Forty-one percent of remote workers appreciate a small gift from their employers, such as apparel and household items, as a show of appreciation. This comes from a survey by distributor Promoleaf of more than 1,000 U.S. workers who have worked remotely full-time since the pandemic began and sought to understand how engaged and appreciated they feel, and what, if anything, they need from their employers. Small gifts trailed only gift vouchers for lunches (50 percent) in the company’s survey.

Promoleaf’s study was spurred by recent data from Microsoft that showed that 41 percent of workers are looking to change jobs, with 46 percent of those also considering a major career shift. In the survey, it asked respondents, “How engaged, if at all, or disengaged do you feel by your current employer?” and 79 percent said they felt that they were somewhat or very engaged with their current employer, while 15 percent didn’t feel very engaged and six percent felt they were not engaged at all. It also asked, “Do you think companies should be doing more to show appreciation to their employees who are working remotely?” and found that 54 percent said, “Yes, definitely” and 26 percent said, “Yes, probably.”

Fifty-nine percent of respondents felt unappreciated by their employer, at least occasionally, during the pandemic. Promoleaf dived deeper into this, asking them, “What caused you to feel unappreciated by your employer over the course of working remotely since the pandemic?” Forty-six percent cited a lack of support, 45 percent said they felt overworked and 44 percent said a lack of recognition.

The survey asked this same group of employees who felt unappreciated what effects these feelings resulted in. Thirty-six percent said their mental health declined—in contrast, 85 percent of very engaged employees felt that their mental assessment was somewhat or very good—33 percent applied for new jobs and 29 percent said their productivity dropped.

Promoleaf asked respondents, “What do you think are the most successful ways to show appreciation for remote workers, if any?” and let them write in up to three choices. Lunch vouchers and small gifts took the top two spots and were followed by free online learning and development courses (26 percent), virtual happy hour events (21 percent) and one-on-one calls and recognition with managers (20 percent) in the top five.

To read more on Promoleaf’s findings, click here.