Recognizing a team that spans countries

Plenty of U.S. companies have people outside the U.S. There is the development team in Eastern Europe, the support contractors in Latin America, the small office in London, the colleagues in Canada who joined through an acquisition.

Recognition programs rarely start with these people in mind. A U.S. office sets up birthday gifts, ships them to U.S. addresses, and the international team finds out about it in a group chat. The people who are already furthest from headquarters end up feeling furthest from the culture too.

Why international recognition is hard

Shipping physical gifts abroad is complicated. Customs, duties, delivery times, and product restrictions vary by country. Many gift programs do not ship outside the U.S.

Gift card options can be thin. A gift card that works at dozens of stores in the U.S. may have one option in another country, and that one option may not be useful.

Currencies and amounts get awkward. A round number in dollars is an odd number in pesos or forints, and the same amount can mean very different things in different economies.

People are on different systems. International employees are often on a different payroll or HR system, or are contractors who are not on payroll at all, so their dates never make it into the program.

Holidays differ. A year-end gift timed for Christmas does not land the same way everywhere.

Principles that work

Equal recognition, local form

The goal is that everyone receives recognition for the same occasions, at a comparable level. The form can differ. A U.S. employee might choose a physical gift; a colleague in Canada or the U.K. might receive a gift card in local currency for the same occasion and budget.

Make local options useful

Before you rely on gift cards for a country, look at what is actually available there. A card that can only be spent at one retailer, or at a store the person never visits, is not recognition. Ask a colleague in that country what they would actually use.

Get everyone into one list

Contractors and employees on other payroll systems should still be in your recognition program. If they cannot be synced, add them manually and keep the list current. The worst outcome is a team that is invisible to the program because of how they are paid.

Respect local calendars

For year-end recognition, frame the gift as a thank-you for the year rather than a holiday gift. For birthdays and anniversaries, make sure the date shown to the team matches the date the person actually celebrates, across time zones.

Keep the message personal

Language and culture matter in the personal message as much as in the gift. A manager who writes in the person’s language, or mentions something specific to their work, makes the gesture feel local even when the program is run from elsewhere.

A practical setup

Questions to answer before you launch

1. Which countries do we have people in, and how many?
2. Which of them are employees and which are contractors?
3. Which payroll or HR systems hold their dates?
4. What gift card options are actually useful in each country?
5. Will we recognize contractors on the same occasions as employees?
6. Who checks that each new international hire is added?

Thankscrate ships physical gifts to U.S. addresses and sends gift cards in local currency to employees in other countries, so one program can cover everyone. See how employee appreciation works.