In fact, research shows that recognition drives a 32% increase in employee performance when combined with feedback and incentives.
Employees pour their hearts and souls into projects, and when you acknowledge their hard work, they become more connected to the organization. This also encourages them to work harder, which results in improved work performance. By recognizing employees, you not only build an engaged workforce but also reduce employee turnover.
Here is a guide on how town halls and virtual award ceremonies are the best virtual event formats to recognize employees and foster a healthy company culture.
How Can Company Town Halls Help Recognize Employees?
A town hall is an internal meeting in which a company reviews its financial performance, discusses future goals & strategy, celebrates milestones, as well as shares updates on upcoming projects or policy changes. During this event, all employees, including managers, HR, directors, and department heads, are gathered and present. So recognizing your employees in front of the entire company can actually make them feel validated and valued.
When you acknowledge and honor your employee’s contributions, they feel great, and their morale is increased, which makes them more engaged and committed to your company. Moreover, praising employees’ specific accomplishments publicly showcases your company’s positive culture. A positive work environment builds relationships among colleagues, inspires teams to work together towards shared goals, and at the same time creates a sense of camaraderie.
How Can a Virtual Award Ceremony Promote a Positive Company Culture?
By hosting a virtual awards ceremony, you show that appreciation isn’t just confined to the physical office. Rewarding employees for their hard work creates a culture that motivates them to put in their best efforts at the workplace.
Here are the steps you can take to host a virtual award ceremony to recognize your employees
1) Choose a Solid Virtual Event Platform
When choosing a virtual event platform, ensure it offers features such as HD video streaming capabilities, backstage/green room, branding & customization, networking, interactive tools like live chat, real-time poll & Q&A, gamification, cloud recording, data privacy & security, and customer assistance.
2) Select Date & Time and Share Details
This event is for your employees, so choose a date and time that suits all of your attendees. Once you finalize the date & timing, share the details of the event with your employees.
3) Choose a Dress Code or a Theme
To add excitement to your virtual award ceremony, implement a dress code or a theme like “tropical gala”, “red carpet”, “70s disco balls”, “superheroes”, etc. Allow your employees to dress up in costumes and make it a fun occasion for them.
4) Create Excitement around the Award Ceremony
A week before the virtual award ceremony, spread the word on your internal communication channels and create buzz. You can start a countdown, share a post featuring employee nominations for the award, and more.
5) Host the Ceremony
Now you are ready to host a virtual award ceremony. Welcome all attendees as they join the event. Play a short recap video of the company’s achievements in the past year. Incorporate upbeat music, engaging intros/outros for the award, and maintain a lively ambiance.
4 Creative Virtual Employee Recognition Ideas
1) Share Employee Recognition
Share your employee recognition on your internal communication channels and on social media accounts to spread the word. You can also mention winners on your company’s official website.
2) Deliver a Surprise Gift to Their Home
A surprise gift is a great way to further the recognition. Since your employees are working remotely, you won’t be able to take them out for a celebration lunch or dinner. In such cases, delivering a celebratory lunch or dinner to their doorstep can be a huge win for them.
3) Invite them for a One-on-One Meeting
Have a one-on-one meeting with the employees that you recognized. Praise their hard work, individually. Your employees will be glad and feel proud to see you meet, thank, and recognise them personally via video conference.
4) Give Extra Time Off as Recognition
For employees who worked hard on a project to finish it on time and delivered excellent outcomes, encourage them to take some much-needed time off to relax. Offering them some paid time off will be memorable as well as meaningful for them.
Which is the Best Virtual Event Platform to Host a Town Hall and Virtual Award Ceremony?
Airmeet is the best virtual event platform to host both town halls and virtual award ceremonies, as it offers 3D virtual environments, HD video streaming capabilities, and robust engagement features such as live chat, polls, Q&A, emoji reactions, breakout rooms, networking lounge, speed networking, and more. Airmeet also offers branding & customization features, allowing you to tailor your event to your brand’s logo, colour, and theme, thereby reinforcing your brand identity.
Airmeet offers a backstage area in which speakers can gather and practice their presentation before going live. Moreover, Airmeet easily accommodates up to 100,000 attendees, which makes it perfect for a global organization with thousands of remote employees. Airmeet provides comprehensive, real-time data on your virtual events and audience engagement, giving you in-depth reporting on networking activity, chat activity, session attendance, top session and employee engagement levels.
Final Thoughts
Virtual town halls and virtual award ceremonies are two of the best virtual event formats for employee recognition and culture building, as these allow you to celebrate employees’ achievements and accomplishments.
By recognizing employees’ hard work and rewarding them in front of the whole company, you not only value their efforts but also reaffirm a positive work culture. Employees will be more engaged with their work, their team, and the organization as a whole when they feel valued and acknowledged for their individual contributions.
FAQ
- Briefly discuss about the project and its team
- Don’t announce the name yet. First, praise the performance
- Display their achievement with bullet points
- Then, reveal their name by displaying a photo of the award recipient(s), & encourage others to congratulate them in chat, and drop a “clap” emoji
- Offer an e-gift card or digital swag
You should recognize your employees for their good performance weekly or at least monthly. Gallup recommends recognizing employees every seven days — and in a timely manner to ensure that the employee knows the significance of the recent achievement and to reinforce company values.
- Boosts employees’ morale, productivity, and engagement
- Increases work satisfaction and enjoyment of work
- Improves retention and decreases employee turnover rate
- Strengthens workplace culture and boosts teamwork
- Employees develop trust in leadership
