10 Ways to Recognize and Reward New Employees and Interns

Hiring interns and new employees can add new skills and fresh perspectives to your company, but new hires’ contributions to your team can easily be overlooked. Recognizing and rewarding the achievements of your newest employees and interns can help them feel appreciated as members of your team, which can help you build a culture of gratitude, foster stronger connections among your team members, and increase employee retention.

Employee Recognition vs. Rewards

“Employee recognition” and “employee rewards” are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct differences. Employee recognition is the act of intrinsically motivating employees by acknowledging and showing appreciation for their accomplishments and contributions. Using employee recognition software can give your employees a platform to show appreciation for their peers and praise their contributions.

Unlike recognition, employee rewards are tangible incentives that are given to celebrate specific achievements or acknowledge the completion of specific goals. They are often extrinsic motivators that incentivize employees to continue improving their performance.

Employee Recognition Ideas for Interns and New Employees

Recognizing your new employees’ and interns’ contributions to your team can be an easy way to help them feel welcomed and valued. Try these employee recognition ideas to show appreciation for your interns and new employees.

Virtual Tacos

Virtual tacos are a peer-to-peer recognition feature in HeyTaco. Your employees can use virtual tacos to express gratitude and publicly recognize each other’s accomplishments and achievements. Virtual tacos can also encourage your newest employees to participate in discussions.

By default, each of your employees can send up to five tacos to their peers daily. This limit encourages your team members to think carefully about their peers’ contributions and show appreciation for the messages they believe carry the most value.

Social Media Shoutouts

Celebrating your new employees and interns by sharing their accomplishments on your company’s social media accounts is a great way to encourage engagement from your followers, share your employee recognition efforts with a larger audience, and reinforce the values your company prides itself on.

Social media shoutouts encourage employees to leave comments praising and supporting your new employees and interns. The shoutouts and comments will be accessible to the public. Be sure to ask your new employee or intern for permission to post the shoutout, and make sure they’re comfortable being praised publicly before you share their accomplishments with your company’s social media followers.

Add New Employees to Your “About Us” Page

Adding your new employees and interns to your company’s About Us page is an easy and free way to recognize their contributions as official members of your team. 

Handwritten Notes

Handwritten notes are a simple way to show appreciation for your new hires and interns. Giving your new hire or intern a handwritten note that praises them for their excellent work or a recent accomplishment shows them that you value them and their contributions to your company.

Welcome New Hires in Your Company Newsletter

Featuring your new employees and interns in your company’s internal newsletter is a great way to introduce them to larger teams. Your new hires’ introductions should include pictures of your new hires along with their names and roles. The introductions can also include fun facts about your new hires, such as their hobbies and interests outside the workplace.

Employee Reward Ideas for Interns and New Employees

Showing your new employees and interns that you appreciate their accomplishments by giving them tangible rewards can encourage them to be more productive as they work toward bigger and better rewards. Try these employee reward ideas to celebrate your interns’ and new employees’ successes.

HeyTaco Rewards

HeyTaco rewards are customizable rewards you can offer your new employees and interns to celebrate their accomplishments. After your employees have earned tacos for recognizing their peers’ successes, they can visit the Taco Shop to redeem them for prizes such as taco trophies, movie tickets, a taco dinner, or a company t-shirt. Need reward ideas for your team? Check out our list of meaningful HeyTaco rewards for over 30 ways to celebrate your employees and interns.

Gift Cards

Sometimes, the best reward for your new employee or intern is a gift they choose. Offering gift cards to your team members gives them the freedom to decide when and how to redeem their reward. You can give your employees complete freedom over their rewards by offering them a Visa gift card they can redeem wherever Visa is accepted.

You can make your gift cards more meaningful by rewarding your employees and interns with gift cards that they can use to pay for new experiences or reach their personal goals. The more personal a reward is, the more meaningful and memorable it will be for your employees. If one of your new employees has recently moved to your city, you can reward them with a membership to a local museum that recently unveiled a new exhibit. If one of your interns can’t stop talking about fishing on the weekends, reward them with a gift card to a bait and tackle shop or sporting goods store.

Wellness Days

Wellness days offer employees a break from their workloads and give them opportunities to prioritize their health and well-being. Rewarding your team with wellness day activities in the office can boost morale, reduce stress, and show your employees that your company values a healthy work-life balance.

Some wellness day activities that you can implement in your workplace include:

• Stress management workshops
• Meditation classes
• Cooking classes
• Fitness challenges
• Creativity workshops
• Massages

Birthday PTO

Rewarding your employees and interns with a paid day off on their birthdays shows them that you care about their well-being in and out of the workplace. Offering paid time off for birthdays also encourages employees and interns to use their paid time at different times throughout the year rather than having everyone rush to use up the bulk of their PTO before the year ends. This can help to prevent your workplace from being short-staffed during the holiday season.

Fun Fridays

Fun Fridays are a great way to help your team unwind at the end of the week. You can have your employees participate in weekly team-building activities, such as escape room puzzles and group cooking classes, to encourage employee engagement and build your team’s communication and collaboration skills.

Conclusion

Recognizing and rewarding your employees and interns for their accomplishments and contributions to your team can help them feel like valued team members and help you build a positive work culture. With HeyTaco, you can easily integrate peer-to-peer recognition and rewards into your company’s work culture and ensure that all your employees feel appreciated, from the newest intern to the most senior executive.