“Life is better live,” says a representative from one of today’s featured companies. That will certainly ring true for workers across the nation who are now – since the COVID shakeup – working from home, often at their own pace, and closer to their loved ones. But what about those people and culture leaders at the companies that once had bustling offices full of mingling employees, but now have to deal with a series of faces on a Zoom screen? Simple logic might say “life is better live” also applies to working life, and that without the contact and friction that comes with seeing each other in the office every day, culture would be nearly impossible to maintain organically. American working is at a crossroads again, and here is what seven companies are doing to keep a nurturing work culture alive by celebrating employees remotely.
One of the things we found was that as our employees were working remotely they were working very, very hard. Our productivity went through the roof! But the potential for burn-out was real, so we put a number of things in place to both say “thanks” and to protect our people from working all the time. Some examples are once-a-quarter day-off for all employees; weekly virtual activities, from game hour to happy hour – ways for employees to hang out; and more frequent communications from executives to make sure everyone knows where the company is headed.
What are some of the difficulties/complications of showing appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
Appreciation can be less impactful when it is sent as an email or a message vs. in-person. Fortunately, RingCentral is a video collaboration platform! We make sure that our messages are delivered via video – so that there is some face-time, some real connection. It’s not the same as in-person, but it is the next best thing – and we can share some fantastic virtual backgrounds!
CIVIC’s People & Culture team changed its perspective to pivot previous in-person activities to virtual activities to ensure all employees felt connected, supported, and appreciated more than ever. We recently held our annual (virtual!) company-wide event which included a mailed care package to all employees with themed shirts, snacks, and company swag. During the holidays, possibly one of the most stressful times of the pandemic, CIVIC held a Holiday Bonanza where team members participated in virtual challenges to earn entries into raffles that were held weekly via Zoom for all of us to come and celebrate together. To celebrate employee appreciation, we recently mailed team members a customized pair of socks accompanied by a card saying we appreciate them “from head to toe”.
What are some of the difficulties/complications of showing appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
Externally – we were sometimes faced with shipping delays or inconsistencies with getting things out to employees for a specific deadline/event. Internally/Systematically – Incorporating new, virtual employee appreciation initiatives into our People & Culture team’s workload proved to be challenging at first due to their bandwidth and existing workloads, but as it is now our new normal with these efforts always a priority, everyone has transitioned into a really good rhythm.
Is CIvic Financial fully remote? If so, for how long?
Within 24 hours of lockdown in March of 2020, 95% of our company transitioned to remote work. We continue to gauge employee feedback on a regular basis and offer flexible options so employees can work in whatever setting that’s comfortable, and/or possible, for them. If they wish to work remote, in office, or on an alternate (hybrid) schedule we fully support that and make options available to them.
Can you give us a few examples of the ways The Hollister Group shows appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
We do a lot to acknowledge and celebrate our employees while we are still fully remote. We have a company-wide meeting every Monday morning where our Vice President reads acknowledgments that colleagues submitted about each other. We also read 2 testimonials received from engagement surveys each week to acknowledge our team live. Every employee gets a “First Cup’s On Us” Starbucks gift card and a GrubHub gift card to order coffee & lunch on us on their first day. Every employee also receives an Amazon gift card for both their birthday & their anniversary, along with a personalized anniversary note from leadership and their manager. Further, we host a quarterly company-wide meeting to acknowledge and reward employees across the board, from top sales performers to Unsung Hero, where leadership comments on what contributed to each individual’s success and offers a financial reward.
The biggest challenge is gauging feedback and how certain efforts are received. Our company-wide meetings are effective in bringing us together as a whole, but we’re presented with the challenge of most people being on mute and not being able to actively hear how our team is responding. The communication challenges that remote settings present are very real, but it doesn’t stop us from acting anyways. We go to great lengths to ensure our team feels valued and appreciated, and while it’s harder to measure the impact, we continue to act anyways.
Is your company fully remote? If so, for how long?
Can you give us a few examples of the ways VoteBash shows appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
We show our appreciation for our team in many ways. Besides constant online camaraderie, support and community, we are diligently planning a global gathering to celebrate us all. Our Big Bash will include all expenses paid at a tropical luxury resort, where we will do team-building activities while having fun!
What are some of the difficulties/complications of showing appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
You know, life is better live. We do deal with some ZOOM-exhaustion and we certainly miss the magic of spontaneous chatting by the coffee machine. We still focus on the positive, in gratitude for each other.
Is your company fully remote? If so, for how long?
We are absolutely 100% remote and have been for the last 5+ years. We are also entirely global with teammates all around the world; from Egypt to Norway, Canada to Thailand, from Argentina to Spain- and everything in between. We certainly are a microcosm of the globe.
We are constantly seeking new ways to celebrate the great work our teams are doing, even in this remote work setting. We use a number of tools internally to recognize our team members who have gone above and beyond, including a praise channel on Slack and a weekly update on the team highlights, aka “Wins,” from across the company. Our People Team also hosts a monthly Virtual Thirsty Thursday program to keep our teams connected in a fun, social setting. Some recent Thirsty Thursday programs have included Bingo, Karaoke, Show & Tell, and Trivia. We have also introduced programs to help with our team’s mental well-being, including weekly meditation sessions and zoom yoga classes.
What are some of the difficulties/complications of showing appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
Not being able to gather face-to-face at our offices has certainly made it a challenge to stay connected and show appreciation to one another and we’re still learning best practices along the way to keep our remote team engaged. Weekly programs like our Thirsty Thursday happy hour or Leaf Group team lunches have had to shift based on the current remote work environment. We’ve managed to introduce new ways to stay connected, virtually, and have leveraged video as a great way to show appreciation for our people. Our quarterly New Hire video introduces our newest employees and welcomes them to the team, and our company leaders recently shared personal messages of appreciation for their teams through a thoughtful video that celebrated how hard our people work every day.
Is your company fully remote? If so, for how long?
We’ve come up with several creative ways to celebrate our team members remotely. New hires and those celebrating work anniversaries receive some fun branded swag at their doorstep, and quarterly, we award two of our team members with our ‘Good Neighbor’ and ‘Good Owner’ awards (which come with some fun prizes). We also use a plug-in within our internal messenger platform that allows us to give and receive kudos (which can be turned into real prizes), and it has proven to be really effective in sharing how each member is contributing to our growth on a daily basis. We’re always looking for opportunities to send a team member a free lunch to say thanks for all they do, too.
What are some of the difficulties/complications of showing appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
One of the biggest challenges for us is recognizing all of the incredible work that’s happening daily behind the scenes. It’s easy to point to big milestones that showcase our success, but what gets us to those big goals are the individual accomplishments of every member of our team. That’s what makes our ‘kudos’ program so important; it allows us to publicly say ‘thanks’ and show our appreciation on an individual level for small tasks that add up to major innovations.
Is your company fully remote? If so, for how long?
On their birthday, our employees receive an order of cupcakes delivered to their door as well as personalized birthday messages from their coworkers. We also use a digital “bonus” platform where employees can send each other positive feedback when they do something great.
What are some of the difficulties/complications of showing appreciation for your employees in a remote setting?
It can be hard to show gratitude for small tasks in a virtual space. Where we would normally give and receive quick thank-you’s there is sometimes instead just silence. It’s also been difficult to celebrate employee achievements in real-time. Sometimes our team members don’t know about something until they read about it in a newsletter or other update.
Is your company fully remote? If so, for how long?