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How to Praise a Team For Good Work: The Best Employee Praise Guide for 2026
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February 9, 2026
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Employee praise is the backbone of employee engagement! After all, who doesn’t love a good pat on the back? Not only do we all love pats on the back but we also love watching people pat each other on the back! We even love watching people pat themselves on the back *cough* The Oscars *cough*.
All jokes aside, praising employees, praising colleagues, or praising teams at work is much more complicated than the praise we witness in our daily lives.
While we can easily state that recognizing and praising your team for good work is vital for creating a positive work environment and that it’s a powerful tool for keeping your team motivated, engaged, and committed to their work, giving effective praise that lands well is not always an easy task.
Fostering a culture of recognition is essential for building a positive and motivating workplace. Praise and appreciation are integral components of daily interactions when creating a culture of recognition in your organization.
If you’re praising your employees for good work, you’re celebrating achievements in a way that will stay with your workforce. When you model and promote recognition behaviors and highlight the impact of praise on employee morale, engagement, and retention, you’re contributing greatly to an overall happy workspace. According to research from Gartner, effective recognition can increase an employee’s "intent to stay" by up to 11%.
By utilizing tools such as employee appraisals and team praise, organizations can create a culture of recognition and nurture a supportive, fulfilling environment where employees feel valued and motivated to excel. Cultivating such an environment is an incredibly effective way to long-term organizational success.
Even with the best intentions, certain approaches to Employee Praise can actually backfire or feel hollow to a modern workforce. In 2026, employees value authenticity and equity above all else, making it vital to avoid these common pitfalls that can dampen the impact of your recognition efforts:
Identifying good work is crucial for effective praise. To do this, you should look out for completed projects that met or exceeded expectations, team members who went above and beyond, or even small acts of kindness. By keeping an eye out for good work, you can ensure that you are praising the right things.
It’s important to praise in a timely manner, as soon as the good work is done. This allows team members to feel appreciated and motivated to continue to do good work.
If good work is done at the end of a project, it’s best to praise the team soon after the project’s completion. If good work is done on an ongoing basis, try to praise the team at regular intervals.
Specific feedback is more effective than general feedback. Instead of a general “good job,” offer specific examples of what the team did well.
This allows the team to understand exactly what they did right, and how they can replicate that success in the future and helps you avoid patronizing them. Specific feedback also gives team members a clear idea of what they should continue to do.
To make employee praise a regular part of the team culture, it’s essential to make it a regular practice. By consistently recognizing good work, you create a positive work environment, where team members feel valued and motivated.
A culture of recognition can be created by setting up regular recognition events, creating an employee recognition program, or even encouraging peer-to-peer recognition. This can be done through regular team meetings, or by setting up a virtual recognition platform.
With more and more companies shifting to remote work, it can be a challenge to maintain the same level of employee praise as in a traditional office setting.
Remote employees may not be as visible, and it can be harder to catch them doing something great. But don’t worry, there are ways to make sure your remote team is still getting the praise they deserve.
With the rise of technology, it’s easier than ever to give employee praise remotely. Many companies use instant messaging platforms, email, or even video conferencing for employee praise.
You can even set up virtual recognition platforms where team members can give each other kudos for a job well done.
This way, even if your remote team is spread out across the country, or even the world, they can still feel recognized for their good work. There is some incredible software you can use in order to both praise and engage your remote employees. You’ll find them in the lists below:
That being said, we do believe that if you are a Microsoft-based company, the best tool you can use to both practice employee praise and manage performance is Teamflect.
As an all-in-one performance management solution, Teamflect not only lets users exchange customizable employee recognitions but also provides a fantastic 360-degree feedback tool for praising teammates. If you're looking to establish a recognition culture within your remote team, Teamflect is the way to go!
While remote work has its challenges, it also has its benefits, like the opportunity for remote team building. This can include virtual happy hours, virtual team-building activities, or even virtual employee praise sessions. By allowing your remote team to bond and connect, you’ll create a more positive and cohesive team.
We apologize but we are not going to sing the praises of peer recognition in a single section. Encouraging peer recognition is paramount in remote employee engagement!
Peer-to-peer recognition is a great way to make sure everyone is getting the employee praise they deserve, even if they’re remote. Encourage your team to recognize each other’s good work, and make sure to recognize the team as a whole for a job well done.
The first type is verbal praise. This type of praise is simple and direct and can be given in the moment or in a larger setting. Verbal praise can be as simple as thanking an employee for a job well done or it can be more specific compliments about the individual’s work.
