10 Peer-to-Peer Recognition Ideas to Supercharge Team Morale

Employees who have ways to hype each other up–or at the very least, share regular, positive interactions–create a work environment that retains the best of the best. The encouragement inspires them to repeat positive behaviors, support each other, and aim for new, higher targets. 

This is the direct result of a strong peer-to-peer recognition culture. Peer recognition is the only way to guarantee authenticity, camaraderie, and cooperation. Shout-outs from management are important, but they don’t bond teams. In workplaces where recognition isn’t a ritual, inconsistent or unbalanced manager shoutouts can even turn them against one another. 

Ready to empower employees to celebrate each other's wins, reinforce company values in real-time, and build stronger connections? Today, we’re listing 10 powerful peer-to-peer recognition ideas. With actionable tips and real-world examples, you’ll be equipped to rebuild recognition at work–one thank-you at a time.

What’s inside:

1. Digital badges

2. Peer nomination and voting systems
3. Real-time team chat recognition
4. Peer-to-peer recognition platforms
5. Employee recognition walls and displays
6. Recognizing core values
7. Handwritten messages and thank-you cards
8. Peer mentorship and skill-sharing
9. Team celebrations and ceremonies
10. Anonymous feedback and surveys

Peer-to-peer recognition ideas: A side-by-side comparison

Start small, recognize often: It starts with HeyTaco

1. Digital badges 

Sometimes, it helps to have something to show for your best work (other than a paycheck, of course). 

Digital badges aren’t just proof that an employee excels in a certain area. They’re achievements employees can list with pride on their LinkedIn profiles. They tell new hires who may be the best source for feedback on a particular task. These insider titles linger longer than a thank-you and help shape cultural identity. 

Plus, because peers award them, it feels genuine. They don’t expire like Employee of the Month does, and they don’t gather dust on our desks. We like collecting them, too.

Tips for including digital badges as recognition

Like any other form of recognition, the most important part of using badges is being transparent about why they exist and how someone gets one. 

• Define the criteria: Select a few actions that represent someone’s team contributions. For example, employees might want to give their biggest debugger the Exterminator badge. 
• Use company values: Core value champions really are role models for the rest of the team. Add in a few badges specific to values we want to see flourish, like collaboration, creativity, or integrity.
• Celebrate them publicly: Announce new badge earners in a public channel to celebrate their success and inspire others.
• Don’t dilute the prestige: We want everyone to have a badge, but cranking them out until everyone has one won’t feel special. So, avoid creating too many.

2. Peer nomination and voting systems

Ah, democracy. Everyone is empowered, everyone has a voice. When peers choose a winner, they don’t feel forced to celebrate because they won, too. The recipient feels accepted, and we lower the risk of resentment and suspicions of favoritism.

Have employees nominate their colleagues for monthly or quarterly awards. The winner is decided by a team-wide vote. This is an elevated version of a positive feedback loop. Instead of positive actions culminating in managerial praise, the entire community celebrates it. 

The keys to peer nomination success

Fairness, clarity, and genuine celebration. It’s what everyone wants from elections. The following tips help ensure your team gets it.

• Nail down the categories: A mix of performance, personal attributes, and values-based titles is appropriate. 
• Keep the process simple: Use a simple form employees are familiar with, and create a field where they can explain why they’re nominating this person. 
• Mention all nominees: Don’t let those compliments go to waste. Before you announce the winner, share who the runners-up are and read their kudos.
• Stay on schedule: A consistent, predictable schedule builds anticipation and helps these events become a team ritual. 

🥳 Make everyone a winner at your annual bash. If you want everyone to walk away with something, rotate out some fun paper plate award ideas in the lead-up to the main categories.

3. Real-time team chat recognition

Real-time chat recognition normalizes praise, builds it into workflows, and supports continuous peer feedback. Continuous feedback helps us progress much more steadily than quarterly or annual reviews. 

Recognition that’s easily distributed happens more often. A Gallup study found that frequent feedback feels more meaningful. The feedback is more tightly linked to the action, leading 80% of respondents who recently received recognition to feel fully engaged in their work. 

