Research shows that when employees feel engaged, they’re not only more likely to stick around but also to be more productive and satisfied with their jobs. In fact, 69% feel that recognition programs enhance their loyalty to their companies, and about 80% of employees said they put in more effort when they feel appreciated.
Since work-from-home workers can sometimes feel isolated and miss out on the team bonding that happens in the office, sending your remote employee gifts is advised to help keep them engaged and happy.
To help you nail your virtual employee recognition, we have compiled a list of meaningful yet inexpensive gifts for remote employees that do not require mailing addresses and postage fees.
5 Best Virtual Gifts for Remote Workers and Coworkers
1. Subscriptions
A subscription to an online streaming service like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple TV, or many others is a tremendous and easy gift to get someone who works from home. Because remote workers often spend a lot of their free time at home, this could be a nice (Christmas) gift to help them get more quality time with their families and improve their wellness.
Furthermore, working remotely means balancing child care and work. A subscription to an online streaming service could give the kids something to do while mom and dad work in the home office. In addition, having something to occupy the kids with could help your remote workers be more productive during the hours they set aside for work.
Some other subscription options to show appreciation to your remote employees include:
- Gym membership
- Online games and music platforms like Spotify and Pandora
- Subscription to a coffee, cheese, wine, or beer of the month club
- Subscription to a fitness app, like Thenx or Headspace.
2. Access to Virtual Courses and Training Programs
One of the best virtual gifts for remote workers is access to online courses and training programs. Employees, remote or office-based, love learning new skills and acquiring new qualifications at work. This can factor heavily into whether or not they qualify for a promotion or raise, so getting new skills is essential.
Employees are more likely to be satisfied with their employer and stay longer if they feel like they are growing professionally. Given the sophistication of state-of-the-art learning management systems, your employees can gain valuable knowledge and skills without sacrificing productive work hours and social time.
Some good examples of virtual training as a gift for remote workers include coding classes, marketing and customer service training, and sales training. However, as mentioned above, it is important to ensure that you gift employees with training programs that match their interests and career directions.
3. NFTS and Other Digital Collectibles
NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, have exploded onto the crypto-currency scene as a form of digital collectible. NFTs can be minted for anything and give the owners sole ownership of a limited digital collectible like art, music, a sports highlight, and many others. Unlike other crypto-currencies, NFTs cannot be exchanged directly for other NFTs but instead for other crypto-currencies.
NFTs would make great remote employee appreciation gifts for the collectors and young people on your team. They are also great gifts for the accounting and finance guys on the team, who probably already know about them.
Furthermore, since NFTs are still relatively new compared to other crypto-currencies, the applications and consequently their future value is limitless. Therefore, helping your employees start building their NFT portfolios now could turn out to be a great financial decision for their futures since no one knows what any of these assets could be worth in the future.
Of course, it is worth mentioning that NFTs, like crypto in general, are a bit of a polarizing subject. Some people love them despite their volatility and others want nothing to do with them. Hence, it would be best to check if the remote employee you’d like to gift one to is in one camp or the other.
4. Virtual Team Building Activities
Virtual team building activities have become more prevalent ever since remote work became mainstream. You should leverage this trend to gift and reward your remote employees for their continued engagement despite the difficulties of staying focused while working from home.
Virtual team building activities can take any form, from virtual hangouts catching up to playing online games together with coworkers. You can also take this opportunity to provide remote mentorship opportunities for interested employees. There are a lot of people that feel like their careers have stagnated due to remote work. For such people, an hour of lunch with the boss or with someone whose job or career they admire would be a hell of a gift.
5. Virtual Gift Cards for E-commerce Platforms
One thing that has become the norm after the pandemic is shopping online from e-commerce stores like Amazon, as is saves people from commuting to and from grocery stores and malls to buy things.
You have to mind which employees you give this to, though, as some employees might not find this gift personal enough. One solution to this is to give gift cards for work-from-home workers to places that you know they like to go to. For instance, you could get your health and wellness-conscious employees gift cards to Whole Foods or Wegmans.
Employee rewards platforms like Nectar and Motivosity make it easier to offer such gift cards to remote workers.
