Employee Appreciation Day is just around the corner (the first Friday in March) and you are probably looking for a unique way to show your employee that you are grateful for them. But, don’t be tempted to pass the day without making it a big deal.
Like Valentine’s Day is to lovers, Employee Appreciation Day should be the icing on a year of employee recognition and a day to give a shout-out to your employees for the many ways they contribute to the success of the company. Even simple ideas and changes create a fun environment for team members to celebrate together.
And, if you have been wanting to create a stronger culture of employee recognition, then it’s a perfect time to make changes and start acknowledging your employees. Let’s dive into a few unique ways to do this.
1. Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day
It may seem trite, but taking time to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day shows your employees that you really appreciate them. It’s not a national holiday and, sadly, many employers ignore it. Celebrating with your employees demonstrates your commitment to them and gratitude for all they do. To ignore Employee Appreciation Day sends the wrong message, but to acknowledge it and celebrate it shows your employees you care.
Employee Appreciation Day can grow into an annual celebration of your employees. But, it shouldn’t be the only time you communicate your appreciation. Check out how Thanks facilitates recognition from managers and among peers.
2. Bring In An Artist To Create Employee Portraits
Have a little fun at the office by hiring an artist to create portraits of your employees for them to keep or to hang up along your hallways. Some employers have had fun commissioning oil paintings for their employees and using the paintings as decor.
Other employers prefer to have caricatures done and give the caricatures to their employees to keep. Either way, bringing in a local artist adds a creative flair to your Employee Appreciation Day celebrations. Use the portrait as their profile picture on Thanks so everyone can see how great the photo turned out and celebrate with them!
3. Bring a Pet To Work Day
Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day by letting your employees bring their pets to work for the day. This may take a little bit of planning, especially if some of your employees are cat people and some are dog people, but it will be worthwhile.
Another option is to have a pet spotlight afternoon where employees can bring their pets for the afternoon and show them off. Plan to have it a little more casual that day and for the day to seem more like a celebration than a serious day at work. It will take some of your employees time to care for their pets at work. Consider doing a photo-op with your employees and their pets and giving it to them as a keepsake.
You’ll also want to be considerate of any employees that dislike animals or are allergic to them by planning an animal-free zone for those employees.
4. Break Room Remodel
Show appreciation to your employees by giving them a place they can relax and destress during their breaks or lunch hours. Redoing the breakroom can do just that. Provide sofas, game tables, snacks, or other R&R tools. At the bare minimum, provide plastic utensils, a coffee station, filtered water and snacks.
But, if you want to spruce it up a little, consider adding game tables, couches for employees to rest, a bookshelf with fun books like Harry Potter, exercise equipment, yoga mats, and other relaxation tools.
5. DJ For a Day
Invite a festive air to the office by hiring a DJ for a day. Employees can request songs, move to the beats, or simply enjoy more than the elevator-neutral music that is usually heard at work. Or, consider bringing in a local artist that can play the kind of music and songs your employees enjoy listening to.
Live or custom music for the day will add a spark of fun to the day!
6. Free Parking
Show your employees you appreciate them by providing free parking for them. Parking may seem simple for the smaller-town employers, but if you are in a city, parking spaces usually come at a premium. Pay for employee’s parking spaces for the year, purchase land for their parking needs, or lease a parking garage.
By showing your employees you care about their parking hassles, you show them you care about something that can be “easily forgotten” but is important.
7. Give a Free Commute
If you already offer free parking, consider offering your employees a free commute. Pay for their subway, bus, or gas expenses. You could do this by setting up a reimbursement plan, or by sharing gift certificates with them that they can use to redeem.
Employees will appreciate gas gift cards. For those that use public transportation, a bus pass or subway pass will be appreciated not just on Employee Appreciation Day, but every day thereafter as they get to save the expense of their commute.
8. Schedule A Field Trip
Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day by closing the office and taking your employees on a field trip (Or close for part of the day). Field trips can include an outing to a museum, concert, movies, bowling, or swimming. It can include any local activity that your team would enjoy doing or has an interest in. That can include wine tasting, a local festival or celebration.
