What impact does employee appreciation have on company culture? 🤔
Research by Quantum Workplace shows that employee appreciation is one of the biggest influencers of employee engagement. Those who feel they can expect recognition for their hard work are 2.7 times more likely to be engaged!
Creating a culture of appreciation and recognition is a surefire way to:
- Encourage employee engagement and maintain employee retention rates. 🚀
- Improve productivity and encourage innovative thinking. �
- Make a positive impact on the health and well-being of your virtual team. 🧘
Are you looking for memorable virtual employee appreciation ideas to celebrate in March? Here are some of our favorites!
4 ideas for Employee Appreciation Day (and any day!):
1. Share employee recognition from the leadership team as well as other employees 💕
Your employees put a ton of effort into their work. To make your employees feel appreciated you don't have to shower your team with company swag all the time. One of the most effective and easiest things you can do is publicly (or anonymously) acknowledge your gratitude for them. At the same time, you need to ensure your team appreciation is genuine and personal.
As an effective leader, it’s your responsibility to ensure each team member knows you see their contributions and strengths. So don’t hold back! 👏
- Tell people when they’ve done great work and the ways their efforts helped the company. 📣
- Offer virtual employees recognition publicly among their colleagues and invite employees to also express peer-to-peer recognition and congratulate a person’s hard work.
- Share team appreciation in a company-wide meeting, during company announcements, through handmade cards, or even in email blasts! 💌
By the way, you don't have to save these virtual employee recognition ideas for Valentine's Day or Employee Appreciation Day, you'll want to implement these free employee appreciation ideas all year long.
Why are these fantastic virtual employee appreciation ideas for remote workers? Even the best leaders can fall into the habit of only pointing out groups' accomplishments rather than applauding individual efforts. Build the best manager-employee relationship with individual, specific praise. Employees want to feel special, and they deserve credit for their achievements. Always being lumped together can be pretty demoralizing. 😅
How to get started 👉 Create a virtual appreciation program that works for you. As an entirely remote company, we found a designated Slack channel was the best way to express gratitude. It’s casual, easily accessible, and you can ping people. Everyone (from our CEO to our new employees) uses it to express thanks for a smooth onboarding process or celebrate someone’s work anniversary.
2. Give virtual employee appreciation gifts 🎁
Yes, that’s right, an actual gift. The more personalized to your employee, the better!
At Confetti, we ensure an employee appreciation gift is given on days specifically associated with the individual. Our main giving days are work anniversaries and birthdays.
Of course, big team-wide gifts and care packages are always welcome. If you want to give everyone something for the upcoming Employee Appreciation holiday, consider treating the crew to team meal delivery credits, a team lunch, or a gift card, so they can treat themselves to whatever they’d like!
Why is this a fantastic virtual employee appreciation activity for your remote workforce? As we mentioned, people want to feel special. Giving employees personalized gifts ensures that the person knows we’re rewarding them and their accomplishments. Check out our guide to corporate gift-giving for more insight into the policies we’ve found to work.
How to get started 👉 Reward virtual employees with an Online Gift Card
3. Put a creative spin on happy hours ✏️ 🍸
Surely, you've thrown many company-sponsored virtual happy hours, and for good reason! A happy hour provides that special opportunity to kick back at the end of the day or week with our colleagues, where we can leave remote work behind and connect about our personal lives.
Here's a great virtual employee appreciation idea, elevate your happy hour with an interactive activity! Try taking a virtual mixology class together, where you can enjoy your drinks and learn something together in the process.
Here's another idea to boost team spirit: combine your happy hour with an art activity, like an interactive blind-drawing class, where everyone can enjoy their beverage of choice while having some hearty laughs with their colleagues.
Why is this a fantastic virtual employee appreciation activity with remote employees? Adding an out-of-the-box activity to your virtual happy hour is a great way to boost creativity, a skill set that's highly expected in employees, but isn't always invested in.
How to get started 👉 Let loose in Drink and Draw!
4. Have a good time 🥳
Here's an employee appreciation idea: take a break from work and professional development events and enjoy the company of your colleagues with a team building game. You know what they say: all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Bring some work-life balance to the office by having some fun with your team!
There's no better way to foster connections between team members than breaking up the day-to-day with entertaining, engaging events. Plus, employees who feel like they're encouraged to have fun at work experience higher job satisfaction, which leads to increased employee retention!
Team building activities have the most impact when they're fun and engaging, so why not throw a virtual office olympics game night for your remote team?
If your team isn't the gaming type, offer your remote employees a virtual group fitness class or a cooking class!
Why is this a fantastic virtual employee appreciation activity for remote employees? Holding regular events helps you get to know your colleagues as people, not just as employees. Having that connection in the workplace boosts employee morale and makes your remote team members feel seen, one of the most critical aspects of employee appreciation.
How to get started 👉 Treat your remote workers to some laughs in an Office Olympics!
Show appreciation to all of your employees with Confetti! 🥳
Encourage your entire team and show them they're valued on Employee Appreciation Day and beyond. Use the virtual appreciation ideas in this article as a guide going forward and refer back to them as you revitalize your company's internal gratitude efforts to improve your company culture and boost the employee experience.
Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day on March 1st with an event from our Employee Appreciation Day collection!
Need help booking? Reach out to [email protected] and we’ll happily organize your virtual (or in-person) company event on your behalf.