Employee Appreciation Day is just around the corner. Although we hope you take time all year around to appreciate your employees, recognizing them on this special day is also important. We’ve put together a list of 14 creative ways to recognize and celebrate employee successes. Use these for Employee Appreciation Day or throughout the year.
1. Create a Wall Of Fame
Honor your employees’ successes through a Wall of Fame. Coupled with regular employee recognition, a Wall of Fame creates a space for employees to be recognized for their hard work and continued recognition as colleagues and clients pass by.
Your Wall of Fame can have a serious atmosphere or be fun, but it should be customized to the culture of your company. You can fill your Wall of Fame with professional photos of your employees and a caption that describes their recognition. Or, you can do as another company does, and commission an oil painting portrait of their employees. The portraits are hung on the wall and eventually create a great environment of fine art, while recognizing employees.
One tech company that relies on new innovations, awards employees with a glass brain for every patent they receive. The brains are displayed on a Wall of Fame.
Or, use Thanks to create a virtual Wall of Fame where employees can see and review important contributions by their peers from the convenience of their desk!
2. Give Employees A Professionally Done Photo
Celebrate employee successes by giving them a professionally taken photograph. Many employees may not get around to having a professional photograph of themselves taken, These employees will especially appreciate a professional photo that they can use for bios, in correspondences, and for on their professional social media accounts.
Use professional photographs as a form of employee recognition, a service award, such as when an employee reaches a year with the company, or as a universal gift for Employee Appreciation Day
3. Award A Trophy Or A …. Rock
Many teams enjoy a floating trophy to recognize employees that over-performed in the previous week or month. It can be any time cycle your team decides on. A floating trophy should be huge and, to add a bit of humor, ugly, used, and irrelevant to the actual prize being given. Pass it around so the winning employee can display it on their desk that week.
Or, give employees a rock when they truly “rock” at work. A “Your Rock” rock can be a fun rock such as a geoid rock, an engraved sandstone, or a jem. Amazon gives their employees a glass puzzle piece for creative ideas and other employers pass around a Champion belt, along with a special privilege. At one hospital, providers are given a rubber alien to wear around to show they are “out of this world!”
It isn’t important what type of a trophy you give your employees as much as that you take the time to recognize their talents, efforts, and impact.
4. Cater Lunch
While taking employees out to lunch is a popular form of recognition, it is often limited to scheduling conflicts, a smaller team, and other local options. Ordering a catered lunch allows you to recognize employees and greater flexibility with their individual calendars. Catered lunches also provide a way to bring in food from vendors that are farther away.
Employees can grab a bite to each when they have time and still enjoy delicious, restaurant quality food, and a wide selection.
Announce that you will be bringing in a catered lunch on Thanks Announcements a few days beforehand so employees can plan accordingly.
5. Give Away Power Naps
Sometimes all it takes to recapture creativity and energy is a 20 minute power nap. But, power naps are usually not something that employers welcome. Show your employees you appreciate them and trust them by providing a space where they can grab a quick nap.
Most experts agree that power naps should be about 15-20 minutes for the optimal effect. Provide your employees a quiet place with dim lighting and comfortable chairs and sofas. It’s not usually the first reward for hard work that employers think to provide, but it can be a powerful tool in helping your employees to stay sharp, creative, and feeling appreciated and trusted.
6. Encourage and Reward Peer Recognition
Creating an environment where employees feel appreciated and valued at work doesn’t just happen. And, it rarely happens when only management participates in employee recognition. Peer-to-peer recognition propels employees successes into a culture of appreciation and celebration.
To create a culture where peers recognize each other for a job well-done, provide the tools, and budget for a peer recognition program. Colleagues should have the ability to gift awards to others when they see an outstanding performance. Additionally, they should have the flexibility and tools to publicly post their appreciation of each other.
This can mean providing a space inside of meetings for recognition, but more effectively, it means providing daily opportunities through software so that employees can send or receive recognition without coordinating locations or schedules with the receiving employees.
7. Publish A Yearbook
For a unique way to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day and show your employees how important they are to the company, consider publishing an annual Yearbook. Employee Appreciation Day occurs in March, so it provides enough time to create a yearbook and highlight the successes and wins of the previous year. Thanks Memories allows employers to create a video of memories submitted by their peers.
An annual yearbook can be a great way to recognize employees and educate the public about the services you provide, as well as allowing a behind-the-scenes look into your company. Check these tips for creating a special yearbook for your employees!
- Include the company mission statement, values, goals, and philosophies. Include a message from the CEO or owner.
- Feature a photo and a bio of each employee. This can be fun and show off employees with a theme for the photos or professional prints. You can use a favorite quote for each employee, or a fun fact. Employees can take selfies to submit or wear outfits to the same theme. Or have employees bring baby photos for the yearbook. Add a “where are they now” for past employees that may be missed.
- Highlight company successes including photos of product releases, special events, and celebrations.
