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Employee Recognition Ideas For Virtual Teams

Struggling to improve employee engagement in your remote team? Try these employee engagement ideas that are proven to work for virtual teams.


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Srikanth Acharya

2 years ago | 4 min read

Remote working has come to stay. So how do you recognize your virtual teams?

Here are seven strategic employee recognition ideas to make your virtual teams feel valued and appreciated.

What is employee recognition?

Employee recognition is acknowledging and appreciating employees’ contributions to your business and work culture.

Why does employee recognition matter?

As humans, we all want to be seen, valued, and appreciated. Therefore, when we receive an acknowledgment, it helps reinforce the positive behaviour that led to it.   

Similarly, recognizing your employees can do many good things, including higher retention, increased organizational performance, greater productivity, better engagement, a distinctive work culture, and skyrocketing profits for your business.

Now, what if you do not build a culture of recognition? Your employees will be demotivated, feel undervalued, and ultimately move to a place where their intrinsic needs, such as appreciation and recognition, are met. You don’t want that. Don’t you?

Below are seven effective strategies to offer recognition to your remote workers.

1. Virtual town halls  

Virtual town halls are an excellent time to recognize your employees’ contributions and exemplary performances.

Recognize top performers each month and quarter in your town hall which is often attended by your entire workforce. It not only delights your employees but sends them a strong message about your work culture­­, that hard work never goes unnoticed.

Spontaneous shoutouts are everyone’s favourites. Pick employees recognized by their peers and give them a surprising shoutout. You will be astonished by the engagement of your employees.

2. Social media spotlights

Who doesn’t like public recognition?

Incorporate employee spotlights into your culture and engagement strategy. Spotlight your employees for performances, volunteering, outside-of-work engagements and achievements, contest winners, conference presenters, etc. There are two benefits to this-

  • Your spotlighted employee would be on cloud nine for your showered public recognition.
  • Your social media engagement and, in turn, followers are likely to shoot up on your social platforms

3. Corporate gifting

Every organization’s success lies in how engaged the employees are. With the pandemic and great resignation in the backdrop, your workforce, especially your remote workers, have plentiful opportunities to move on if you don’t build a positive connection from the beginning.

Gifting can be impactful when you thoughtfully identify occasions to send home gifts to your remote workers. Here are a few to help you get started-

Corporate gifting partners do an exceptional job curating gifts, manufacturing/producing, customizing, maintaining the inventory, and delivering. So, do not fret about venturing into corporate gifting as a solution for employee recognition.

Instead, choose a good partner for your needs; they can improve your world!

📌 Relevant read: How to boost employee satisfaction

4. Gamification and challenges 

Your engagement team can run several virtual challenges/events for your remote workers to keep them in the loop, beat the mundane, and build a friendly work culture.

Contests like fitness bingo, show us your workspace, 10K steps every day, best Halloween costume, Diwali setup, and secret Santa are some ideas that are easy to execute. And, of course, don’t forget to send the winners some goodies to enjoy and show off. Even better, let them choose what they want!

Gamification is another effective way to distinguish your employees’ efforts, hard work, and dedication. Simply let them choose a task/certification/challenge they would like to take up and allocate points. They get incentivized once they complete their challenge.

5. Custom Brandstore

Corporate gifts can inspire employees to improve and develop a more positive attitude toward their job and coworkers.

Incentivize your employees for good work or behaviour by allowing them to pick something they like from your brandstore.

A brandstore is a one-stop shop for all your branding, promotional, and gift items that your employees can shop from. This is a win-win for you since you let them choose what they want while not stressing about holding a physical inventory, tracking, and delivering goodies.

6. Virtual festival celebrations

Recognition need not be focused on performances only. In fact, recognize your employees for the differences they bring to your workplace so everyone feels seen, heard, and belonged.

Inclusion is a crucial factor in building a people-centric culture. For example, celebrate different festivals and days of observances so every employee feels included. 

If you cannot run a full-length virtual celebration with your limited team, outsource the celebration to event management teams. This in many companies is followed by festive gift boxes reaching their employees’ homes.  

7. Non-monetary recognition

Simple words of appreciation like “thank you,” “good job,” and “keep up the good work” cost you nothing but make a world of difference to your recipient employee. 

Recognition need not be in the form of a pay rise, promotion, or even gifts and spotlights. Instead, small words of appreciation from one’s manager, attention from leadership, and opportunities to lead new tasks can all send powerful positive vibes and help gain committed employees.

Summary     

The industry right now is increasingly candidate-driven. As a result, retaining the talent you just hired yesterday, let alone last quarter is a challenge because of the lucrative offers your competitors lure them with.

So, having a positive work culture that fosters recognition at all levels, even in a virtual setup, can be pivotal to retaining the talent you have.

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Created by

Srikanth Acharya

Srikanth Acharya is the Founder and CEO at OffiNeeds, one of the leading corporate gifting companies in India.


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