Reward & Recognize a Virtual Team with Certificates
By: Camille Bryant
Tags: Teambuildingactivities, Team Collaboration, Team Building, Teamwork, Rewards And Recognition

Giving awards and recognition provides tremendous value to your virtual team members as well as the team’s collective spirit. When people receive an award or recognition it makes them feel valued. Recognition honor’s efforts and lets others know that we see their contributions.

Bottom line, when we receive an award or recognition, we feel good. And good chemicals are released in our brain that inspires us to continue doing what we are being recognized for.

Impromptu recognition is always a good idea when it is sincere, yet being recognized “officially” provides an extra element of satisfaction and imprints a stronger memory.

In this virtual team building activity, I’ll walk you through how you can give team members an opportunity to award their peers. It’s not only fun, but it’s also really easy to do with a virtual team.

I facilitated this activity with a team of 11 recently in about 30 minutes. I was smiling from ear to ear as the awards were presented because positive energy is contagious. The instructions are below, feel free to modify to fit the needs of your team.

Instructions:

Prep Work for the Facilitator

1. Create a certificate template in PowerPoint that you will provide for the team members.

My template had three sections:

The first slide was the instructions.

The second slide was an example of a completed certificate.

Slides 3–6 were all blank certificate templates.

2. Work with the team leader to divide the team into sub-teams of 3–4 people who will work together in a breakout.

Facilitating the Activity

Set up the exercise as an opportunity for the team to celebrate each other and recognize each other for their special contribution to the team. Explain that they will have 15 minutes to work with a sub-team and create an award certificate for a sub-set of the team that they will be assigned. Each sub-team will be creating awards for 3–4 team members that are not in their breakout room. (On a slide provide a table which shows the sub-teams and who they are creating awards for). Show them an example of a completed certificate. Encourage them to be creative and colorful if they have time. Assign a sub-team facilitator for each breakout. Upload the PowerPoint template into chat so they can download the instructions, an example, and blank certificates before they go into their breakout rooms. Direct them to have one person in each sub-team share their screen in the breakout and fill out the certificates. Let them know when they come back to the main room, one person from each group will be presenting the awards. Check for questions. Send them into breakouts for 15 minutes. When they return, each team will share the certificate and award the team members they were assigned. (This takes about 1–2 minutes per person, depending on the team). Lastly, ask them to send you the certificates so you can compile them and distribute them to the full team later.

Summary

This is a fun, engaging virtual team building activity that allows the team to reward and recognize each other for their unique contributions to the team.

About the Author: Leigh Ann Rodgers, Founder of Better Teams and Forward, is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator with 20 years of experience in the human development field. Leigh Ann is a skilled meeting facilitator, trainer, and coach working across the globe to help leaders cultivate teams that are happy and high-performing.

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