Chat recognition also has a few more specific benefits for teams. Praise in team chats isn’t so public that a shy person feels uncomfortable in the spotlight versus a manager shoutout during a meeting. At the same time, it’s the best method to ensure remote and hybrid workers are getting the regular acknowledgment necessary to feel a team connection. 

Using HeyTaco for real-time chat recognition

Tools like HeyTaco make giving praise easy, visible, and engaging. It also streamlines the process. Here are a few ways to make it stick: 

• Create a channel: Don’t clutter busy productivity chats. Many HeyTaco dedicate a separate channel. Name it accordingly–#smallwins, #gratitude, etc.
• Celebrate peers who give: You don’t have to make HeyTaco leaderboards visible, but if you do, highlight people who praise their peers most.
• Automate milestone recognition: Use the Milestones feature to ensure the team never misses the chance to wish someone well on a birthday or work anniversary. 
• Lead by example: Managers and leaders should actively participate in the channel. When employees see leadership giving and celebrating peer recognition, it validates the practice and encourages wider adoption.
  
  

4. Peer-to-peer recognition platforms

Real-time chat recognition is often one component of a complete platform like HeyTaco. The chat is where recognition happens, but other features make it a well-rounded, supportive ecosystem that centralizes recognition activity.

Recognition platforms have tools and analytics that serve both the employees and their leaders. Analytics help people leaders see the impact of recognition, while automated features keep the engine running.

Gamified leaderboards motivate team members to ascend levels by giving praise or repeating praiseworthy behaviors. Rewards catalogs (like our Taco Shop) perk up the program. 

What to look for in a recognition platform

Some points-based platforms feel too formal for teams to use consistently. Others are essentially just gift card distributors that don’t feel meaningful after a while. Picking a platform that meets these four criteria can help avoid those issues:

• Scalable: Select a platform that makes sense for the size of your organization. Most companies need a simple, cost-effective tool, while large enterprises require advanced integration capabilities.
• Customizable features: Every culture has its own language and customs. The ability to tailor features like rewards is key to making employees feel comfortable using it.
• Seamless integration: Once you decide how and where recognition will occur, make sure the tool fits into workflows. It should feel like a natural feature of the landscape in Slack, Teams, or anywhere else you plan to implement it. 
• Free trials: Never commit or subscribe without executing a test launch. Free trials or special introductory rates allow you time to show the team how it works and see if it’s a good fit.

5. Employee recognition walls and displays

Whiteboards, bulletin boards, internal screens, and communication platforms. All can be venues for praise and community connection. Employee walls are also among the most customizable and cost-effective peer-to-peer recognition ideas. 

Recognition walls can be an accurate representation of a team’s culture. Peer involvement puts what matters to them out in the open, creates space for them to express themselves, and even lets them exercise creativity. Having a voice and being accepted for who you are is the foundation of belonging at work.

Use boards, walls, and displays to celebrate employees as humans, not just members of a team. 

Employee recognition wall ideas

The number one rule of recognition walls is to never let it sit without an update. Once you choose your medium, physical or digital, roll it out with a tutorial or guidelines for contributions. 

• Update the company-led section weekly: Post recognition leaderboards and employee milestones, such as the week’s birthdays and work anniversaries.
• Accept submissions for categories: Invite employees to share Throwback Photos, Pet of the Month, Quote of the Week, or My Hidden Talent. Stagger the frequency of these categories so one is always being updated.
• Allow free space for notes: Let employees share a funny drawing or message of gratitude at will. Remember, many of the most authentic and engaging parts of recognition are spontaneous.
• Make it accessible: High-traffic areas and platforms the team already uses are the best locations. Keep art supplies or pens and sticky notes by the physical board and make suggestions for posting on a digital wall.

6. Recognizing core values

Core value-based praise should be a mainstay in most forms of recognition, from chat to peer nominations. However, there are a few work situations where they become invaluable. 

Celebrating shared values is where employees who don’t collaborate closely or enjoy much cross-departmental interaction can meet. It also solves the problem of generic praise. “Great job!” becomes, “Whoa, that was a really creative solution. I might want to try that.” 

