As this year comes to a close, we must remember to recognize our employees and the hard work they have contributed. This appreciation is essential for remote teams to promote employee engagement and motivation. The yearly holiday party is the perfect occasion to celebrate our employees. By hosting a virtual office get together, we can keep our employees safe while also commending team members on their achievements. Here are a few virtual holiday party ideas perfect for employee recognition:

Home Office Decorating Competition

In the weeks leading up to the holidays, encourage your employees to decorate their home offices. To take this activity one step further, supply team members with themes such as “Candy Cane Stripes,” “Cosy for the Holidays,” or “Christmas Lights.” Ask members to send in pictures of their decorated set-ups and hold a vote for the best in each class as well as the overall winner. You can even turn this competition into an advent calendar by sharing pictures on a business social media account or company-wide email list. In the days leading up to the holidays, post each team member’s decorated home office and a thoughtful appreciation message. This event will motivate your teams with encouraging words and give each employee a chance to be in the spotlight.

Virtual Gingerbread Wars

This activity involves cookie decorating kits, creativity, and icing skills! Coordinate with a local bakery or send individual cookie kits to employees before the holiday party. With all team members equipped with their icing bags and blank cookie canvases, hold a variety of decorating challenges. Ask employees to decorate self-portrait cookies or even make gingerbread men that look like coworkers or the boss! This activity is a sweet, lighthearted event that all members are sure to enjoy.

Christmas Time in the City

Many virtual teams are spread around large cities, states, or even countries. Through this activity, take advantage of your team’s geographic diversity and highlight different holiday traditions. Encourage team members to provide pictures of one or two city-specific activities that they usually attend. Team leaders can create a slideshow displaying each location and ask their peers to describe their favorite events during the holiday party. This event is a great way to illuminate your team’s diversity and recognize employees from unique cultures and backgrounds.

Funny End of the Year Awards

This light-hearted event recognizes dedicated employees while also incorporating holiday cheer and fun memories. Team leaders can put together a list of exceptional employees and come up with creative awards. A few I have found include the Duct Tape Award for employees who always fix difficult situations or the Mission Impossible Award for team members who always get the job done, even when it seems impossible. For more examples, check out this TalentLyft article. Mail the chosen employees a small gift box with a funny certificate and little treats like hot chocolate mix, a mug, or gift cards for online subscriptions. This activity is a great way to celebrate your hardest workers and show your teams that we appreciate them.

To keep our remote teams going strong into 2021, we must recognize all of their hard work! By incorporating these activities into our yearly celebrations, we can combine the fun of the holidays with the joys of being rewarded for our commitment to the organization. These engaging events will motivate, encourage, and uplift our employees to finish off the year strong and return even more dedication in the future.

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Dima Ghawi is the founder of a global talent development company with a primary mission for advancing individuals in leadership. Through keynote speeches, training programs and executive coaching, Dima has empowered thousands of professionals across the globe to expand their leadership potential. In addition, she provides guidance to business executives to develop diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies and to implement a multi-year plan for advancing quality leaders from within the organization.

Reach her at DimaGhawi.com and BreakingVases.com.

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Read Part One of this series by clicking HERE.

With this holiday’s coming up, teams are excited to celebrate the end of this challenging year and indulge in fun festivities. Even though your organization may be working remotely, there’s no need to cancel the annual party! Boost team morale and employee engagement by hosting a virtual party instead. In this two-part blog, I share some of my favorite themed activities, perfect for an end of the year virtual celebration. Here are some team-building events for your upcoming virtual parties:

Holiday Team Building Games

Put a holiday-twist on some classic team building games to increase team morale and communication. A few great examples include Christmas Movie Trivia, Silent Night Charades, or Winter Pictionary. For these games, make slight alterations to incorporate holiday-themed questions, prompts, and images. One of my favorite virtual holiday games is Blind Christmas Tree Ripping. Supply employees with green construction paper or encourage them to find leftover gift wrap around the house. Instruct the team to close their eyes and try their best to carefully tear a Christmas tree shape from the paper. It’s harder than you may think! To build teamwork skills, you can pair up employees in breakout rooms and ask one employee to close their eyes and do the ripping while the other team member can see and guide their peers through the process. At the end of the activity, have all employees show off their attempts for humorous team bonding.

Kindness Quest

For organizations with a strong focus on community service and giving back, this is the perfect holiday event. The Kindness Quest has two main parts: an online trivia challenge and a Google Maps scavenger hunt. By designating employees into teams, you can foster communication and collaboration during the office party. For an extra challenge, randomize groups and encourage members from different departments to work together.

For the online trivia challenge, direct team members to sites like Freekibble or Freerice. These websites donate kibble to dog shelters or rice to foodbanks based on user participation. Set the timer for 10 - 20 minutes and allow team members to answer as many questions as possible. At the end of time, employees can share their scores, and the top-scoring player can go home with a small prize.

In addition to the trivia challenge, team leaders may put together a community service scavenger hunt for their peers. Starting at the organization’s location, use Google Maps to look around the town for local animal shelters, food banks, and other community service centers. Make a creative and mysterious list of street view directions that will lead employees to these buildings. For example, directions could state: “Start at our office building. Walk north until you see the red striped mailbox. Turn left and take ten steps until you come to the brown building. What have you found?” This activity helps familiarize employees with local community service organizations that may be just a few minutes away from the office.

Winter Themed Escape Rooms

With the rise of lockdowns, many escape room companies have transitioned their business to the virtual sphere. With a short Google search, you can find plenty of companies hosting virtual escape rooms for our holiday parties. These remote escape rooms are often led by a host, creating an integrative and engaging team-building experience. As the holidays approach, look for local and national organizations that may even provide discounts to larger office groups. Through these events, we can challenge our problem-solving skills and continue to build upon teamwork within the company.

Hopefully, these events will add some laughs and fun to our virtual holiday parties. With a focus on team building, we continue to foster connection and communication within our remote offices. These attributes are essential for virtual teams to remain engaged in work and feel a sense of belonging to the organization.