The Distance is Not a Problem: 6 Ideas for Distributed Team Recognition

Almost 53% of employees consider that more appreciation would make them likelier to stay with an organization. In that sense, gratitude pays off for both companies and employees. After more than a year of navigating the difficulties of working remotely, most employees would benefit from recognition for their efforts.

Companies should change the way they recognize employees in light of the pandemic. One in five have, but more organizations need to get on this bandwagon. That’s because 64% of employees attach more importance to it when working remotely. The pandemic has pressed pause on events celebrating employee achievements. They are also missing out and facing other conveniences yet continue working.

For instance, remote work can erase most boundaries between life and work. At some point, money can stop being a motivating factor. McKinsey’s insights place reward and recognition as top concerns for a pandemic-struck world. Moreover, it’s challenging to maintain a sense of inclusion when your team remains dispersed. If you’ve been searching how to engage remote workers, help’s already here!

Ideas for Distributed Team Recognition

Employee acknowledgment encourages workers to take ownership and pride in the work they do. Thus, employers are looking at increased work effectiveness, engagement, and employee well-being. We present several ideas to help make that happen:

Show you Care about Employee Health

Working from home can take a toll on mental and physical health. Such inactivity makes regular exercise even more important. Working out produces an immediate sense of mental and physical relief. Companies searching for how to engage remote workers can set up exercise classes.

Before starting online fitness classes, employers can take votes on whether your staff would be more interested in a simple-to-follow yoga class during lunchtime or if they’d prefer an action-packed HIIT bootcamp at EOD.

Teach them to Care about Their Health and Mind

Another great idea would be to use a recognition platform that makes it possible to host self-care workshops on health-centric topics. Some activities worth testing out include:

• Yoga sessions
• Guided meditation classes
• General self-care tips workshops
• Seminars on nutrition

The key here would be to bring in the right host. A professional should be someone who is certified to conduct the class in question. They should also hold a Q&A session at the end. Your employees will prefer a live session tailored to their needs over watching a video.

Give employees a day off that they can use at their discretion. It helps them see that their employers appreciate them. You can also ask them to take and share “self-care selfies” later.

Don’t Keep Customer Feedback Close to the Vest

Many companies have a feedback policy in place. Apart from sending out regular surveys, consider using a recognition platform to gather customer feedback about your employees more effectively.

Positive feedback should always be shared with the entire organization, while negative feedback and constructive criticism can be shared privately. Add a specialized element to it by duly recognizing individual employees who’ve gone above and beyond while helping customers.

Most importantly, get your teams to weigh in on how they want to see the said feedback. Taking the time to do so ensures you’re meeting your employees’ needs.

Acknowledge Employee Quirkiness for a Fun Way of Distributed Team Recognition

Quick shoutouts that celebrate small wins can also be a way to bring distributed teams together. For instance, Zoom meetings that go off without a hitch deserve a shoutout – given how rare that is!

Think along the lines of organizational psychologist and theorist Karl Weick. Weick assigned great transformational power to small wins. According to him, the accomplishment of such a win can snowball to turn into others. The combination of those small wins can lead to greater accomplishments.

Get the Ball for Peer-to-Peer Employee Recognition Rolling

Peer recognition strengthens relationships and improves employee engagement. For instance, an employee acknowledges their coworker in a random act of kindness. Such a random act of kindness can boost the production of dopamine and serotonin. Both individuals benefit from peer-to-peer recognition – so does the company.

Get started with peer recognition ideas for remote employees by encouraging them to provide positive feedback about their colleagues. Leave the how of it to employees. Whether they do this by sending thank-you emails or via a virtual shoutout in a meeting, it should have a large-scale positive effect. Capable employee recognition software can help you implement this measure in just a few clicks.

Just-In-Time and Frequent Recognition Ideas for Remote Employees

Often, daily micro-recognition can be as good as year-end rewards. Emails or calls that indicate someone did a good job should be the norm for your team. Such emails propagate a culture of support and provide your employee with rightfully earned validation for their good work.

Conclusion

Performance acknowledgment is crucial for employees stuck in a pandemic-ridden world. For best results, you should choose a recognition app that runs a rewards and recognition program that streamlines the process in the following ways:

• Quick-and-easy peer-to-peer thank-you options
• Instant award distribution from the managers
• Nomination of monthly/quarterly/annual awards for company-wide recognition
• Wide range of rewards tailored to employee needs, such as shopping, charity donations, travel, well-being, entertainment, and other experiences

Frequently Asked Questions

What is peer-to-peer recognition?

Peer-to-peer recognition occurs when the source of feedback is an employee’s peers rather than the employer. In other words, they receive an acknowledgment from the people they interact with the most.

What is the best tool for remote employee recognition?

Having a rewards and recognition program in place can simplify matters. Doing it through an app will automate remote employee recognition. The more options for customization such a recognition app has, the better it will work for companies requiring tailored solutions.