Employee appreciation matters. It is the fuel that motivates employees to perform better. In fact, these days, with hybrid and remote work being the norm, the need to recognize and honor your employees promptly is stronger than ever.

Underappreciation often gets translated to neglect and forces your employees to seek new shores where they get valued. So, what can you do to avoid this and improve the morale of your employees?

The answer? Through employee shoutouts. Employee shoutouts refer to acknowledging and complementing your employees for their achievements and contributions to your brand. A timely, well-thought-out employee shoutout motivates employees, makes them feel valued and nudges them to perform better.

In this blog, we talk about the benefits of employee shoutouts, the types, best employee recognition ideas and best practices to follow,

Let's begin.

What are the benefits of doing an employee shoutout?

Here's how a simple practice like doing an employee shout-out on social media can be beneficial for your business.

1. Improved employee morale: Employee shoutouts help your employees feel appreciated, resulting in greater productivity and fostering a sense of belonging.
    

2. Boost employee retention: Recognizing employees for their achievements and efforts leads to greater job satisfaction, boosting employee retention. In other words, employees stay loyal to you when you acknowledge and reward their contributions.
    

3. Humanizes a brand: Consumers are curious to know what happens behind the curtains of a brand. They are eager to learn more about the people behind a brand, and employee shoutouts are the perfect way to do this. These appreciation posts at once humanize your brand and give potential employees the idea that you foster a positive work culture.

5 Best Employee Shoutout Examples to Learn From

1. Plum uses BTS moments to appreciate their employees

As a major advocate of employee welfare, Plum, an employee insurance brand, never misses an opportunity to spotlight its employees. The brand captures moments of their employees being in their element and uses them to appreciate them.

Here's an example where they've used a behind-the-scenes capture to spotlight an employee and highlight her contributions:

Takeaway: Use the principle of 'show, don't tell' to acknowledge your employees' efforts. Capture a candid picture or video of them doing their job and use it to showcase their efforts and the difference they make.

This makes them feel valued and acts as a source of encouragement for them to perform even better. It will also help you show potential employees a glimpse of the employee-driven culture you foster.

2. Innocent Drinks uses a day-in-the-life series to spotlight its employees

Another version of employee BTS content, the 'day in the life' series, is when a camera pans through an employee's typical work day from start to finish. It can be a post where you give a run down of [ employee name, designation] 's daily tasks, from petting the office pets to doing their actual job or hopping on meetings.

Or it can be an informal, fun Instagram video like this one from Innocent Drinks about their HR's typical day. The active inclusion of other employees and the overall light-heartedness of the videos immediately make one think, 'Ah, what a fun place to work.'

Takeaway: Sometimes, giving your employees the spotlight they deserve is the greatest appreciation you can give them. Ask them to walk you through a day in their life at the office (literally and metaphorically) and use it to illustrate the positive impact they create.

This also helps employees bond and appreciate better as, most often, in larger companies, employees don't always get a chance to grasp how their fellow employees contribute to the bigger picture.

3. Twitch uses special days to honor its employees

Twitch, an interactive live streaming platform, uses special days like awareness and national days to bring their employees under the limelight. On these special occasions, they create posts featuring those employees whose contributions resonate with the cause.

For example, here is an example where a Twitch employee is celebrated in association with Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The post highlights her contributions to making Twitch more accessible, perfectly echoing the theme of the day.

Takeaway: Despite being a great example of the 'two birds with one stone', this approach can backfire if not used with caution. You should be extra careful while coupling employee recognition with sensitive topics like diversity, disability, etc.

The best way forward during these occasions is to let the respective employee shape the narrative. This way, you can avoid the chances of sentimentalizing the narrative or fixating on the differences.
 

4. NASA's multi-channel approach to employee appreciation

NASA, the US government agency for aeronautics and aerospace research, takes employee recognition seriously and has adopted a multi-channel approach for this. It has a vertical for employee-centered content and uses social media channels like X (formerly Twitter) to drive readers to it.