- Show off behind-the-scenes of employees, events, and community contributions.
- Give each employee a copy of the yearbook so they can lookback on the year and reminisce.
- Consider holding a contest with various categories so employees can submit photos taken throughout the year. Or offer an entry into a drawing for every photo submitted. This will help you in gathering photos of your company in various departments. Also, consider designating someone in each team as the resident photographer. Ask for volunteers and give them special privileges so they have time to take photos.
- Use Thanks to collect photos, employee bios, and special acknowledgements from peers through the Memories function. This makes it easy to create a custom video for specific employees you want to recognize, even if you haven’t kept a record of photos for that employee.
8. Write a Personalized Poem, Limerick, or Hakua
Write a personalized sonnet, limerick or poem for each employee. Hire a wordsmith or use a creative employee to write a verse for each employee. Its a unique and fun way to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day.
Hakuas are simple poems that can be written by children. They consist of 17 syllables and three lines. The first and last line has 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables.
An example of a hakua follows.
Joe, Sales Warrior
Slayer of new sales leads
Success, meeting goals
As you can see, the hakua above has 5, then 7, and 5 syllables.
Another option is an acrostic poem. Write the person’s name vertically. Use each letter in their name to write a line about them.
Sees the best in others
Usually the first out the door at 5!
Says what she means
Although, usually with a humorous twist
Never a bore to be around!
A fun, personalized poem or limerick can be engraved or presented to the employee in a fun way such as engraved on a gift, used in a photo video about each employee, or presented at the bottom of a photo of them at a previous employee event.
9. Give Employees Random Surprises
Make recognition fun by giving your team random surprises. Arrive early and leave a treat in their workspaces. Or, order lunch, surprise them with a weekend getaway activity, or send everyone home early.
Surprises can be a lot of fun, but consider flexibility for the team members that have a harder time with surprises. Some may have child, special needs, or parents they are caring for and may need a heads up to make plans. Others simply feel a need to plan ahead and have a hard time altering their plans.
For those employees, you can surprise your team with a fun activity, but put it far enough out that all your team members can plan and anticipate the event. This will have the added benefit of anticipation, another highly beneficial emotion.
10. Print Custom T Shirts to Celebrate Employees
Recognize employees by having customized shirts made for your corporate values and awarding them to employees as they demonstrate those values. You could have a different design created for each value or create a shirt for the major skills needed in each department. Or, design shirts for special events, or to recognize specific celebrations. Encourage employees to wear their shirts on specific days, which will let them show off the reasons they’ve been recognized. Don’t forget to think through each department so all your employees have a chance to be recognized. Include managers in the brainstorming process.
And, for greater success, allow your employees a hand in suggesting t-shirt themes, nominating peers, and ways to celebrate using the t-shirts. Simple use Idea feature to get input and start a conversation about the t-shirt theme. Or use Polls to narrow down the options to the most popular one.
11. Add An Extra Day to Holiday Weekends
One way to recognize employees that is sure to be a big hit is to give your employees the day off before a holiday weekend. Simply close shop and let your employees have the day off. If you can’t close everything down, then consider rotating departments so that each department has a chance to get an extra long holiday weekend at some point during the year.
Your employees will love it and come back with extra energy and creativity!
12. Celebrate As A Team
Nothing helps to solidify team relationship as much as celebrating team successes together. Take some time to honor the challenges and success of your teams.Overcoming challenges and experiencing success together bonds a team.
A team party, R&R time, or celebratory meal can make a huge difference by allowing your team members to let loose, let off some stress, and relive the experience as they reminisce and turn the stresses experienced into humorous stories.
13. Choose Your Own Gift
Award your employees with something they really want by giving them a choice of their gift. Thanks allows employees to redeem points so each employee can choose the item that means the most to them. Gifts won’t go wasted or unused, which means that employees will truly appreciate the recognition they receive.
13. Choose Your Own Gift
Award your employees with something they really want by giving them a choice of their gift. Thanks allows employees to redeem points so each employee can choose the item that means the most to them. Gifts won’t go wasted or unused, which means that employees will truly appreciate the recognition they receive.
Check out how Thanks allows employers a variety of point-giving options, including between peers for a more powerful recognition program.
14. Remote Vacations
Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day or a special accomplishment by giving your employees a remote vacation. Send your crew away for the weekend, get amusement park tickets, or buy bulk cruise tickets.
Or, create a staycation and send your team to a local restaurant, movie theater, or adventure locally. Rock climbing, bowling, and local entertainment can provide the relaxation to really reward your team. Using the Poll Feature, find out the adventure your team most prefers. Then, after the location is chosen and confirmed, use the Quiz or Survey features to create a knowledge check on the upcoming adventure and spart excitement for the activity within your team.
Conclusion
Adding a bit of creativity to your employee recognition and celebration of Employee Appreciation Day will bring a memory to your employees they will remember all year. But, only recognizing your employees once a year won’t bring about engaged 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.