This helps us all get out of our heads to have a little fun during the workday. - Sam Williamson, co-owner of CBDiablo, Were encouraging employees to stay active by challenging their coworkers. Not just practical job skills, but behavioral and cultural skills as well. Recommended Article: 25 Employee Engagement Activities To Reinvent Your Workforce. Happily, Ive heard lots of versions of this choice as well: My company is taking the money that would be used for the holiday party (usually a sit-down dinner with open bar) and is donating it instead to a local charity. Get to know your employees and find out what they like so you can give gift cards that are tailored to their interests. To keep our employees motivated, we are encouraging and hosting virtual social time. Everything is impacted by COVID-19 in some way, including our work. Offering extra time off pretty much never goes amiss, especially at this time of year: In lieu of bonuses and parties and all sorts of things, my employer is just closing for the week in between Christmas and New Years and giving everyone the time offits been a hit, because thats usually a huge use of vacation days for folks. Explore the challenges people face in working from home (and they will differ) and ideas for dealing with them or sharing personal practices that work. Support families to. 1. Company-branded swag can be simple everyday things like t-shirts, mugs, or even pen drives. The employee experience is better, and the company's outcome stronger. Get Chinese food somewhere. We've had a few teams compete in virtual relays, races, or step challenges using free apps to log steps, distance ran/cycled, etc. You may opt-out by. For example, new employees should receive a buddy to learn the ropes. Teams complete comic-book-themed riddles and puzzles and virtual minute-to-win-it challenges to climb the leaderboard and save the world. After your holiday meal, go on a virtual group walk through your respective neighborhoods to work off the food. Recommended Article: 23 Awesome Ways To Make Every Employee Work Anniversary Memorable. Keeping a workplace safe during the COVID-19 pandemic can be challenging. They had a selection that included non-alcoholic mixes too (like a ginger lemonade). The essence of spirit week is enthusiasm, not physical proximity. Here are 10 ideas to consider for your school: 1. Materialistic perks are fine. Your team can decorate their jack-o'-lanterns during break, lunch, or while you hold a team meeting. School spirit week is a fun time for everyone to come together and show off their pride. Find ways to start each day with positive energy and a sense of community. And amid stay-at-home orders. 1. Feel free to customize it with your companys logos. 5k+ Downloads Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight In stock now. Every company has got one of these employees. It is especially meaningful when the appreciation comes from their bosses. Experiences, not cash, are the new corporate bonus. Thus, make it easier for team members to congratulate each other on a job well done. The time can be used all at once or in increments. - Molly George, Partner and CEO of Kickstand Communications, We host Netflix parties where we pick something to watch and an app syncs our screens, letting us instant message each other. 1. Donut is an app in our Slack channel that randomly pairs up coworkers together, encouraging them to set up a coffee meeting (of course, in this case, a virtual coffee meeting) in order to get to know each other better. Learn more about virtual costume contests. Beyond bestowing traditional awards like extraordinary performance, team player, or rookie of the year, you can also create fun award categories. Check out BoostEducatorsChallenge.com for details. The Coronavirus Crisis 9 Ways Schools Will Look Different When (And If) They Reopen 1. Successful fundraising during a recession is two-pronged: Focus hard on donor engagement and retention, and Social Media is the biggest influencer of our generation. Virtual workout or meditation classes. Here are a few examples. For example, book-binding, instrument-building, ravioli-making, or makeup lessons with a drag queen. Sometimes, the utmost appreciation that an employee seeks is a promotion in his job role. Offering them a handsome salary is one aspect. These activities also make great spring spirit week ideas for work. I cannot wait. Few people are as knee-deep in our work-related anxieties and sticky office politics as Alison Green, who has been fielding workplace questions for a decade now on her website Ask a Manager. In times of isolation it can be very difficult to stay on top of where everyone is at. Have regular check ins with individual team members. Check out our list of the best online murder mysteries. Moreover, you can drop an appreciation mail to the employees so that it stays with them forever. Working remotely creates a new set of challenges that arebeing amplified by the added stress of school closures andby the anxiety many are facing during this pandemic. So, it's essential to consider this less of an idea and more of a thing that you have to do eventually. Either way, ask participants to record results by posting them to the channel in a @WIN/@LOSS format. And encouraging a cake culture can never be a bad thing. Team members can challenge each other voluntarily. You can even