Virtual employee appreciation ideas support the emotional bond between the firm and the employee. Employees feel engaged and valued. It is a great source of motivation and plays an essential part in retaining employees.
Free Virtual Recognition Ideas
A Peer-to-Peer Shoutouts
Give a peer to peer shoutouts in Slack channels. You can personalize your own slack channel’s name like ‘#i’m_proud_of_you’, ‘#you_are_magnificent’, or ‘#you_are_doing_a_greatjob’. At any time, any member of the team can publish a compliment. Their coworkers can respond with emojis and remarks. When workers receive compliments from coworkers, it makes them feel appreciated. It conveys the sense of a happy and thankful work environment to other employees.
Remote appreciation best for:
individual employees, teams
Set aside time for “no meeting”
We are all aware of how dramatically the boundaries between work and home have dissolved in recent years. This practice acknowledges the increased degrees of burnout that so many individuals are going through. Allow your employees some time off to rest and tend to their personal life. If you want to express your appreciation, even more, arrange the half-days soon before long weekends. Nobody is going to complain about working fewer hours.
Remote appreciation best for:
individual employees, teams
Social Media Love
A shout-out on the company’s social media profile is one of the simplest, cost-free virtual recognition ideas. To create the material, get a high-quality photograph of the employee. Give their name, position, and department, and include a mini-interview. You can collect data for the post using a digital form, such as Typeform or Google Form. It is not necessary for the material to be professional. To promote your employee, you can ask unusual questions and collect unique information.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Virtual Birthday & Work Anniversary
As the work world has gone digital, it’s easier to celebrate your virtual team’s special days. Not to mention, the significance of birthday parties and work anniversaries will only increase in the future.
A celebration can be a simple and pleasurable experience. Host a virtual party and invite all team members to share warm wishes and remarks. Or record team greetings in a video that may be instantly shared to surprise your teammates.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Virtual One on One
Virtual one-on-one with upper management is a great approach to appreciate remote employees. These meetings can be more formal. The department head can congratulate the employee on an accomplishment. Otherwise, the employee also has the opportunity to present projects or ideas. The session can be casual, such as sharing a remote lunch with the CEO or engaging in a video game battle.
These gatherings can enhance the relationship between upper management and employees. Also, boost morale and loyalty among employees.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
Team Recognition Videos
Making Team Recognition Videos is one of many fun ways to recognize employees virtually. You can include the team, other team members, and potentially even family members in the honor.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, team
Integrate Gratitude Within Your Daily Workflow
Employee appreciation should be an essential part of your company culture. Not only on special occasions. When working remotely, team members often feel disconnected. Thus, you need to show appreciation and a sense of gratitude frequently.
Applaud noteworthy projects or star performances during weekly meetings. Ensure that acknowledgment is both timely and specific. When leaders make an effort to recognize individuals, it motivates and inspires the team. Even a straightforward, sincere “thank you for your hard work” will suffice. A kind act need not be expensive or excessive so long as it is sincere.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, team
Allow Your Employee Some Time Off
Promoting time off benefits employees by preventing burnout. Allowing them to return feeling refreshed and inspired, ready to tackle new challenges. Spending quality time outside work brings fresh perspectives to your team.
A surprise or extra afternoon off can also benefit your employees. Employees will feel appreciated when you acknowledge them for their hard work. Not only because it demonstrates how much your organization cares about wellness. It demonstrates that you still appreciate their efforts. Even if you aren’t sitting next to them at work.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, team
A Personalized Thank-You Card
Writing a thank-you card is a thoughtful and straightforward gesture for remote employee appreciation. The delight of receiving a letter, let alone something personal from your manager never gets old. It strengthen the manager-employee relationship. Enhances the sense of belonging to the organization. Think about a fun thank you card in a form of digital or physical.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
Celebrate Small Wins
While it’s easy to experience the joy of big achievements, your team must be inspired to achieve them first. Appreciating the little things your staff does can go a long way in motivating them. Working remotely can be challenging. People might not always recognize the effort put into vital, time-consuming projects or major client wins. Thus, showing appreciation consistently and celebrating the small wins is an important staple. It’s a good idea to dedicate one day to a monthly or yearly appreciation day.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Low-Cost Ideas For Virtual Employee Appreciation
Organize Monthly Office Online Games
Remote employees need to experience a sense of belonging to be productive and happy. A special event or games, team building activities, and awards are excellent means of introducing this concept to your team. This is a fundamental part of creating a pleasant and engaging work environment.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Virtual Award Show
Many companies recognize staff with awards. Even if you are unable to gather your group in the same location, you can still host a ceremony. To host a virtual awards ceremony, invite employees to a Zoom conference. Prepare a slideshow for the descriptions of the awards and the names of the recipients. Winners can get trophies, certificates, gourmet foods, and gift cards in the mail after the show.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Virtual Skill Building
There are countless ways to transform your in-person skill-building programs into virtual ones. You can also buy tickets to virtual workshops or engage an outside trainer to assist your team. Consider a learning program. Or providing employees with time to work on the desired challenge.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Office Field Trips
Take your team to spend time outside the office for virtual employee engagement! When employees take a step back from their daily routines, they are able to think “outside the box.”. They get a fresh capacity to contextualize challenges and enhance their existing strategies.
We designed our Office Field Trips to strengthen team bonds. Your remote team gets the opportunity to observe culture, places, practices, and people. After an office field trip, participants feel energized. Employees view this as an investment in their profession, which boosts their engagement. Offering such growth opportunities is also great for attracting new talents.
