3 Social Recognition Ideas for Celebrating Successes in the Workplace

Business leaders and HR professionals spend a great deal of time in their roles exploring employee rewards and recognition tactics for building rewarding work cultures where their staff thrive. This dedication of time only makes sense when you consider just how much employees value being recognized for their work! 

A study by Office Team found that 66% of employees would quit their jobs if they didn’t feel appreciated for their work, and the number is believed to be even higher among the millennial demographic. On the flip side, in an OGO study, more than 40% of employed Americans reported that if they were recognized more often, they would put more energy into their work. So since employee recognition is a worthwhile investment, what are a few proven ways to celebrate and reward employees for their successes? In this post, we’ll share 3 social recognition and celebration ideas you can implement in your workplace to help you build a high-performance culture. 

Why social recognition works

If your managers are doing a good job at recognizing their team members one-on-one for a job well done, then that’s great! But social recognition tactics that recognize employees more publicly take the feeling of reward a few steps further on a psychological level. Not only does social recognition make the employee feel confident about their capabilities, but it also helps strengthen their bond to the team and organization as a whole by creating a stronger sense of belonging. Creating this sense of belonging improves employee retention and can help you save thousands of dollars in employee turnover. 

Social recognition ideas for celebrating employee success 

1. Celebrate achievements online with employee rewards and recognition software

Since employees are spending plenty of their time online anyway, why not bring recognition and celebrations online too? Employee recognition and reward software like Bucketlist help you give public shoutouts, celebrate milestones, and distribute rewards — all within the same dedicated platform. Most of these tools even connect to popular communication tools like Slack so that giving praise becomes a much more common occurrence for all to see. Last but not least, they also foster peer-to-peer recognition that’s proven to work wonders for employee engagement.

Turning to employee recognition and reward platforms is a particularly smart move if your organization is in transition to becoming a hybrid workplace. Having half of your workforce working remotely on any given day means there’s too much chance that they will miss moments of celebration or praise that happen in the office, but you can be sure that these moments won’t be missed when they happen online. You might also want to consider these platforms if your company is home to a multi-generational workforce since they give your staff a wide range of rewards to choose from that suit their needs and interests. 

2. Acknowledge and celebrate personal successes  

Let’s not forget that your staff lead busy and fulfilling lives outside of the office and often achieve significant successes in their personal lives that are also worth recognizing. To create that family-like feeling in your team where they feel loved and appreciated for more than just their roles, why not make efforts to celebrate and recognize your employees for achieving milestones like having a baby, getting married, buying their first home, winning a fitness competition, or anything else that’s dear to their heart? 

This can be done through a number of creative and thoughtful ways like:

• • A hand-written note or card signed by the team
• • A gift basket, fruit basket, baked goods basket, or other unique arrangement sent to the home
• • Sending out a company-wide email or Slack message congratulating the person 
• • Gifting the employee with an extra day off, tickets to a show or concert, an experience of their choice, or flight vouchers. 

The sky’s the limit with this tactic, and the more thoughtful, the better. 

3. Get leadership involved in amplifying recognition

Several studies have proven that employees feel the most valued when they receive praise from someone in authority. A study by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that a simple expression of thanks by someone high up the ladder led to people being 50% more productive. Since being seen by authority is important to staff, it’s a good idea to get your leadership fully involved in employee recognition and celebrations so that they set a great example for the rest of your team to follow. 

To make sure this goes over well, you might want to consider hosting some training sessions with managers to educate them on the best ways to recognize their staff in public settings. With the right encouragement, they can make personal shout-outs a regular part of team meetings or do a great job at modelling recognition best practices through your company’s communication platforms.

If you are interested in learning more about how an employee recognition software can help celebrate employee successes, contact us.