Small as they may seem, the impact of small gestures of recognition affects your team’s morale, focus and productivity. In this blog we will share how to achieve positive outcomes in more innovative ways when your team works remotely.
Implementing these strategies is more than a short-term investment. They are best practices for a flexible workplace.
Why Employee Recognition Matters
Most employees believe recognition would improve their engagement at work.
Employees who do not feel recognised are more likely to say they’ll resign within the next year.
We recognise that employees put more energy into their work if they are recognised more regularly.
Companies with effective employee recognition generally receive more loyalty and satisfaction from their clients.
The low morale, struggle to focus and feelings of isolation are all known to be associated with remote working. So, it’s critical to make your employee recognition strategy effective.
Here are some effective strategies for virtual recognition.
1. Keep It Simple
If you implement an employee recognition program that feels like one more thing to keep track of in the never-ending list of changes, it might be received less than warmly. On the flip side, if you design your program right, it can be a fantastic tool for recognising all that extra work they’re doing now — not an addition to it.
The key is to make sure that sending recognition is no harder than writing a text or writing a kudos message on Linked In.
2. Have Managers Lead the Way
Recognition takes hardly any time at all, and the benefits it brings make it far from a detriment to your company. So how do you send the message to employees that your recognition is more than just a nice-to-have in a way that inspires them to participate? Have senior executives lead by example. If managers regularly recognise their peers, other employees will soon follow suit.
3. Recognise Regularly
For recognition to be maximally effective, it can’t be an every-now-and-then kind of thing. Minimal effort delivers minimal returns.
The point of supporting employee recognition at a time like this is to keep company culture alive through genuine moments of peer-to-peer appreciation, delivered virtually.
The standard recommendation is one recognition per employee per month. This keeps your recognition feed active enough for employees to stay engaged and helps everyone feel included without setting unrealistic expectations around the frequency of recognition.
4. Meet Virtually
Regular In-person face time might not be an option but that doesn’t mean you can’t get any face time at all.
You can bring this recommendation to life by scheduling a virtual awards ceremony or create a weekly tradition where outstanding performers get shout outs from their peers.
It doesn’t even need to be its own separate meeting — face-to-face recognition can also be a practice you bolt on to something in an existing recurring meeting, like monthly team update meetings.
These are high-level best practices that you should keep in mind for an employee recognition program under any circumstances — they’re just especially important now, as employees need active, intentional recognition more than ever.