Almost a full year into a global pandemic, it’s more important than ever to find small and large ways to show your staff your appreciation. As a business owner, you want to ensure that employees transitioning back to in-office work and those who will continue to work from home know that you value them and care about their safety, health, and wellbeing. Gestures that acknowledge their worth will go a long way - especially during this uncertain time of transition. 

There are many ways to spread the love with your team, and we’ve gathered a bunch of them right here. Uplift your in-office staff and your remote workers alike with these team-appreciation ideas. Your crew will be surprised, delighted, and more loyal than ever once you show them that their happiness is a top priority for your company.

For In-office Employees

Provide Child Care Assistance

Working parents with young children have had their hands especially full during this time. Make their return to the office easier by increasing options for in-office childcare. 

Accommodating parents who have lost their childcare or whose children still won’t be able to return to school in the fall will ease their stress, which in turn will help them to focus on giving their best performance at work.

Increase Sanitation Options and Take Extra Social Distancing Precautions

Top priority on many minds is how to ensure that in-office sanitation and social distancing measures are adequate to prevent the spread of the virus. Boost your team’s confidence with multiple sanitation stations set up throughout each floor of your office. You can also supply each desk with a box of tissues and hand sanitizer.

To improve social distancing, build-out higher protective barriers between cubicles, and adjust desks so that they are no longer right next to each other. Replace long community work tables with individual desks with partitions. Continue to refine your sanitation and social distancing measures as you learn what works best for your team.

Treat Them to Small Surprises

Leave each employee a $10 Starbucks gift card on their desk one morning to offset the fact that the company coffee station is shut down for right now. Announce that a weekly individual boxed lunch will be delivered to their desk to replace the weekly lunch buffet. Or place a small, thoughtful gift (like our "Here's to making. it. happen." candle above) on their desk to show how much you care. 

Small, meaningful treats like this will surprise your employees in the best way, especially early on in the return-to-work phase when the daily routine may feel a bit overwhelming or stressful.

Upgrade Equipment

What better way to welcome your staff back to the office than with some brand new equipment that instantly improves their work experience? Small changes could include ergonomic mice or keyboards or fully stocked desk drawers with high-quality office supplies. Large changes could include motorized desks that allow workers to transition between sitting and standing desks and ergonomic chairs. 

You can even poll your employees either before or soon after they return to the office to get a majority consensus of what change would have the greatest impact.

Host a Socially-Distanced Company-Sponsored Lunch

In-office socializing might be at a minimum right now, but that just means your team can enjoy the great outdoors together. Host a company-sponsored parking lot a happy hour, or take your team to a nearby park for a long Friday afternoon lunch and break in the sun. You may even find that your team will want to make this a tradition in the warmer months after social distancing has come to an end.

Give Them Extra Time Off

Getting back to in-office work might be a stressful and delicate process for your team. Show your employees you value their wellbeing with additional time off, like a full Friday or Friday afternoon so that they can take care of themselves and their life. They will no doubt appreciate the extra grace during the transition back to the office.

For Employees Working From Home

Provide Home-Office Allowances

Many people who had to make a fast change to remote work were not prepared with home offices. Stories of employees working from their tiny couch or receiving aching backs from too much time sitting on their dining room chairs are everywhere. 

If they’re going to be working from home for the foreseeable future, help them out with an allowance they can use to create a better work-from-home environment. They may opt for a standing desk, an office chair, or updated office supplies and equipment that help them increase their productivity and decrease their irritation and stress.

Be Visible

Company leaders need to ensure that their remote workers still feel like respected members of the company - not like invisible afterthoughts. Send out regular encouraging messages to remote workers that they can access on their own time to check in with them and to let them know what is going on in the company. Make it clear that you are there if they need anything and provide easy ways for them to communicate with you via various connectivity tools.

Send Them a Care Package

Create a care package to be delivered to their front door - they’ll never expect the surprise and they will be so touched by your thoughtfulness. If you're unsure where to start, don't worry—your gifting gurus are here (that's us)! Tokki's thoughtful, sustainable, hassle-free gifting solution makes gifting your employees easy and deeply meaningful.

Just choose a gift set you think they'll love (that part's easy because they're all pretty great), then customize it with the candle of your choice. Next you pick the reusable gift bag print that we'll wrap it in, and it's finally time for the most fun part—making it memorable! Here you can add a personalized message, photos, videos, or GIFs to create the best. card. ever. Your employee will simply scan the QR code on their tokki tag with their camera app (no download required) and voila, you're a gifting guru too!  

Increase Connectivity

Leverage Slack and other company connectivity applications to promote social interaction as well as increased productivity. A blend of work-only and humor/entertainment channels allows remote workers to feel like they’re still a part of the company culture, even as some employees begin to return to the office. 

You can also increase connectivity by creating in-house content that shows how much the remote workforce has helped the company. Send out an inspirational video with a message from top executives. Provide graphs and stats that clearly display how much the company benefits from the remote workers. Inform them about forthcoming changes to your remote management procedures and how your work-from-home staff stand to benefit.

Hold a Morale-Boosting Company-Wide Video Call

This gift can be enjoyed by both in-office and remote employees. Replace your standard all-hands meeting with a company-wide morale-boosting call. Allow each of your top execs to speak to the staff and uplift them with from-the-heart messages that instill them with a sense of conviction to continue to persevere. 

The most important thing is to ensure that your at-home employees feel included and integral to the continued success of the company. You’re all in it together - make sure remote and in-office employees alike never forget that.

 

Further Reading