14 Dec 2020

Celebrating Your Team (and the End of a Crazy Year)

Celebrating your team, recognizing their work as a group and as individuals, and measuring your progress against your goals is a vital part of the end of every year. But, as we close what has been an emotional and trying year, that recognition and celebration is more important than ever. So how you do celebrate without a happy hour or holiday lunch? What can you do for your team to remind them how important they are to your overall success? We have a few ideas:

Virtual Lunch: While everyone might have video call burnout, you can use a service like Zoom or Teams for more than meetings. Send gift cards to your team members and then invite them to join you for a year-end celebration. Open the event with a thank you and quick run through of the year’s challenges and successes before giving people time just to hang out and enjoy each other’s company. It’s not the same as having a holiday party in the conference room, but it’s a nice compromise that can help keep everyone safe.

Personalized Recognition: If you have a small team – or managers who know their teams well – you can send out personalized year-end thank you cards, perhaps with a gift card enclosed. If you decide to go this route, take the time to truly recognize the efforts each team member has made throughout the year. Without regular office hours or meetings in 2020, many employees have felt less engaged than before the pandemic. Remind them that you realize how hard they are working and the impact that work makes on your organization.

Peer-to-Peer Thank Yous: This one is easy, but it takes a bit of planning and some staff buy in. Have each member of your team self-address a stamped envelope with a notecard inside. Once you get them all back, randomly pass them out to each employee and ask them to write a note of thanks or encouragement or recognition to the person who will receive their card. Ask them all to be mailed by a certain date for a morale boost.

Even if you don’t take on one of these ideas, it’s important to at least send a year-end thank you email to your staff. Take the time to recognize the goals you set a year ago, talk about how the company has pivoted, address the challenges ad successes you’ve had throughout 2020 and encourage your staff to keep their heads up as we get into 2021.

Need help with morale, teambuilding or a recognition program? Let us help: https://www.thegrowthcoach.com/.

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