Like Twitch, NASA uses observances to celebrate their employees. Here's a grid where they showcase women workers of NASA as a part of raising awareness for Women's History Month.

They also post interviews with people from NASA to give readers glimpses of their professional and personal lives and how they juggle both. Here's one such interview with NASA engineers where they talk about their journey from being newbie engineers to becoming a part of NASA.

Takeaway: One of the best ways to humanize a brand, especially for those from industries like technology, finance and government, is through employee-centered content. The trick here is to let readers peek into the other side of your employees, the fun and relatable side where they are just like anyone else: a mother, a dog lover or a movie buff.

5. Toggl Tracker features employees through expert-led content

Toggl Track, a time-tracking software, endorses its in-house experts by featuring their takes on topics relevant to its core offerings. By positioning their employees as experts, the brand builds authority and authenticity.

In this example, Toggl Track's Marketing Dev shares common mistakes people commit while working from home and offers solutions. The topic' remote work' is relevant with respect to a time tracking tool, and the post establishes the expert's credibility through the fact that she has been working from home for the past 4 years.

Takeaway: Original, expert-led content is the shortest route for brands to elevate to the status of thought leaders. But by spotlighting your in-house experts in this content, you make them feel valued and appreciated.

6. SOCALO Canteen and Mexican pub bridges professional hierarchy through employee shoutouts

Socalo, run by award-winning chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, posts BTS videos from their restaurant kitchen to make employees feel seen despite their rank or seniority. They thank and acknowledge the difference these employees make, however small, to boost their morale and job satisfaction.

Through this warm and candid video, Susan thanks their dishwasher for her amazing work.

Takeaway: It's easy to overlook the small but priceless contributions certain employees, especially ground-level staff, make towards your organization's goals. By giving shoutouts to these under-appreciated heroes, you foster a culture of inclusivity and equality.

Here are popular types of employee shoutouts you can adopt

1. Welcome-to-the-team shoutouts

Welcome-to-the-team shoutouts are used to welcome a new member to a team or company. These types of shoutouts make new joiners feel welcomed and valued and encourage them to perform their best right from the start.

Through these posts, you can talk about their experience, expertise and even fun facts about them. Here's an example from Klowt, a marketing agency:

The post shares interesting facts about new joiners, giving people a glimpse of the person they are outside of work. These kinds of informal shoutouts act as ice-breakers and nudge existing employees to interact with the new ones.

The post shares interesting facts about new joiners, giving people a glimpse of the person they are outside of work. These kinds of informal shoutouts act as ice-breakers and nudge existing employees to interact with the new ones.

2. Teamwork shoutouts

Teamwork shoutouts are about appreciating your team's combined efforts to complete a specific task. For instance, here's a post from an employee of Zappos, an online clothing and shoe retailer brand, congratulating their 'Experience Team' for successfully organizing Halloween.

3. Employee spotlights

In this type of shoutouts, you focus your attention on one employee and talk at length about their contributions to the company. This post from Uber is a good example of this. Here, the focus is on Uber's Enterprise Partnerships account executive and the impact she creates through her work.

4. Milestone shoutouts

Milestone shoutouts are for congratulating employees for completing specific professional milestones. This can include celebrating a work anniversary, project completion or target hitting.

In this example, Avidia Bank congratulates one of its employees for being with them for 42 years. The post is written from the employee's perspective and walks readers through her journey of growth and learning with Avidia Bank.

5. Fun and creative shoutouts

Here's the truth: you don't always need a reason to show appreciation to your employees or team members. A casual, out-of-the-blue appreciation note can go a long way in making your employees feel valued and appreciated.

Austin Long, HR Manager at Pratt Industries, does the same with this post. He congratulates the production team for their active participation in making the employee appreciation day feast a success.

Best practices for employee shoutouts

Here is Linda Moore, HR Head at Slipintosoft sharing some quick thoughts on how to approach employee shoutouts.

