Ice Cream Shoutouts: Fostering Recognition in the Workplace

Build a Culture of Appreciation with Luna Park's Innovative Slack Tool

• Author

  Arlen Marmel

• Date Published

  Sep 26, 2024

Luna Park stands out by turning everyday interactions into lively, memorable events that bring teams closer together, no matter where they are distributed, and are sure to drive engagement, collaboration and camaraderie. What's even better is that we have created a robust Slack programs library that will foster positive reinforcement and authentic gratitude at your company.

Our Ice Cream Shoutouts will help build a culture of recognition by gamifying recognition in the workplace. This leads to a value driven experience that allows authentic recognition for peers and managers alike. A dynamic leaderboard highlights the top givers and receivers weekly, with data visibility to everyone at your organization.

How do Ice Cream Shoutouts work?

1. Easily integrate this feature in the Slack channel of your choice. This can be in one or multiple channels, based upon your preference.
2. Pick your emoji - The default is 🍦but it can be anything from🪴to 🧋
3. By default, we set it to 5 givable ice creams per day but it can be anything from 0-500
   • Pro Tip: Make your leadership team admins in Luna Park, give them additional ice creams and encourage them to provide positive feedback to their team openly.
4. Save & let the giving begin.

Some reminders:

• Use em, or lose em. Ice creams do not roll over to the next day.
• Send messages tagging the person you wish to praise with an ice cream or reply with the preferred ice cream emoji to the message in Slack.
• Workplace admins will activate this program in certain channels - make sure you are using this feature in the correct channel in order for the receiver to get their ice creams.

Why is implementing a recognition program important in your remote environment?

We're so glad you asked! Not only does our Slack programming provide some wonderful tools for onboarding, connectivity and sparking conversation, our Ice Cream Shoutouts feature rounds out the tools perfectly - boosting morale, encouraging employee engagement and fostering a culture of inclusion and connection. It is easy to provide feedback or praise in a remote work environment. Since there is no water cooler to tell someone they're doing great, you like their outfit, or they smashed a large presentation out of the park, using our Ice Cream Shoutouts feature provides the means to express gratitude and praise for your team. By providing a structured recognition program, your organization can expect:

• Strengthenings team bonds: Recognition fosters a sense of belonging by creating moments of shared appreciation, which strengthens the connection between team members and reinforces teamwork.
• Uplifts morale: Recognition serves as a powerful tool to uplift spirits, particularly in a remote setup where employees may feel disconnected from the company's overall mission or goals. Acknowledging accomplishments helps build confidence and reinforces positive behaviors.
• Aligns or reinforces company values: By recognizing individuals or teams for embodying company values, leadership can reinforce the desired behaviors and attitudes within a remote workforce. This helps maintain a strong organizational culture even when team members are geographically dispersed.
• Promotes productivity, decreases turnover: Happy people perform better when they feel that their work is valued by leadership. In turn this increases job satisfaction and creates employee loyalty.

Teach or reinforce providing positive feedback periodically with your leadership team. A small gesture goes a long way in retaining happy employees.

For admins, leaders, and people who love data - Leaderboards

Our leaderboard function is a great way to see who has given and received the most ice creams. What's even better is admins will receive a message in Slack from the Luna Park app that includes a summary of shout-outs given for the month along with highlighting the top 5 givers and receivers. Our analytics also track the number of shout outs given and received, making this a great tool to see who is going above and beyond. If you incentivize going above and beyond, this is a great way to track who is consistently meeting any markers for your programs.

Conclusion

Our Luna Park slack programs are sure to delight your whole team. Not only is it important for individual contributors, but even executives enjoy hearing that their work is appreciated. Incorporate Ice Cream Shoutouts into your overall employee engagement strategy to help boost morale, loyalty and encourage shoutouts for a job well done!

*Leaderboards are private to your company and are not shared with others.