How does one reward a remote team? At first, it may seem like there aren’t too many ways. After all, the team isn’t in the office, meaning that catered lunches, holiday parties, and celebratory all-hands meetings are out of the question. Or are they?
A little bit (or a lot) of distance shouldn’t be a deterrent from rewarding a hardworking team, and fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, all it takes to reward a remote team is a little creativity. If you’re blanking, no need to worry. We’ve got you covered with our roundup of ways that remote employers can reward and celebrate their teams.
1. Instead of catered lunch, offer lunch delivery rewards.
So you can’t feed your entire team a delicious catered lunch in the office, but you know what you can still do? Provide your team members with free lunch delivery. GrubHub and Seamless coupons can be a real treat for remote workers who are often eating out of their own kitchens for lunch. If you want to reward your remote team in a simple but memorable way, emailing out food delivery coupons definitely shows your appreciation while easily being the highlight of your employees’ days.
2. Instead of an annual office party, organize a company-wide retreat.
Office parties are great, but you know what’s better? Retreats — to Mexico, to Europe, to San Diego, to Australia, you name it. Seriously, you can book your team a stay in just about any city and turn it into company-wide retreat that serves as both as a celebration and a way to embark on a team-bonding experience. Think about it, you’re both rewarding your team and inspiring them to work even better together than they already do. We call that the ultimate form of productivity.
3. Instead of having everyone in your office to celebrate, make an all-hands Skype call.
When the boss calls everyone into his or her office, employees know either one of two things is about to happen: bad news or good news. When it’s good news, it’s great, and there’s nothing quite like gathering with your team while your employer showers compliments on you all. But guess what? You can still shower compliments on your team from afar. All it takes is a little schedule coordinating and an all-hands Skype call with the entire remote team.
Some things never change…
It’s true that we’ve given some unique ways to turn rewards that are normally doled out in the office and turned them into remote rewards, but there are some things that never change regardless of if your employees are in an office with you or not.
Annual and holiday bonuses are still appreciated.
A bonus is a bonus no matter if it’s given out digitally or handed out in check form. Remote employees deserve all the same perks and benefits as in-office workers do, so employees and remote managers should certainly consider annual and holiday bonuses for their remote teams. Everybody can use an little extra cash at the end of the year, and making the effort to reward your remote employees with a traditional money bonus is something that will be appreciated for the year to come.
Furthermore, if you weren’t planning on giving out annual or holiday bonuses in the form of money, remote teams can still receive other forms of holiday gifts such as wine, chocolates, gift cards, and fruit baskets just like in-office employees. Change the address to the employee’s home address instead of a central office to accomplish the same sense of company holiday camaraderie and leave your remote employees feeling just as appreciated as in-office employees would feel after a long year of hard work and productivity.
How do you reward your remote team? Tell us on Twitter!
This article was originally published on Remote.com