A virtual work anniversary celebration is an important activity to honor your remote employees in your organization. It’s a time to tell them how much you appreciate their work and their contributions to the team. While this celebration may sometimes last just a few minutes, it can instill a sense of gratitude in your remote employees and help them feel less isolated. Here are five great virtual work anniversary ideas to show appreciation for your remote employees and build an inclusive work environment.

Virtual toast from work peers

Work milestones are more memorable when celebrated with co-workers, and an anniversary is no different. To make an employee’s virtual work anniversary significant, you need to invite colleagues to share the excitement and a virtual toast is one of the best ways to include the entire team. Make an announcement on Slack or email inviting all employees to the event. Let the employees know they are coming to give shoutouts to one of their colleagues and also give them the opportunity to prepare their own speech - well wishes, a funny moment, or an anecdote. This is simple: all employees will join, and then, upon a count of three, everyone will say cheers and congratulate the employee for such a milestone at work.

An employee spotlight

One of the most exciting and career growth-oriented ways of celebrating a work anniversary is to highlight the employee’s work. You can do this by highlighting what the employee does and who they are on the company’s social media handles, blogs, or grant them an interview on your official YouTube page. This is a chance to focus on the employee and give them the freedom to talk about themselves, their challenges, and where they want to go from there.

Create an online scrapbook for the employee

One of the best ways to celebrate an employee’s work anniversary is to bring back interesting memories of their past work with colleagues, and an online scrapbook is a great way to achieve this. Tell your employees to share screenshots and photos they have with the employee. It could be a screenshot from a Zoom call, a virtual presentation, something funny they said on Slack, or a good Instagram photo of them. Once you gather these snapshots, put them together in an online scrapbook. You can share it on the company’s Slack channel or turn it into a presentation and use it as a slideshow at a Zoom meeting to celebrate them. There are many online scrapbook templates on Canva for teams to edit and add photos and screenshots - no design skills are needed.

A virtual gift

Employee spotlights or online scrapbooks are good, but if you want to make a work anniversary more memorable, try adding a meaningful virtual gift. This gift could be a subscription to software products or online courses. Do they love designing in their free time? Get them a one-year subscription to Adobe Suite. Do they want to learn new skills for personal development? Buy them an online course. You can ask their closest colleague, teammates, or check their social media for clues on what to buy them.

A surprise party

Plan a surprise party to celebrate an employee’s work anniversary. You need to do this beforehand with the rest of the team and make sure that the one who’s celebrating their work anniversary isn’t part of the planning stage. Remember, it’s supposed to be a surprise. To get ideas on activities to include in the party, ask the employee that you need virtual ideas for a work anniversary you’re celebrating for a friend, and use their suggestions to plan the entire event. This is to get them to give you a hint of their favorite online activities while making sure that they don’t suspect anything. Once you identify their favorite virtual activities, you can use Bar None Games to set them up, whether they are trivia games, word puzzles, or scavenger hunts. You are now ready to give your remote employee the celebration of their life.