Adaption of Employee Recognition Programs to Remote
The severity of the global COVID-19 pandemic prompted quite a bit of change in practically every aspect of life, but particularly in the business sector.
Abrupt closures of thousands of businesses meant offices and other workspaces were abandoned as a new era of remote work was ushered in for millions across the entire nation. Thanks to technology advancements and work from home innovations, remote work has thrived, and many companies have embraced work-from-home programs as a long-term solution.
Regardless of the reliance on in-person or remote work, a good employee recognition program is still important. In some ways, it’s even more vital to company success in a remote, work-from-home environment. Celebrating achievement helps keep employees motivated, feel appreciated and helps ensure employee retention.
The specifics and frequency of corporate awards will vary from company to company, but all should enjoy the same benefits. By rewarding remote employees and celebrating and honoring their accomplishments and hard work, businesses can motivate their employees to be more productive and work more efficiently.
Continue the Tradition of Employee Recognition
Maintaining a good employee recognition program boosts employee morale and contributes to a more supportive culture that lowers retention rates. It’s simple – if employees feel as though their hard work and dedication is not just appreciated, but publicly recognized, they’ll want to work harder and have less interest in searching for employment elsewhere. This acknowledgement is especially important when facing a work-from-home environment, as you won’t have the opportunities to show your appreciation through words and actions in person in the office.
Considering the importance of employee recognition awards in a work-from-home environments, you’ll want to give a lot of thought into the type of award you’re bestowing. Such awards should be meaningful, public, and personalized so they truly convey how appreciative you are of your employee’s hard work. To create a meaningful award, incorporate some work from home element in the name or physical trophy itself. If some of your employees work in office and others are remote, perhaps give out a remote employee of the month award in addition to an in-office employee of the month.
Keeping Employee Morale High
Obviously, it’s important to keep the morale of all employees high. Higher morale makes employees more engaged in their work and work more productively. They also are less likely to quit or seek employment elsewhere. There are a variety of reasons why a business should strive to keep morale high and employees in good spirits, and while there have been years of insights and experiences that can help when creating a culture like this in an office, there’s not much to draw from when trying to extend the same work atmosphere to remote employees.
Thankfully, boosting morale for remote employees is not as challenging as it may sound, and it should fit in perfectly with one of your existing programs. The pandemic made employee recognition even more important than it already was, so include awards specially for remote staff in your employee appreciation program. Recognition awards made just for remote employees will show them how much you appreciate their hard work, and the specificity will make the gesture feel more meaningful. Awards for remote employees won’t just boost their morale, they’ll also encourage them to be more efficient and more engaged in your company culture.
Embrace the Changing Environment by Recognizing New Achievements
Find new ways to celebrate and acknowledge your staff members! We all know that working remote comes with its fair share of technical difficulties, so perhaps give out an award to those who persevered despite having a bad internet connection or other technical issues. Even if you can’t physically present the award, make sure the recipient is brought up in a company meeting or in some other way where all can see. Lastly, you don’t want to get something generic without the company logo or recipient’s name engraved because it’ll make it seem like you didn’t put any thought into the award.
There are so many ways to celebrate the accomplishments of your employees in a work-from-home environment, including these remote team celebration ideas:
· Branded Merchandise:When it comes time to celebrate your remote teams, give them something that reminds them of your appreciation. Branded merchandise is a fantastic way to reward your teams while making them feel welcome. Promotional merchandise is a great tool for raising morale among your employees, and they create a lasting impression your employees will remember for years to come. It will be important to choose the right products; if the reward is perceived as useless, it will take value away from the recognition. Check out EDCO’s popular branded merchandise today!
· Food: Just because you have a team full of remote employees doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate with some delicious food. Sending your top employees special snacks and taking them out for a nice meal are great ways to connect with them and make them feel valued for their hard work. Everyone will find appreciation from enjoying some of their favorite foods, and this will help boost productivity and make your team happier.
· Public Recognition: One of the best ways to make your employees feel valued is to have their accomplishments announced to your whole team. Putting them in the spotlight helps show others what excellence looks like and inspires those around them. Encouraging your team to congratulate your top performers helps build a culture of appreciation and helps retain talent. When employees feel their dedication is not only appreciated by their boss but by the rest of the team around them, they’ll want to work harder and have less interest in searching for employment elsewhere.
· Custom Trophies and Plaques: Customized trophies and plaques are great options because they provide tangible recognition that the employee gets to keep. Trophies such as teamwork awards provide a continuous reminder of your company’s appreciation when they are displayed on a desk, bookshelf, or wall, helping them feel even more connected to their peers and the company itself. A corporate award such as a trophy helps drive a sense of pride and appreciation and can motivate some employees to work even harder. When your award is customized with the recipient’s name and your company logo, it makes it even more meaningful, making them feel appreciated for their diligent work.