Visit the spooky city of Edinburgh, take a culture trip through Istanbul, or dive into mainland China.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Virtual Happy Hour
Are your employees keen on craft beer, cocktails, or wines? Why not jump on this by hosting a virtual happy hour for your team? Even when everyone is at home, you may still enjoy a glass or two together! You can host a weekly virtual happy hour to welcome the weekend with drinks and online games. Or take your happy hour to the next level by hosting a virtual cocktail masterclass. Consider creating a regular event in your team’s calendar to celebrate your team.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Virtual Guided Meditation
Organize a session of guided meditation for your team. This shows your concern for their general wellbeing. There are many health benefits to meditation. If you hold the session in the middle of the workday, it may provide your team with a much-needed energy boost.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Let Your Team Choose a Virtual Activity
Prepare a few ideas for virtual team-building activities. Show the ideas to your employees. Then let them choose which one they’d like to do the most. You can create a more positive work environment through virtual team-building activities. They promote companionship, trust, and fun! You can infuse some excitement into the monotony of the workweek. Provide coworkers with opportunities to make memories. Creative activity can ease stress and boost morale!
Remote appreciation best for: teams
Dedicated Time for Personal Projects
Allowing your team to work on something they’re passionate about is a great way to boost productivity. Employees feel valued for their objectives when they are given time to think about what drives them. This is a great way to improve in different ways at the same time. Use a workshop or lunch-and-learn to try something new or practice your presentation skills. Some of the best ways to build a team are to go through steep learning curves together and enjoy thriving as a team.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Use Recognition Platform
Use a platform like Bonusly to promote team recognition. Bonusly encourages everyone on a team, from an intern to the CEO, to honor anyone else with a tiny, public bonus. These benefits can also be redeemed in a catalog with hundreds of reward partners.
Similar actions could be accomplished without the use of an app. You can create a scorecard and assign points to each employee based on their performance. Yet, there should be a tangible reward associated with these points.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees, teams
Host a Virtual Concert
Who wouldn’t want to listen to music by outstanding artists? You can use an NPR Tiny Desk Concert to express your appreciation for your team. Collaborate with local artists or musicians inside your team) to organize a Zoom concert. You can even diversify the experience by including extra talents, such as comedy or magic. Or get in the groove with our professional musician here.
Remote appreciation best for: teams
Remote Employee Appreciation Gifts
Gift Your Team Meal Delivery Credits
If you are unable to have a team lunch together, give your colleagues meal delivery credits or a restaurant gift card. As a bonus, if you want to go the extra mile, provide them with a significant allowance to take their family out for a special lunch. This reflects the leadership’s concern for employees’ life outside of work.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
Home Office Makeover
Due to the rapid transition to remote work, many of us have improvised workspaces. Helping your staff switch to a more productive home office is a fantastic employee appreciation gifts to encourage them and make them feel valued. Help enhance their workstation with a charming plant, a company-branded cup, or a fun gadget. As a bonus, snap a few polaroids at your next in-person company event to decorate their home office with coziness and team spirit.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
Care Packages
When working from home, much of your time is spent staring at a computer screen. Few face-to-face interactions with colleagues and no complimentary cake or food in the break area are available. Thank you notes are heartwarming. Yet, a small token of appreciation can go a long way toward making employees feel valued. You can send themed care packages as incentives for reaching personal or professional milestones. Or send monthly gifts to boost their morale. Express your appreciation for their hard work.
Check out more employee’s virtual gift ideas
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
Send A LinkedIn Recommendation To Your Team
LinkedIn is a platform where professionals can network and share knowledge. Creating a personal brand on LinkedIn may do wonders for a person’s career prospects and present employer. Personally crafted LinkedIn recommendations are a great way to express how much you care about your coworkers. You may open your team up to recruiters and competition with your lovely comments. But you can also make your staff feel appreciated and more likely to stay with your company.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
Subsidize Vacation Costs
It’s important to know whether your staff is able to have fun on vacation. Take a trip or stay at home? More people should experience the joy of traveling the world. When it comes to vacation time, workers need to be allowed to do things that truly revitalize and refresh them.
Employers who pay their employees’ vacation expenditures are making a goodwill gesture. More than making sure your employees are paid for the week should be a priority for you. Provide a vacation stipend for your employees.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
Monthly Free Subscriptions
There is nothing more satisfying than receiving a present in the mail each month or receiving a free subscription. This where mont Every month, you can send your staff a subscription box from a wide variety of options. Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ are just some of the services you can pay for. When you give your staff gifts on a regular basis, they will always know how much you appreciate their efforts.
Remote appreciation best for: individual employees
The Gift of an Experience
When you aim for more robust experiences, your employees will remember your appreciation more. Because you don’t encounter remote workers very often, your gratitude must go deeper than it used to. But, experiences do not have to be expensive.
Experience is an effective means of promoting engagement and appreciation.
You can also target simple experiences such as:
Mindful Tai Chi for Stress Relieve
Food & Culture Experience (Live in Istanbul)
Summary of Virtual Employee Recognition Ideas
If you’ve been delaying employee appreciation because it’s overwhelming, take a small start. There are simple ideas for virtual employee appreciation with little preparation. Start with a straightforward strategy, such as mailing thank-you notes. Then, as you learn what your team appreciates, you may invest in a more extensive employee appreciation strategy.
Keep it simple, and your team will soon feel cherished all year.