"Implementing employee shoutouts involves a two-pronged approach. Firstly, it must be consistent and not just limited to grand success stories; even small wins deserve recognition.

Secondly, it should involve a company-wide digital or physical platform to ensure that the appreciation is visible, thereby increasing its impact on both the recipient and other team members".

Here are 3 more employee shoutout best practices to follow for optimal results:

1. Toot the horn loud for your employees

Employee appreciation requires consistent efforts. "Organizations should challenge themselves to find multiple ways to recognize employees -- "thank you" cards, "wow" moments acknowledged on the spot or on bulletin boards and newsletters, recognition at leadership or department meetings amongst peers. There are so many ways to recognize employees; the key is making the commitment to do so", says Pamela Russell, City Of Murfreesboro, in an article for Forbes.

In other words, the first step towards employee appreciation is to make it a part of your culture. Don't sleep on any opportunities to make your employees feel valued and recognized. Inform CXOs about their achievement, celebrate it on Slack and social media channels to spread the news beyond their teams. In fact, around 24% of employees find it most memorable when CEOs appreciate them for their performance.

2. Spotlight employees on the intranet

Employee recognition through an intranet is a great way to set the benchmark for employee expectations. When you honor and reward employees for specific actions, it acts as an inspiration for fellow employees to achieve similar results.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by embedding social posts featuring employees on your Sharepoint website. You can do this using Flockler, which lets you curate a custom social media feed of employee-centric content and embed it on your Sharepoint website. This helps employees get the limelight they deserve on the company front and enlightens peers on how each employee contributes to the company's overall growth.

3. Invest in an employee recognition software

Timeliness plays an important part in employee recognition. How fast you appreciate an employee holds weight, and without a dedicated program or software for this, the task of employee shoutouts can become time-consuming. This becomes even more complicated in a remote work environment.

There are several employee recognition software in the market that helps you recognize and incentivize employees in real time. These software have built-in features to foster an employee-centric workplace culture and enable real-time appreciation like peer-to-peer recognition, rewards and incentives, shoutout templates, and integration with other HR tools.

4. Tailor your shoutouts to suit your employees

Not everyone likes to be recognized publicly with a drum roll. Some prefer to be appreciated privately instead of through SharePoint websites or social media posts. As employers, it is your duty to know this preference and tailor your shoutouts accordingly.

Jessica Adams, an official member of Forbes Human Resource Council, stresses on this in a Forbes article on employee recognition. According to her, "It's important to treat others how they want to be treated. So take a moment to understand how each employee wants to be recognized and then provide either the public or private recognition that will motivate and be the most impactful to them. We have made this an optional onboarding question for everyone who joins our organization".

Closing Thoughts

Regular and consistent employee appreciation is the key to a happy, motivated and enthusiastic set of employees. Decide on a monthly or quarterly employee appreciation plan and stick to it. On top of that, invest in employee recognition software to ensure peer-to-peer recognition and make employee appreciation a part of your culture. Regularly post employee-centric posts on social media and embed them on your website with custom social feeds from Flockler.

FAQs

1. How to recognize employee performance?

Here are some ways in which you can recognize employee performance:

• Run an employee appreciation program: Run employee of the week or month campaigns and acknowledge them through team meetings, slack channels and social media posts.
• Invest in an employee recognition tool: This allows managers and peers to send timely shoutouts and helps foster a workplace culture built on mutual appreciation.
• Offer best performers upskilling opportunities: You can recognize best performing employees by giving them exclusive perks like courses, opportunities to attend conferences, etc. This makes them feel appreciated and encourages fellow employees to perform better.

2. How to showcase a positive work culture to attract potential employees?

Here are some of the ways in which you can showcase a positive work culture and attract the right talent:

1. Post employee shoutouts on social media channels. Make it candid and engaging by using BTS content and unique angles.

2. Embed employee shoutout feeds on websites and intranet using social media aggregators like Flockler.

3. Add employee shoutouts and spotlights to the 'Life' section of your LinkedIn company page.