It’s key to assert company values within the culture that employees create. For instance, making respect a core value will influence employee interactions, even if they have a familiar, easygoing relationship with one another. 

Launching a values-based program

The goal is to make it easy for employees to identify and celebrate value-driven behaviors as they happen.

• Give examples: Words like “integrity” can describe a wide range of different actions in various settings. Provide examples of what it looks like in this workplace. (“Thank you for the compliment, but it was actually Sarah who came up with that idea.”)
• Hashtag it: HeyTaco’s Taco Tags track value-associated hashtags in Slack or Microsoft Teams. Just remember to keep your hashtags consistent (#accountabilityalways #muchrespect).
• Celebrate values champions: Tracking the tags makes it so you can identify and shout out employees who best exemplify company values. 
• Remember, you’re a role model: Don’t leave it completely up to employees. Managers, CEOs–anyone in leadership should get the ball rolling on praising value-driven behaviors. This is the only way employees trust it’s actually a value and not HR-powered lip service.

7. Handwritten messages and thank-you cards

Sending a thank-you card isn’t just good advice from Grandma. It’s one of the most effective peer-to-peer recognition ideas for human connection and genuine appreciation.

Encourage employees to write thank-you notes to colleagues. Notes and cards are tangible mementos that can be reread as needed for encouragement or to evoke positive memories.

This is a good practice for occasions where a “thank you” isn’t impactful enough. If someone saved the day, offered support, or needs extra support themselves, handwritten messages show a little more effort in acknowledging that. 

How to be awesome at saying thank you

Avoid letting the greeting card company’s copywriter do all the talking. Here’s how to help employees jot down sincere messages of thanks that peers will keep on their desks for years.

• Choose the right materials: Consider providing blank company-branded cards and pens in a common area or mail them to remote employees. Offering materials and ensuring everyone knows what they’re for proves it’s a practice the company values (it also prevents them from scrawling it on the back of a receipt).
• Encourage timeliness: Employees may not be consciously aware that recognition should be timely. When suggesting thank-you messages, share the importance of tying your sentiments more closely to events by giving thanks as soon as possible. 
• Encourage specificity: Writers should use the recipient’s name, make clear what they’re thanking them for, and, if applicable, how their deeds impacted them. “Thank you so much for buying me lunch, Isabella. It turned my whole day around, and I can’t wait to repay the kindness.”
• Kick it off with a campaign: Introduce handwritten notes as a practice by inviting employees to write well wishes to someone in particular. An administrative assistant who has been covering a lot of duties, the person in payroll who has been out injured, or someone celebrating a 10^th work anniversary. 

8. Peer mentorship and skill-sharing

People want growth opportunities. Lack of professional development is the top reason employees quit in search of greener pastures.

When peers partner up to exchange advice or help someone else get ahead, it deserves recognition. Organizations should take it further by facilitating mentorship, celebrating learners, and acknowledging their need for development.

By recognizing mentors and people who want to improve, you encourage a continuous cycle of upskilling. The culture becomes a supportive environment where everyone’s empowered to ask for help and share their expertise.

How to make mentorship part of your recognition program

Mentorship and skill-sharing are a net positive, but it’s also something the company should help structure. This way, you know that the skills shared are role-relevant and that both parties want to participate. 

• Make a framework: Establish a simple, voluntary program where employees can sign up as mentors or mentees. This provides a clear channel for these relationships to form.
• Celebrate both sides: Mentorship is a collaborative effort. Praise a mentor’s leadership qualities as well as the mentee’s drive for new knowledge and growth. 
• Share success stories: Mention positive outcomes in newsletters or at meetings. Openly praise a mentee’s application of a new skill and share how their mentor helped them do it, inspiring more participation. 
• Give them time to meet: Lunch and learns or afternoon hours for practicing new skills are a great perk or reward. 

9. Team celebrations and ceremonies

Awards ceremonies and team celebrations, like lunches and parties, can serve various recognition-related purposes. Companies use them for acknowledging milestones, awarding based on peer nomination and voting, or as a reward for meeting a goal.