snap a photo and create your own hashtag for when employees achieve something especially commendable. Share funny videos, do some riddles and brainsteasers, put music on in the background. Following recommendations from the CDC, we've put together some helpful guide to navigating Christmas during Covid this year. Hence, "Employee of the month" programs are a great way to show your best employees that you see their hard work and appreciate the efforts they are putting in. A team lunch is a great way through which everyone can bond with each other and with you. We have these events called campfires that take place twice a week. Recommended Article: The Ultimate Guide To Employee Rewards and Recognition. These events are the online equivalent of spirit week, and are examples of virtual employee engagement activities and virtual team celebrations, and often take place on virtual event platforms. Gift ideas ranged, but included orchids, stay-at-home picnic baskets, family dinners, bookstore gift cards, and fancy coffee! - Nicole Canulla, Head of Marketing & Communications at DUST Identity, What I've found very engaging and will definitely continue to use even after we're no longer remote is Donut. For the main event, meet up on a video call to sip tea, chat, and play games. Show your employees some love by making sure that the snacks provided are healthy and nutritious. Do the bragging on behalf of your employees, and show your whole team how fantastic everyone is. To host an online award show, first create award categories. Get 5 morale boosting tips here, learn how to celebrate employee milestones virtually here, and get some more general tricks for managing your remote workforce here. Today's employees seek recognition and rewards based on the career advancement that they want. Anxiety. Want to give someone the gift that keeps on giving? Then, have one attendee lead the class, or screen share a video routine. The box also had a few ingredients, fresh produce, and a list of recipes you could make with everything. Be sure to grab plenty of screen shots throughout the afternoon or evening. Working from home can be challenging. Here come's the most impactful one in our list of employee appreciation ideas. Maintain a positive work/life balance and encourage your team to do the same It's easy to work longer hours and take fewer breaks when working from home. This year, the questions are quite different, and nearly all are some variation of What do we even do for the holidays in a pandemic? Many employers are simply canceling holiday celebrations, since theres no way to safely gather. Celebrated on the first Friday in March, it pays homage to each employee's contribution to their company. Online Office Games is a friendly competition for remote teammates. With these 33 employee appreciation ideas, you will see reduced turnover and retain your top talents. Who doesnt love free food? Themed gift boxes are another popular idea: Were sending winter-y stay-at-home gift boxes. Thoughtful ways to build community and pride. Make sure you exchange emails with a volunteer coordinator or call before you . The cups were all the same so no one could tell what you were drinking unless you commented on it. For example, build breaks into your work schedule, remind team members to take breaks, and don't do work tasks while off work.7,8,9,10,11,12,13 Model problem solving from a variety of viewpoints. The tours could happen on a single day, or throughout the week. For inspiration, check out our lists of online cooking classes and online art classes. To begin with, publicly recognizing great employees reflects well on your company for customers, investors, and your team. When you actually take the time out to get involved with them personally, employees feel that you genuinely care about them. Everyone had a week to practice and record their talents before we all watched them together during a special All Hands meeting. List of virtual spirit week ideas. Team building content expert. Snacks are a fantastic food item that doesn't require you to get out of your desk when you want to eat something light. For three hours per week, staff can sign off anytime during the workday for rest and wellbeing, no questions asked. Offering free meals and caffeine is actually a highly effective and cost-effective means of motivating and controlling young employees. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. 2023 teambuilding.com, all rights reserved | Terms | Privacy, virtual tours of museums, zoos, and parks, list of free virtual team building activities for work, list of the best remote team outing ideas, Post a picture from your first year at the company vs now, Take a screenshot in the unlikeliest Zoom meeting spot, Film a 30-second work from home snack cooking lesson, Dress-up accessories, like sunglasses, boas, and novelty headbands, Create a collaborative world map showing which countries team members have lived in or traveled to, Ask participants to compile top 5 travel bucket lists of the destinations they would most like to visit, and pair up teammates with similar interests for a video chat, Video chat with screen pals in different countries, Compile a photo slideshow of the teams collective travels, Most likely to forget to mute/unmute the mic, Lightning fingers, aka fastest Slack replies, Most likely to binge cat videos during the workday.