Other Great Work-from-Home Gifts (Require Shipping)
As we said, all the gift ideas on this list are virtual. However, if you’d like to go the extra mile, there are ways in which you can send physical goods to your remote employees while foregoing the hassle of shipping them yourself. Take the example of AwardCo. They have an integration with Amazon Business, so employees can redeem their rewards for any product listed on the eCommerce giant. You can send all kinds of things like:
- Home appliances and electronics like power banks and portable hard drives
- Work From Home gear
- Board games for the family
- Fitness equipment
- Potted plants
- Set of wine glasses
- Care packages and gift hampers
What to Consider When Choosing Virtual Gifts for Employees
There are three main goals of giving employees gifts, whether it’s virtual or physical:
- To make the recipients happy and feel appreciated by their employers
- To grow the relationship between the employer or team leader and their team members
- To make the employees feel unique and valued with gifts that are personalized and meaningful to them.
More specifically, the following guidelines will help you gift your remote workers effectively and appropriately.
Tailor Virtual Gifts to Individuals
Nothing makes a gift recipient happier than knowing that their gift was selected based on their unique passions and interests. The best gifts are tailored to the receiver's tastes. Personalized gifts show your remote employees that you care enough about them to know their tastes and preferences.
For example, a book could be a fantastic appreciation gift to a remote employee who likes to read and is interested in the book's topic. However, in the wrong hands, it is nothing more than clutter that will most likely get re-gifted to someone else.
Therefore take the time to know whom you are gifting and their preferences if you want your gift to achieve the goals mentioned above.
Read More: 40+ Unique & Modern Employee Recognition Program Ideas
Show Appreciation for Your Employees.
It is essential to give virtual gifts that symbolize how much you value your employees. Gifting people is not as simple as picking something and clicking purchase on Amazon. You have to make sure that the gift or gift box you choose communicates how much you value the services and contributions of that employee to your organization.
Even if you don't believe that you are communicating value, your employees will take it as your way of expressing how valuable they are to you. For instance, your employees are likely not to feel valued and appreciated for their unique contributions if they all receive the same gifts regardless of their tastes, preferences, and individual contributions to the team.
Be Transparent
It is important to be as transparent as possible when gifting your employees so there are no feelings of unfairness, corruption, or favoritism. For this, we would encourage you to make the virtual gift-giving ceremonies public and open to everyone.
You can also give a small speech along with every gift to contextualize the gifts for everyone. For instance, an employee whose gift is better than everyone else’s because they worked harder than everyone else deserves a speech that mentions that fact.
Set a Price Range and Stick To It
Another way to avoid favoritism or unfairness in the gifting process is to set a price range and stick to it (again, an employee reward program can be a big help in this case). It is not uncommon for employees to look up the prices of their gifts if only to compare them with their colleagues' gifts. Therefore, setting a minimum and maximum price for the virtual gifts can help you tone down any feelings of favoritism among your team members.
Furthermore, having an upper price limit for remote employee gifts will prevent unnecessary spending on expensive gifts. With a thoughtful gift that is not necessarily expensive, you can communicate how much you know and value an employee.
Read More: 22 Free Employee Recognition Ideas That Actually Work
Avoid Controversial and Inappropriate Gifts
It is crucial for every employer or manager gifting their employees to know where the boundaries of appropriateness lie. For example, a funny gift for a friend or family member could be an HR nightmare if given to a colleague or subordinate.
When choosing gifts for remote workers (as well as office-based ones), it is vital to avoid any innuendo or practical jokes that could be misunderstood by the recipient and others like family members and colleagues. One of the best ways to comply with this is to avoid getting too personal with your gifts to remote employees and coworkers. For example, while a subscription to a gym is a thoughtful gift, it could be seen as a commentary on someone's size, which could be interpreted as some form of body shaming.
If you are uncertain about whether a gift is inappropriate or insensitive, perhaps check in with the rest of the Human Resources department before you confirm your purchase. HR and other colleagues can help to judge whether a gift is appropriate or not in the workplace. So, take the time and get the clearance. It might save your job and stop you from making one of your team members uncomfortable.
Last Advice on Remote Employee Appreciation Gifts
This is our list of the best virtual gifts for people who work from home to make them feel valued and appreciated as members of your team. We have also included guidelines for choosing an appropriate gift for your employees based on their interests and preferences. If you follow these guidelines, you should easily find the perfect appreciation gifts for your remote employees.
