With work-from-home or remote work almost becoming the new normal, it’s not surprising that the HR teams in many organizations are looking for the best ways to organize a virtual employee awards ceremony that meets the expectations of all their employees.
Read about the Key Reasons to Digitize an Employee Recognition Program
Over the last few years, organizations have digitized most of their HR processes, from recruitment, onboarding, training, engagement, performance management, and even exit interviews.
Employee recognition is one of the core HR processes that organizations have digitized already or are planning to digitize.
The annual employee awards ceremony has been an integral component of the employee recognition programs of most organizations.
It is an excellent opportunity for the organization to recognize and appreciate its high-achieving employees in front of the entire workforce, including senior management.
It is a hugely motivating and memorable occasion for the award winners and aspirational for all others.
Award ceremonies are great opportunities for business leaders to share updates on the latest developments and the roadmap of the business with the entire workforce.
These are also great for team bonding and for senior leaders to interact informally with employees across ranks on the sidelines of the event.
Conducting offline awards events might be logistically challenging for organizations in a hybrid work environment with many remote employees.
Given the importance of these events, several organizations go ahead and organize such award ceremonies virtually.
Organizing a virtual award ceremony has other benefits as well:
– Takes care of employee health and safety concerns
– Cost savings on physical venue, infrastructure, event management, logistics, etc.
– Shorter planning cycles and faster execution
However, virtually replicating the experience of an offline event is not easy.
Hence, organizations need to plan and execute such events properly to ensure that meet their objectives and expectations.
Hosting a virtual awards ceremony can present some pretty significant challenges.
Companies can best overcome these challenges by investing time and effort in planning the event properly.
Here are a few tips:
1. Plan to Perfection
2. Choose the Right Technology Platform
3. Modify the Ceremony for Online Streaming
4. Set Up a Microsite and Promote the Event
5. Engage the Virtual Audience
6. Get Tech Support
1. Plan to Perfection
Organizing a live event, whether offline or online requires meticulous planning.
It is even more critical for an online event as it will likely be shorter with no breaks.
Here are the key elements of the plan:
– Event Schedule
– Event anchors/ master of ceremony
– Speakers and presenters
– Presentations and videos
– List of awardees
One of the most critical decisions in the planning of a virtual award ceremony is to choose the right technology platform.
Many factors would determine this choice:
– Scalability: based on the number of participants
– Bandwidth requirement: given that the network speed for participants might be different
– Stability: the platform should be reliable and not prone to crashes due to peak load
– Interactivity: the extent to which participants can get involved in the event
The organization could look at various options of technology platforms for organizing a virtual awards ceremony:
– Standard Web Conference Tools, including the enterprise editions of MS Teams, Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Google Meet, etc.
– Virtual Event Platforms such as BigMarker, GoToWebinar, HeySummit, Hopin, SpotMe, vFairs, etc.
The organizing team should plan the event flow to make the transitions smoother and faster than offline events.
Unlike offline events, where transitions and breaks are part of the event flow, they are not possible in virtual events.
Also, slideshows and pre-recorded videos of the presenters and awardees should be combined with the actual live streaming.
Professional editors might be required to create these videos to minimize the transitions.
It is a good idea to set up an event microsite for the virtual employee awards ceremony. It could be hosted on the company intranet or another internal platform.
The microsite can be given the look and feel of a virtual town hall or any other popular venue for hosting the ceremony.
Moreover, the microsite should be the hub of information about the event for the participants, with all links and updates.
The organizers should also promote the virtual award ceremony through email, collaboration platforms, and internal social media to ensure maximum employee participation.
Engaging a virtual audience is quite challenging as compared to an offline audience as they can easily log off or just ignore the event if they get bored.
Hence, the event organizers must plan and facilitate the audience’s participation.
This may include:
– Q & A sessions
– Audience chats
– Audience polls (before/ during/ after), Quizzes and Contests
– Entertainment (live/ pre-recorded)
– Skits, Dance/ musical performances
– Stand-up comedy acts
– Audience giveaways/ prizes (e-gift cards/ vouchers)
Organizing a virtual employee awards ceremony without professional help can become a nightmare.
The organizers should rope in professionals with expertise and experience in digital/ streamed events, whether internal or external to manage the entire ‘backstage’ operations.
These experts can help select the right platform, set it up, and manage it during the event.
Also, they can quickly troubleshoot any technical issues that may arise.
Given the current situation, organizations need to get a grasp of how to organize a virtual employee awards ceremony effectively. It can help organizations boost the morale and motivation of their workforce without compromising their health and safety.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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