aesthetics.
10. How do you show appreciation virtually?
Everyone likes their work and efforts to be recognized. And it is expected of employers that they appreciate the employees working for them. Not all virtual employee appreciation ideas are costly.
The best way for managers and businesses to show appreciation virtually is to recognize and reward with uniformity. Decide on the what, when and how of virtual recognition ideas and weave it into your remote work culture toolkit.
The virtual employee appreciation ideas listed here will help you get started and enable you to strengthen work relationships. Which ones did you like best, and are willing to try?
11. How to appreciate remote employees more
Virtual recognition ideas recognize performance and appreciate those departmental members who are consistently doing well. Appreciation isn't only limited to performance though. It also extends to the employee's attitude to learning and helping and their overall professionalism. If your employees feel recognized for their hard work from time to time, they feel motivated and are willing to put in the effort and go the extra mile for the company. It is crucial to invest into your remote teams’ appreciation via virtual recognition ideas, as there is no physical interaction and the tendency to feel demotivated runs high in such situations.
You could ensure that the virtual employees feel accountable by providing feedback on their work, have regular virtual interactions with the staff, shoutouts on your social media pages, a personalized LinkedIn recommendation (a very helpful step for their career), give them much-needed long weekend offs, or send them useful items as a token of appreciation such as work-from-home equipment, subscription to audiobooks, meals or spa coupons, or simply host a virtual awards program.
12. FAQS
What are some of the best employee appreciation activities?
Some of the best employee appreciation activities are - celebrating happy birthdays, tracking team wins, cheers from peers, and rewarding the staff.
