Ways to recognize your people while working at home
The last month has been a whirlwind of change. Not only are we getting used to our new normal of working from home, we’re also working hard to weather the storm together. As leaders, you are supporting your people through all this change as well as keeping them engaged while we’re all working remotely.
Putting the I in MAGIC
Employee engagement is one of our top priorities at CHG. To better understand and drive engagement, we’ve adopted the MAGIC model — which states that key engagement drivers are meaning, autonomy, growth, impact, and connection — and incorporated it in our approach to culture and leadership.
Impact is a fundamental precursor to meaning. While meaning is about purpose (the “why”), impact is about the results (the “what”). Employees feel valued when they have a clear picture about the impact their work makes. They need to know that what they’re doing makes a difference in an important way.
Although we know recognition is important to our people’s engagement, the big question is how do we effectively recognize our people when everyone is working remotely?
Best practices for employee recognition
Recognizing your people is always important, but it’s even more essential while we’re all working from home, and people may feel disconnected and alone. You can recognize your people for a variety of things, including living our core values, reaching a work anniversary, celebrating life milestones like birthdays and retirement, going the extra mile, or accomplishing work goals like hitting their sales targets. The possibilities are endless, you just have to look for them.
Whatever it is you’re celebrating, your recognition should be:
- Personal and genuine. It should not feel like a transaction, forced, or something you do to check a box. Instead, make it unique and personal to the recipient and how they like to be recognized. Plan your words in advance and invite peers to participate.
- Specific. Describe what the individual did, the outcome of their work, how it exceeded expectations, how it made a difference or how it made an impact to the team, division, or company.
- Timely. Delaying recognition lessens its impact.
- Frequent. While annual recognition is nice, frequent recognition is much more meaningful.
- Connected to purpose. Align recognition back to purpose. Share how the work made a difference to the company, team, or division.
- Public. Sharing publicly inspires observers of the recognition. It doesn’t have to be loud with lots of pomp and circumstance (remember it needs to fit the recipient’s preferences). Sharing recognition in front of others helps teammates to see what behaviors and work are valued at CHG.
Making recognition virtual
Now that we’re all working remotely, we need to tailor our recognition to fit our new normal. Our corporate events team has created a Virtual Recognition Toolkit to help make it easier for you to successfully recognize your people while working from home.
Here are a few ideas from the toolkit to get you started:
- Virtual cards:
- Group Greeting allows entire teams to sign the card ($5 per card)
- JibJab is a fun, personalized video e-card (free)
- Create a Wordle (word cloud) with descriptive words about the recipient
- MS Teams recognition tools:
- Create new awards just for “At Home” work
- Stop by a team member’s house and leave a chalk message on their driveway
- Consider a team drive-by or parade where you drive past and cheer for the team member
- Hold a lunchtime celebration Zoom call
These are just a few of the ways you can celebrate your team members. Check out the Virtual Recognition Toolkit for more ideas and share your own WFH-recognition ideas in the comments below.
