Celebrating Milestones and Fostering Appreciation in Remote Teams

Building a Culture of Praise and Wellbeing with Luna Park

• Author

  Arlen Marmel

• Date Published

  Sep 26, 2024

Many employees like to be recognized, not only for the work that they provide, but for their personal achievements. Here at Luna Park, we believe in fostering an inclusive culture around everything we do, including milestones such as birthdays or anniversaries. We wanted to highlight some key resources for creating a remote or hybrid culture that allows for celebrating milestones and fostering appreciation in the workplace. Keep reading below for some tips on how to build a culture of praise and wellbeing.

Tip #1: Show recognition to everyone, regardless of title or time at the company

Though you gathered the birthday and anniversary opt in at onboarding, don't forget to shout out achievements that may have opted out initially. Fostering a sense of belonging through celebrating achievements together makes employees feel valued in their role and work they are doing, regardless of seniority at your organization.

• Use our Ice Cream Shout Outs to celebrate small wins every day!
  • Ice Cream Shoutouts allows team members to express gratitude and recognition by sharing an Ice Cream Cone emoji along with a brief message of appreciation. A dynamic leaderboard highlights the top givers and receivers weekly, gamifying shout-outs in the workplace. This tool supports asynchronous shout-outs across different time zones, encouraging the celebration of efforts both big and small, and fostering a culture of appreciation. Encourage everyone, especially managers and leaders to use this feature in Slack.
• Want to celebrate your teams? Our custom Jeoparky game can also be customized for teams guaranteed to be a hit at your next company All Hands or Quarterly Business Review.
• Does your company also enjoy celebrating holidays in unique ways? We have a gallery full of games for every special occasion. A perfect way to foster a culture of belonging and acceptance of others.

Tip #2: Ask employees to opt in to sharing their birthday or anniversary information

Many of us recognize that birthday's should be fun and exciting, however, some people may struggle mentally or emotionally around their birthday. During your onboarding process, we suggest collecting the new hire's permission on if they would like to publicly celebrate their birthday with their new co-workers. With our Slack Tool you can simply upload a list, which would likely come from your HRIS or we can prompt your team with a question to get the data. Keep note on who opts in or out and circulate the list to the appropriate people: People Team, Executive Assistants, Managers, etc. who are in charge of gifting or Slack. (If you don't have a Slack channel for celebrations - create one now!)

Not only will this ease some of their own fears being put in the spotlight for their birthday or work anniversary, it will also allow for those who may feel pressured to celebrate their birthday publicly to opt out in a way that feels respectable.

Did you know we offer a Mental Health Check In game? This is great to add to 1:1's every so often to check in on your peers, direct reports and employees.

Tip #3: Decide how you will celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries

Small teams, large teams, hybrid, remote, in office - with so many options available for work after the pandemic coordinating how birthdays or anniversaries are celebrated can get tough. Here are a few ways to make it a bit easier:

• Use our Slack Birthday's & Celebrations tool. You can actually customize the message (if you prefer) to better fit your culture. And each message includes a GIF...it's also smart and won't send messages on the weekends. This tool ensures everyone feels recognized and valued on their special days, fostering a sense of community and appreciation in your workspace.
• Pick a set time each month to celebrate milestones or birthdays or both.
  • Create a custom Jeoparky game to highlight an individual or small team from your department to take things to the next level of celebratory fun.
  • Got a Friday Happy Hour on the calendar for your remote/hybrid team? Use our Milestone Mixer as an award ceremony where players give each other tongue-in-cheek awards. It serves as a fun way to celebrate company milestones, ensuring everyone gets a moment in the spotlight.
  • Mid-month is a great time to celebrate birthdays. Set up a recurring 20 minute call for the chance to play Birthday Partay with this month's birthday people. Perfect for all teams of all sizes, regardless of location.
    • If hybrid, supply a cake or small treat each month on the same day as the Birthday Partay for those who are celebrating that month. A small note goes a long way as well!
  • We also offer great games for bridal showers, baby showers and departing employees - the guest of honor will be the star of the show so that the team can show appreciation and celebrate life's achievements as a group.
• For managers and people leaders, budgeting some additional funds to treat your employees to a lunch or even a coffee can help with building morale. This can be used to celebrate birthdays, personal achievements or even closing that hard to land client.

Conclusion

Now it is more important than ever to create a sense of praise, belonging and community with the people you spend the majority of your day with. Let Luna Park help you along the way with celebrating life and workplace achievements.