Good memories have the ability to draw teams together and to strengthen employee bonds with employers. And employees who feel appreciated and respected by their employers are much more engaged at work. Remember to take some photos of the event so that you can share them during a stressful period and remind your employees of the fun times you have shared as a team. Photos can be posted on the Announcement feature of Thanks.
9. Celebrate Milestones In Employee Lives
Few things show employees that you know them and appreciate them more than celebrating their personal milestones. It takes a more personal knowledge to know what to celebrate. If you aren’t sure, or you have a larger workforce, considering adding an option where employees can share their milestones for the company to celebrate with them.
Some milestones to celebrate can include employee birthdays, the birth or adoption of new children, a new pet adoptions, an educational achievement, or other accomplishments. Consider setting aside a budget for celebratory food or games. Appoint one or more individuals to make sure that after a year of celebration every employee has had a chance to celebrate and to reach out to employees who haven’t had celebrations to find something they have to celebrate!
10. Give Some Written Appreciation
Technology advances at such a rate that a written note of appreciation is becoming more rare. Yet, many employees thrive after receiving a personal, written note. There are many ways to celebrate employees through the written word including formal recognitions, recommendations, and celebratory messages. Check out 13 ways to recognize employees in writing for more ideas.
11. Free Dry Cleaning At The Office
Give your employees the gift of convenience and ease by arranging to have a dry cleaner come and pick up your employees’ dry cleaning. This can save your employees time running errands and be a great gift to them.
But, don’t forget to let your workers know ahead of time so they can plan and bring their dry cleaning items to work that day.
12. Pamper Your Employees
Pamper your employees by giving them a choice of a spa gift certificate, a half hour of massage, or time at the salon to get their nails or hair done. Even male employees can enjoy a pedicure (without the polish) and report that it was a special experience they wouldn’t have purchased on their own. A reward such as this can be offered in the Company Store on Thanks.
But, don’t forget to also give them an extra hour off for the day so they don’t have to come home late. Schedule appointments with local businesses or give your employees time they can redeem to get off an hour or two early another day.
Or consider sending them home with a paper kit and some time off. There are many ways you can pamper your employees!
13. Add Pet Leave As A Benefit
Some of your employees have grown children, no children, or a pet they count as part of the family. Give those employees a chance to enjoy a new pet and a little time to adjust to the new situation with less stress by offering paid pet leave.
Pet leave provides employees a couple of days to adjust after adopting a new pet. At some employers, pet leave means the ability to work from home the week after adopting a new fuzzy family member. For others, it means 2 or 3 days of paid leave.
Pet leave is becoming more popular, but is still fairly rare and popular among employees who have enjoyed this benefit.
14. Provide Parental Leave
Somewhere along the lines of maternity leave and pet leave, parental leave lets new dads enjoy their bundle of joy. It’s no secret that babies tend to have completely opposite sleep schedules the first few weeks and today’s dads are as engaged as ever and likely to be exhausted from little sleep.
Give your new dads a break by providing a couple of weeks off for bonding. It’s a gesture that will definitely be appreciated and enjoyed!
15. Send Out A Video Tribute
Create a video tribute of all the wonderful things your employees have accomplished over the last year. If you have photos or videos, string them into the video. But, don’t worry if you haven’t taken a photographic record of your accomplishments. You can record team managers talking about the challenges and successes of various projects. Record employees giving thanks for specific things that made a difference to them from a colleague. Or, hire a marketing company to illustrate or do a whiteboard video about your successes.
The ideas are endless. After your video is completed make an Announcement in Thanks and share the video for all your employees to enjoy. A video tribute creates a celebration that even remote employees can enjoy on Employee Appreciation Day and rewatch to remember the great experiences and success of the year.
Conclusion
Although many of these ideas can be provided and enjoyed throughout the year, Employee Appreciation Day is coming up and, like Valentines Day, provides an extra opportunity for you to express how much you value and appreciate your employees.
But, recognizing your employees all-year-round is vital to creating a culture where employees thrive and perform at their best.
If you’d like to see more ideas on how to build a culture of recognition, simply click on the link below to schedule a demo of the Thanks platform.
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.