For example, you could say “Janet, thank you for taking the initiative and finding a solution to that problem” or, in a larger setting, you could give a more general compliment like “Everyone did a great job on this project, thank you for your hard work.” Verbal employee praise is a great way to make employees feel appreciated and motivated in the moment.
Written praise can come in the form of a thank-you note, a handwritten card, or an email. While this definition of written employee praise might seem redundant, written praise itself is a great way to show employees that you appreciate their work and to make them feel valued.
For example, you could send a thank-you note to an employee who went above and beyond on a project, or you could send a handwritten card to someone who has been consistently exceeding expectations.
Public employee recognition as a form of employee praise can be an award ceremony, or simply a shout-out in a meeting.
To provide your employees with some public recognition, you could give an award to the employee with the most impressive customer service record, or you could recognize an individual for their hard work in a meeting.
Praise doesn't always have to come from management. Peer-to-peer recognition allows colleagues to acknowledge each other's contributions, creating a culture of mutual appreciation. This type of praise feels especially authentic because it comes from people who work alongside each other daily.
For example, you could implement a system where team members can nominate each other for monthly recognition, or use a platform where employees can send kudos to colleagues who helped them out.
Sometimes praise is most meaningful when paired with a tangible reward. This could include gift cards, extra time off, a preferred parking spot, or small tokens of appreciation. While the monetary value doesn't need to be significant, the gesture shows that you're willing to invest in recognizing good work.
For example, you could reward an employee who completed a challenging project with an extra personal day, or surprise a high performer with a gift card to their favorite restaurant.
One powerful form of praise is investing in an employee's growth. Offering training programs, mentorship opportunities, or stretch assignments signals that you value their potential and see a future for them in the organization.
For example, you could offer a top performer the chance to lead a cross-functional project, or sponsor their attendance at an industry conference.
While public recognition is valuable, some employees prefer quieter acknowledgment. Private praise during one-on-one meetings allows for more personal, detailed feedback and can feel more sincere for those who are uncomfortable with the spotlight.
For example, during a regular check-in, you could tell an employee specifically how their recent presentation impressed a client, or acknowledge how their consistent reliability has made a difference to the team.
Celebrating employees on company social media channels, internal newsletters, or platforms like LinkedIn gives praise a wider audience and can boost both individual pride and employer branding.
For example, you could feature an "Employee of the Month" spotlight on your company's LinkedIn page, or share a team's project success story on your internal communication platform.
The discussion of praising your employees should include the question “Why you should praise your employees?” as well as “How to praise your employees?”. Understanding the benefits of employee praise through concrete statistics on employee praise is a great way to start implementing an employee praise program in your organization:
According to a Gallup study, employees who receive regular praise are more engaged, feel more empowered, and have higher job satisfaction, and are more likely to stay with their current organization.
A study by the Boston Consulting Group found that employees who feel appreciated are up to 25% more productive than those who don’t receive regular praise.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that 69% of employees stated that they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized.
Research by Aon Hewitt shows that companies with high levels of employee engagement have higher financial returns and are more likely to outperform their competitors.
A report by Globoforce revealed that organizations with effective recognition programs have 31% lower voluntary turnover compared to those with ineffective programs.
When you give inauthentic praise, you will not only fail to motivate your team but also create skepticism among your team members. While giving praise in the workplace, you shouldn’t lack sincerity because your team members might think that you’re being manipulative or insincere.
Being negatively perceived among your team members will lead to erosion in trust and morale. You can make sure your employee praise is authentic by considering what really impressed you about your team’s contributions.
Your team members have different personality traits and preferences so you should provide team praise for each of them accordingly. While some employees will love public acknowledgement, others might prefer receiving private employee praise.
You need to take these preferences into account to make your praise meaningful. Tailor your employee praise to demonstrate that you respect them and care about what they prefer when it comes to how they want to receive praise.
Generic compliments such as “good job” or “well done” will be less impactful since they are overused and lack specificity. You can make your employee praise more impactful by highlighting a particular achievement, showcasing your employees’ unique contributions, or pointing out the positive outcomes of their work.
Praising a team for good work is essential for the success and motivation of your team. Whether you praise a team member in public or praise your team through a rewards and recognition program, employee praise is one of the best employee engagement methods available to leaders today.
If you’re looking for a way to praise your team or software for employee praise, you might want to give Teamflect, the best employee recognition software for Microsoft Teams, a try. You can try Teamflect for absolutely free, with no time limits, or the need to sign-up!
Specific feedback is more effective than general feedback. Instead of a general “good job,” offer specific examples of what the team did well. This allows the team to understand exactly what they did right, and how they can replicate that success in the future and helps you avoid patronizing them.
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