When done correctly, celebrations can be a massive (and memorable) culture-building event. It creates a stronger sense of community, champions pride in everyone’s achievements, and offers a chance for nonstop camaraderie.

How to plan celebrations that employees genuinely appreciate

You’ll find that successful team celebrations are less about the budget and more about cultural alignment. 

• Apply low pressure: Employees are less likely to enjoy an event if they feel obligated to both attend and have fun. Try to schedule it at a time that works for the majority, and don’t guilt anyone who isn’t participating, especially if it’s outside of work hours. If there are speeches, keep them short.
• Peer involvement, always: Not every event will include peer nominations or awards. But they should all include peer input. Ask employees to help make a playlist or have them vote on what they’d like to eat. 
• Don’t overspend: If there is a sense of dissatisfaction around pay, benefits, or other compensation-related issues, keep it modest. People who feel they aren’t being fairly compensated aren’t interested in a catered gala at a banquet hall. 
• Remote employees like to party, too: Hybrid teams can include remote employees via Zoom. Arrange to accommodate them in advance. Fully remote teams can enjoy virtual happy hours or pre-arranged refreshments via delivery. 

10. Anonymous feedback and surveys

A big part of feeling recognized is knowing your voice matters, but not every person in every scenario is comfortable with signing their name to it. 

Anonymous feedback and recognition systems help share praise or constructive comments without the pressures of social dynamics or fear of perceived bias. In some cases, anonymity can be even more beneficial by ensuring the focus remains entirely on the work and its impact, not the person giving the kudos. 

The majority of our peer recognition should not be anonymous. We want positivity to be public. Still, anonymous feedback accommodates people who feel awkward being sincere or adds discretion to difficult conversations. 

Anonymous feedback and recognition best practices

The goals are to make employees feel they can be honest and trust that their comments will be anonymous if they so choose. 

• Make it optional: Allow the giver to choose whether to reveal their identity. This provides flexibility and helps build trust in the system over time.
• Keep privacy promises: Clearly communicate how data is protected and that all submissions are moderated to ensure they remain constructive and positive. 
• Use for sensitive situations: Anonymity is best for recognizing someone who handled a high-pressure situation well. They can also be commended for providing coworker support during a difficult personal time–without making a public spectacle.

Peer-to-peer recognition ideas: A side-by-side comparison

Start small, recognize often: It’s easy with HeyTaco

If you’re ready to try some of the methods on our list of peer-to-peer recognition ideas, here are a few pieces of parting advice to set you on the right path:

• Begin with a few ideas, max. And preferably, the ones that would be easiest for you to implement. If the team is already using Slack, add recognition to the chat. If they congregate in a break room, start setting up an employee recognition wall and gradually add onto it. 

• Share what you’re doing. Let employees know what the purpose of using these ideas is, how they can participate, and what the main goals are. “I’ve put up this employee wall so we can learn more about each other and celebrate achievements. Would you like to submit a yearbook photo for our Throwback Corner?”
• Lead by example. Managers, people leaders, or anyone else running the program should be the ones who are using it most, initially, at least. For example, with HeyTaco, giving someone a virtual taco for a helpful answer and hashtagging a core value trains others to spot the sort of behaviors we want to recognize.
• Solicit feedback and revise as needed. Wait a few weeks to a month and survey employees on how they feel about the new tools or activities. Be prepared to adjust your approach based on their feedback. A successful program is one that evolves with your team's needs.

Employees may not do backflips over every idea you introduce, but ultimately, they want more peer recognition. It’s more believable to get compliments from coworkers who truly see what you do. And brightening someone else’s day with a bit of gratitude gets addicting, quickly.

In fact, a team of engineers at security platform Immunefi implemented HeyTaco themselves and ended up showing their leaders how it’s done. “Within the first few days, I saw my manager and his manager both excessively using tacos,” says their QA Automation Engineer, Steven. “They loved how silly and fun it is. Now, we can’t go a day without somebody giving somebody tacos.”

HeyTaco, you can start testing a few of these peer-to-peer recognition ideas directly within Slack or Microsoft Teams. Start your free trial today and discover how easy it is to build a culture of appreciation, one taco at a time. Learn more at HeyTaco.