Customized corporate crystal awards are a great way to add a personal touch to employee awards and reward remote employees. Check out some of EDCO’s best employee recognition awards below!
Crystal Service Award Plaque
The Crystal Service Award Plaque is one of the best ways to honor an extremely dedicated employee and something they’ll be sure to have on their desk at home. The award is made from a strong crystal material that’s not only more durable than glass but also more transparent. Our crystal material also has properties that mimic those of a prism, meaning it’s more reflective than glass and sparkles beautifully in the light. Your employee will be reminded of how much you appreciate them every time it catches the light at the right angle.
Elemental Pyramid Award
Typically used to recognize employees that exemplify core values, accomplish certain goals, or is quickly rising through the ranks of your organization, the Elemental Pyramid Award is perfect for a variety of uses. It can be awarded to the remote employees that demonstrate your companies values even in a remote setting, a remote employee that consistently rises above and beyond expectations, or your best team leader that works remotely. The award is constructed with a beautifully clear optical crystal and accented with deep blue crystal risers that separate the three separate parts of the pyramid. It’s truly a sight to behold that your remote employees will cherish.
Ambient Gold Acrylic Hexagon Award
Even though it features a classic hexagonal style, this award is anything but traditional. This is mainly due to the injection of gold color that can be seen at the top and bottom of the award and its sub-surface mirror base. Both elements add some visual appeal to the award. Available in two different sizing options, the Ambient Gold Acrylic Hexagon Award is perfect for recognizing outstanding performance in an outstanding way.
Want to find more great award options for your remote employees? Check out our incredible selection of crystal awards, acrylic awards, art glass awards, plaques, and more today!
How to Host a Virtual Award Ceremony
Everybody appreciates some form of recognition for their hard work, so employee recognition programs should strive to include all employees, from those in entry level positions to supervisors, team leads, and others in managerial roles. While most companies are effective in making all their in-office employees feel included and appreciated with their employee recognition programs, remote employees can still feel left out.
Having a good remote work culture is just as important as a good in-office culture, if not more so, because there is none of the daily, face-to-face, in-person interactions that can build relationships, strengthen bonds, and build trust. This is not to say that those things cannot happen virtually or through a medium like Zoom, but it’s harder to do so. Additionally, it’s often much easier to plan in-office events than virtual events or incorporate a virtual element to in-person events. This shouldn’t deter businesses from looking for ways to include their remote employees in events and their employee recognition program because remote employees will understand the effort and truly feel appreciated.
One of the best ways to both include remote employees in company events and make them feel valued is to host a virtual awards ceremony. While most award ceremonies have a sense of spectacle and grandeur to them that may be hard to replicate virtually, there are a variety of benefits that will offset whatever technical troubles companies may associate with a virtual awards ceremony. Remote employees will be more productive, more engaged with the company and their co-workers, and less likely to look for employment elsewhere and leave the company. So, how do you host a virtual award ceremony?
Prepare for technical difficulties
While the entire world recently got a lot more familiar with video conferencing apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, it’s inevitable that technical difficulties will arise. Whether it’s a slow connection, audio that just refuses to work, an issue with screen mirroring, or something else, you should account for technical difficulties and have a backup plan. Have the host test things like the network connection and audio beforehand so any potential issues can be addressed. As a backup plan, we recommend you have a simple PowerPoint presentation that communicates the same information just without some of the frills ready to go. The meeting host can share their screen and go through the slides.
Keep Your Audience Engaged
To keep audiences engaged and not tune out the presentation or become distracted by something in their environment, we recommend you offer like polls or quizzes, ensure the medium you chose to host the ceremony has a chat feature, and assign a moderator to take care of comments or questions that may come up. You’ll also want to save the best awards for last to ensure the attendees don’t leave early. It’s also important to have an engaging opening sequence to make a good impression on attendees and grabs their attention from the start.
Keep the Show Short and Tightly Scripted
Having a ceremony that moves quickly with a fast-flowing script is another way to ensure attendees stay engaged and don’t tune anything out. It’s smart to write a script beforehand so speakers know exactly what they should be saying and run through the event a few times to practice and ensure there’s no confusion that will prolong it and make attendees lose interest. Pre-filming some of the content that will be included in the ceremony is also a good way to make an event tightly scripted because you can pick the best, most concise takes.
Determine how the Awards will be Distributed
You don’t want to be caught without an answer to how award recipients will get their award if asked, so work out whether awards will be shipped, personally delivered, or picked up. Give your award recipients multiple options so they can pick how they’d like to receive their award.
While your award ceremony will be virtual, you’ll need physical awards to make it all come together. At EDCO, we offer a wide selection of customizable corporate awards that help you show your gratitude for every employee’s hard work. We have an award for everything you can think of and more, so shop our collection of employee recognition awards, Corporate Awards, and trophies today to begin rewarding remote employees!
