7 Awesome Ways to Make Your Employees Feel Appreciated Even From Home

It’s official: COVID-19 cases are spiking again around the world, and the sudden transition to remote work is becoming more permanent for many businesses. Companies like Hewett Packard have implemented semi-permanent work from home that extends until the end of 2021, while other enterprises like Twitter have made remote work a permanent offer for all employees. In the midst of all this change, many companies are struggling to develop creative employee appreciation ideas for remote workers who are feeling alienated and isolated in their new work-from-home lifestyles.

In this post, we’ll provide 7 creative and unique employee appreciation ideas for companies looking to reward their newly remote employees. Use these ideas to inspire and motivate your workforce — it’s more important than ever!

1. Provide Work from Home Equipment

One of the best employee appreciation ideas for remote workers is providing them proper office equipment. Remote workers notoriously suffer from back and neck pain, bad posture, and carpal tunnel because of at-home working conditions, which will slowly erode an employee’s health over time. Your company can combat these anticipated health issues by providing a catalog of ergonomic office equipment that alleviates these stressors. 

Provide ergonomic equipment early on so remote employees can avoid health issues.

First, compile a list of work from home equipment that your company is willing to provide and send it out to employees, asking them to submit their requests. Once your employees have submitted their requests, have the equipment shipped directly to their homes for convenience. This not only boosts employee happiness, but it also cuts down on future health costs for your company.

2. Surprise Them With Flowers

Let your employees know you’re thinking of them from afar by sending flowers to celebrate a special occasion! This employee appreciation idea is especially great if your remote worker is celebrating a work anniversary or birthday remotely. Hitting these milestones alone at home can feel underwhelming, but a small gesture of appreciation from the company goes a long way to combat these feelings of isolation. If you’re using a corporate perks platform, you can even get discounts on flower delivery.

3. Offer Discounts on Food Delivery and Takeout

Food delivery is on the rise with the onset of COVID-19. Employees are staying home to protect their families and themselves, and many people are running out of creative recipes to try every evening. Cooking meals every night can be exhausting, especially for working parents who are balancing childcare and working from home as a part of their standard workday. One way your company can show appreciation for hard working employees is by providing them discounts and credits toward food delivery apps and gift cards to local restaurants. 

Offering discounts on takeout and gift cards to local restaurants is an employee appreciation idea that helps your community, too.

4. Plan Virtual Happy Hours and Game Nights

A quick and easy way to demonstrate employee appreciation is by setting up after-hours virtual happy hours with employees. Your workers can enjoy a beverage of their choice — whether it’s a glass of wine or a glass of water — catch up on what’s happening outside of work, and even play online games together.

There are plenty of online games you can play together during your virtual happy hour.

5. Shout Out Successes on Video Calls

Public recognition is the most impactful, but now that employees are staying home, recognizing employees publicly has become more difficult. One employee appreciation idea is to recognize an employee’s efforts on a group video call. You can do this in many ways — through a slideshow presentation, verbally, or by displaying statistics on how this employee is standing out from the crowd. By the way, leveraging a rewards and recognition platform that highlights these successes in a social feed, similar to what you would see on Facebook or Twitter, is also an extremely helpful tool to recognize employees publicly.

Employee book clubs are a creative employee appreciation idea that not many organizations implement.

6. Send Personalized Recognition for Hard Work

It’s a well-known fact that employee recognition should be highly specific. One simple employee appreciation idea is to send personalized recognition to an employee who has been responsive, helpful, and on top of their work now that your company has transitioned to remote work.

Recognition should be specific and personalized, even when working remotely.

7. Write a LinkedIn Recommendation

This employee appreciation idea takes only a few minutes but can make a huge impact. Take five minutes out of your day to write a great employee a LinkedIn recommendation. Anyone viewing their profile can read these recommendations, and they are especially meaningful coming from management. This effort not only boosts morale and shows how much you care, but also provides a publicly professional endorsement of your employee’s skills and dedication to their job.

BONUS #1: Offer Online Learning and Development Courses

Employees working remotely might be feeling a little lost when it comes to their professional development. Working from home every day doesn’t provide the same social benefits that working out of an office does, and as in-person interactions with management reduce with new remote work schedules, some employees are wondering what the next step is in their careers.

Don’t put career development on hold just because your employees are working remotely.

BONUS #2: Handwrite a Simple Thank You

The working world has become more reliant on technology than ever with the onset of COVID-19, and most communication between managers and employees happens digitally. A simple employee appreciation idea is to handwrite a thank-you note to an employee who you think is doing outstanding work and mail it to their home. As an added bonus, you can include a gift card to somewhere the employee likes to frequent, like a local restaurant offering food delivery!

One tip: be sure to use tape to seal the envelope to avoid any possible COVID-19 contamination.

Employee Appreciation Starts With You

These employee appreciation ideas are just a few ways you can get started. There are thousands of ways to appreciate employees, so be sure to use these 7 ideas as a starting point for integrating rewards and recognition into your daily work routine. Remember that employee appreciation starts with you, and the most important thing to keep in mind during these strange times is that employees rely on you to keep morale up and spirits high. Don’t let them down.

The original article can be found here: 15 Great Employee Appreciation Ideas for Remote Workers