3 Budget peer recognition ideas that work

Peer recognition is more important than we give it credit for. People want to be seen for their hard work and team contribution. It’s a good feeling and highly motivating. It’s also a very simple way of keeping people happy and engaged in their work and environment, and one every manager can implement with a few creative ideas. 

Here are three peer-to-peer recognition ideas that are budget-friendly, fun and highly effective. 

1. Clappy Kudos in Slack: Easy team appreciation

How does it feel when people gather around to congratulate you on a job well done? Now, imagine being able to enjoy this feeling daily as you and your peers enjoy one another’s achievements with the help of Clappy Kudos. 

For making employee recognition programs super easy, we give BuddiesHR a high-five. 

They’ve developed an easy and yet effective way of integrating peer-to-peer recognition into Slack, but have also brought company values to the forefront with Clappy Kudos. This is a great way to encourage everyone to search out and reward employees who consistently demonstrate the values that cause company culture to thrive. 

Supporting the Clappy methodology, a Harvard Review recently reported that ‘effective digital recognition programs can help scale organic praise, have a high ROI, and lead to significantly higher levels of employee engagement and performance’. 

Implement Clappy Kudos

1. Simply integrate Clappy with your Slack workspace, and in three steps, you can set up your peer recognition system. 
2. Add team members to Clappy so they can get notified of kudos and participate in the recognition process.
3. Set up a special day to give kudos and leader boards to encourage usage. 
4. Let Clappy do the rest by running things in Slack and collecting peer recognition data. 
5. Someone had a job title change due to a promotion? Encourage Kudos to be sent in recognition of exceptional performance. 
6. Encourage employees to participate by setting weekly themes for company values you want to focus on, such as ‘integrity’ week.
7. Reward the employee with the most Clappy Kudos at the end of a review period. 

Cost of implementation

BuddiesHR offers the app for FREE if you have 10 or less users - what’s more budget-friendly than that? For more than 10 users, you still only pay $0.80 per employee/pm, and you can cancel anytime. 

Clappy recognition is public, instant (celebrate in one click), fun (with emojis and reactions everyone can jump on board), and great for remote employees to feel seen. It’s the ideal plug-and-play HR platform with real personality!

🎉 Performance review bonus: With Clappy, you get to keep track of kudos and get tangible data for evaluating soft skills, good behaviors and how the employee embodies the company values for your performance reviews.

2. Slack Shoutout: One-day-a-week to recognize employees

You can integrate this with Clappy Kudos, keeping peer recognition streamlined, or create a separate channel to make employees feel valued. The idea goes around making one special day a week where teammates give each other positive feedback. This involves very little work and encourages a positive company culture. 

If you don’t have much money in your employee recognition budget, not to worry. This one is free on Slack, and yet surprisingly effective for making employees feel appreciated.

A Gallup study showed that peer recognition programs that acknowledge hard work and the right behaviors don’t have to be expensive. A thank you can be in the form of a shoutout or written note - employees found this very meaningful. Top-down recognition proved to be the most popular, with 28% of respondents finding recognition from the CEO most memorable. 

Implement Slack Shoutouts

1. Create a ‘Thank-you Thursday’ channel in your Slack Workspace. If you have multiple teams or larger teams, allocate a different ‘thank-you’ day to each team. This way, you have a continual system for public recognition. 
2. Set a calendar notification to remind everyone in the team to participate. Explain that their contribution will encourage a positive work environment. The motto should be, ‘Let’s catch people doing the right things. ’
3. Set the tone for the day by starting the recognition efforts - lead from the front. Keep things short, sweet, and specific: “Thank you @Liam - Your ability to make customers smile is legendary!”
4. Give a quarterly reward to the employee who has found the most positive things to say about other team members. Make this reward something meaningful that others will desire, like paid time off.

Cost of implementation

Nothing! Using Slack as your primary communication platform provides you with an opportunity to implement this recognition strategy for free. If you have some budget, implement recognition rewards (such as implementing ‘free’ coffee from the local cafe for the regular contributors). This will drive all the right behaviors around this process. 

Further reading: How to set up peer recognition in Slack

3. Recognition trophy: The personal touch

Create a recognition trophy (whether funny, silly, or serious) that is passed around once a week (on a dedicated day) to the person who did something awesome for the week. 

Make the trophy big enough to stand out on the employee’s desk for others to see. If you have remote workers, create a trophy icon that can be pasted into the employee profile on Slack (or email) and appear next to their name for the entire week. 

This kind of peer recognition fosters engagement because it taps into psychological principles that boost morale. These principles were first postulated by Abraham Maslow when he put forward that all humans have primal needs that must be met; his theory was called  ’The Maslow Hierarchy of Needs’

When peers recognize one another, it feeds intrinsic needs on the higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, such as love, belonging, and esteem needs. 

This is powerful because, according to Maslow, these needs support the highest level of human fulfillment: self-actualization (or the ability to meet one’s potential). To simplify: receiving formal recognition for their contribution propels people forward to fulfill their ultimate potential.

The trophy opens up another great way to encourage regular recognition amongst peers, knowing that it is a powerful motivator towards better performance, and promoting the company’s core values. 

Implement the recognition trophy.

1. Buy a trophy such as a golden egg, a 3D glass star, or even a quirky one that represents your team’s character.  If you’re a remote team, create an icon specifically for recognition.
2. Start with one recipient, who can then nominate the next week’s winner, or have a weekly vote, with the winner of the vote getting the trophy. This is about empowering employees to vote for the person who displays behaviors you all want to encourage in the team. 
3. At the next team meeting, present the trophy to the winner. You can do this whether you’re face-to-face or online for meetings. 
4. Ask the leadership team to give the winner private recognition in an email or on Slack, providing a double dose of esteem and appreciation.

Cost of implementation

The cost will depend on the type of trophy you buy. You can expect to pay between $10 and $30 once off (unless you want to change trophies regularly). Use Google Slides, MS PowerPoint, or free digital tools to create a unique icon for online trophies. 

More budget-friendly peer recognition ideas

You can’t beat the three budget peer recognition ideas we’ve given you, but if you’re super keen on simple peer recognition ideas, here are some more suggestions:

• Recognition cards - Print sentences like, ‘I noticed you stepped up during…’, or ‘Here’s what I admire about your work…’, on specially designed cards and leave them around the office for team members to complete and give to one another.
• Spin the wheel - Create a spin wheel for the office (or a digital one). Allow the employee who has done excellent work to take one spin and reward them with something simple, like leaving work an hour early, or assigning someone else a quick but tedious task. Employee rewards don’t have to be costly to be effective. 
• Wall of Awesome - Set up a notice board where everyone can post accomplishments and shoutouts. 

Further reading: Use cases for peer recognition 

Budget peer recognition is simple and fun

A productive workforce is a highly engaged one. Peer recognition is a powerful way to tap into motivational drivers and acknowledge employee contributions. Keep recognition fresh by trying out our budget-friendly options, and remember to tie recognition to behaviors and values you want to see more of in the workplace. 

If the program focuses on improving workplace culture, you will see employee morale improve and team spirit become more than just a catch phrase. With such easy ways to get powerful wins, there’s no reason for you not to implement them right now. Start with Clappy Kudos, and go from there.