August 5 is Work Like A Dog Day and gives employers the perfect opportunity to create fun employee recognition throughout the week. Employee recognition may appear to come easily for employers with high employee engagement/. But, it is always the result of intentional, regular, and effective recognition.
If you are working to create a culture of employee recognition, but want to do something different, National Work Like a Dog Day may be the perfect day to celebrate your employees. Here at Thanks, we’ve put together a list of fun ways you can recognize your employees by celebrating Work Like a Dog Day this year.
1. Volunteer at an Animal Shelter
Celebrate Work Like a Dog Day by giving your employees some paid time to volunteer at an animal shelter. Not all of you employees may want to volunteer, but for your die-hard animal lovers, being paid to volunteer is a perfect way to celebrate their hard work all year round.
Rotate employees throughout the week so that everyone who wants a chance can go volunteer. Depending on where you live, you might even have animal-specific shelters that employees can volunteer at depending on what animals they love the most.
You can also consider having a representative from a shelter come and talk to your employees about the lessons they’ve learned from the animals, or how they can get involved on an ongoing basis to help the pets in your area.
2. Dog Caricatures of Your Employees
If you are looking for a fun and humorous way to celebrate Work Like a Dog Day, then bring in a cartoonist to draw portraits of your employees- as dogs! Each employee could choose their favorite breed to be, or the cartoonist could decide. Then, let the artist add characteristics from your employees to the dog portrait to make the pup look like the employee.
Hang up the portraits to celebrate how hard your staff works. Let employees give compliments that build on the theme of Work Like a Dog Day with compliments such as “Always pants with excitement when a challenge arises” or “Most loyal team member around.”
Laughter and good-natured fun builds teams and helps to create a bond that improves creativity and can increase engagement.
3. Bring Your Pet to Work
There’s no better way to celebrate the dog-hard work your employees do than by letting them bring their pooch to work. Another fun holiday with a similar theme is June 21, which is Bring Your Dog to Work Day.
There may be a little extra prep you’ll need to do such as arranging a place for the various dogs and checking with other employees to make sure you adjust for allergies. Allowing employees who aren’t comfortable with dogs to work from home can be a good way to reward those employees and at the same time, help to keep them comfortable.
You may want to set up some ground rules such as requiring that dogs have current shots and be clean and brushed. A no-bite rule is also a good idea. If a dog has bitten in the past, they aren’t allowed to visit the workplace. Be sure to give employees a little extra time for potty breaks or to run their dogs home if things get too stressful.
4. Give Employees a Doggie Bag
Give your employees a doggie bag full of human treats that resemble doggie treats for Work Like a Dog Day. Jerky (chew toys), granola (dog food), and cookies or muffins (biscuits). Or, consider bringing in some specialty ice cream or offering an ice cream bar to celebrate since dogs love milk and ice cream is milk-based!
Another spin is to actually compile a doggie bag for your employees’ best friends. You can be considerate of employees who prefer cats or don’t have pets by offering a choice between a human treat or a puppy treat.
5. Show Unconditional Appreciation For Your Employees Like A Dog
One of the most endearing traits of a dog is the unconditional love and acceptance they give. At work, it can be easy to only focus on the great things employees do. Unfortunately, some managers also forget those extra efforts when employees make a mistake.
Instead, focus on appreciating your employees for who they are instead of their most recent accomplishments. Take time on Work Like A Dog Day for employees to learn more about each other and relax a little, have an office party, or give a note to a more difficult employee expressing appreciation for them. Show that unconditional acceptance of the person (you don’t have to unconditionally accept bad habits).
6. Offer Paw-ternity to Employees
Celebrate Work Like A Dog Day by announcing that you will give your employees paid leave when they adopt a new pet. Many employers are starting to offer a type of paid pet leave to employees.
Paw-ternity can be limited to a certain number of days a year (a week is average) or to adopting a certain number of pets a year. For example, some employers limit employees to taking paw-ternity to only 2 pets per year.
7. Close Early to Give Employees Time to Walk Their Pooch
Give employees quality time with their furry best friends by closing up early and sending employees home. But, remember that recognition is most effective if you take the time to provide specific feedback for each employee when you send them home. Celebrate your entire team’s hard work by celebrating for a few minutes before sending everyone home.
Of course, not all of them may spend that extra time walking their dog, but they will still appreciate leaving early.
8. Dog Wall of Fame
Ask employees to send in a photo of their pet and hold a contest to see who can match the right employees to the right pets. Offer fun prizes and rewards for the employees who get the most matches correct.
Run the contest on Work Like A Dog Day or throughout the entire week. Put prizes in the Company store for employees to redeem.
9. Spa Day For Employees and Their Pets
Show employees, you appreciate them by treating them and their pooch to a spa on Work Like A Dog Day. Hire a dog spa to come and give a little extra care to the pets at your office. Or, provide gift certificates that employees can use whenever they want.
Offer other gift certificates for your non-pet employees so they can also enjoy the extra treatment. After all, even employees without pups still work like a dog and deserve to be appreciated!
10. Photos of Fido
Schedule a photographer to come and take portraits of your team and their pets. You could opt for a big team photo with everyone or offer individual professional photos for each employee. Those without pets can choose to have a photo done with their Significant other or kids. Your employees will appreciate having a professionally done photo that they can hang up at work.
Conclusion
Work Like A Dog Day creates a different and fun way to celebrate employees. The right kind of employee recognition makes a drastic impact on employee engagement, loyalty, creativity, and production. Work Like A Dog Day gives managers a reason to give little different kind of recognition to employees.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.