Employee Recognition Holidays You Can Use to Appreciate Your Employees

recognition holidays for employers

Employee recognition is one of the most important aspects of employee culture. Through employee appreciation, leaders encourage, uplift, and motivate employees to do their best. And, the best employee recognition involves peer recognition and team celebrations

It’s no secret that employee recognition, when done correctly, creates a strong company culture with increased employee engagement, happiness levels, and higher revenue. Here are a few of our top articles on the benefits of employee recognition. 

Employee Engagement Improves Employee Retention – Learn about when employees usually quit and what the common triggers are for higher attrition.

Just in case you aren’t sure how to start improving your employee recognition, we’ve compiled a list of related holidays. Simply choose a few of these days and take time out of your busy schedule to recognize, celebrate, and encourage your employees! In order to make employee recognition a part of the culture, you’ll need to have ongoing recognition, but scheduling regular celebrations can jumpstart and revitalize your recognition efforts. 

Be sure to check out these important articles to get you started! 

Prizes Awards and Rewards: Differences in Employee Motivation: Discusses a big mistake that many managers make when they try to “reward” employees for doing certain things and why it backfires. This article also discusses how a small change can change employee behavior and attitude positively through the implementation of awards instead. 

60 Ways to Recognize and Reward Employees for Almost Nothing This article provides a list of low-cost ideas to recognize your employees for the work they do and the difference they make! 

How to Create an Employee Recognition Budget This article will get you started in your recognition program and help you decide on a budget. It also provides useful information about what other employers are spending on employee recognition. 

Peer Recognition: The Fuel for an Employee Engagement Explosion This article covers how peer recognition is one of the most impactful forms of recognition and how you can encourage and cultivate a culture of peer recognition at your organization. 

200 Funny Award Names For Employee Recognition If you want to add a little humor to your recognition, check out these funny and humorous awards you can give your employees to recognize their talents, traits, and hard work. 

9 Altruistic Actions that Show Employees You Value Them For most employees, recognition isn’t about the money or about extra prizes. And, employees are increasingly searching for a way to make a lasting difference. This article covers ways you can recognize employees and make a difference on their behalf or provide them with the tools to make a difference in your community.

3 Reasons You Can’t Afford To Skimp On Employee Recognition Find out why skipping on employee recognition can mean more money spent than cooperation into your culture.  

Creating Employee Experiences that Enhance Performance – How to create peak experiences for your employees at work 

Tips to a Recognition Culture, Plus Real-Life Examples – Creating a recognition culture can be difficult, but with these tips, you’ll be on your way.

Popular Holidays: Great for Employee Recognition Gifting – Check out these other gift-giving holidays. 

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January Holidays

Days:

  • 1: New Year’s Day, Saint Basil’s Day
  • 6: Three Kings Day, Wisemen’s Day
  • 7: Orthodox Christmas Day
  • 11: International Day of Thanks: International Day of thanks provides a reminder for managers and teams to stop and express their gratitude for the many ways their colleagues make a difference. 
  • 11: Clean off your desk day
  • 13: Take the stairs day
  • 15: Tu B’shevat
  • Chinese New Year End of Jan- Feb (Date Changes)
  • 24: National Compliment Day
  • 28: National Fun at Work Day
  • 30: National Thank Your Mentor Day

Weeks

  • New Year’s Resolution Week – Great time to review KPIs with your team!

Month

  • National Mentoring Month
  • National Thank You Month
  • National Mental Wellness Month

February Holidays

Days

  • 7: Send a card to a friend
  • 14: Valentine’s Day
  • 16: Innovation Day
  • 17: Random Acts of Kindness Day

Month

  • National Time Management Month

March Holidays

Days

Month

  • National Nutrition Month
  • Women’s History Month

April Holidays

Days

Week

Month 

  • National Stress Awareness Month: Employees report being more stressed than before Covid-19. And Human Resources Professionals cite mental health as a big concern. Find out what you can do to reduce employee stress and create a culture of happiness.  

May Holidays

Days

  • 19: National Employee Health and Fitness Day 
  • 20: International HR Day
  • 21: Bike to Work Day
  • 26: National Senior Health and Fitness Day
  • 30: National Creativity Day

Month 

June Holidays

Days

  • 1: Do Something Nice Day
  • 2: National Leave the Office Early Day 
  • 2: Global Running Day
  • 25: Take Your Dog to Work Day 

Week

  • National Men’s Health Week

Month

  • National Fruit and Vegetables Month
Do Not Neglect or Forget Special Occasions (1)

July Holidays

Days

  • 4: Independence Day USA
  • 5: National Workaholics Day Workaholics are not engaged employees and they have a greater rate of accidents. Learn how you can support and encourage healthier work habits by identifying the differences between engaged employees and workaholics at your office. 
  • 29: National Intern Day
  • 30: National Friendship Day

Month

August Holidays

Days

  • 5: National Work Like A Dog Day Celebrate the hard work of your team by providing some dog-related fun, benefits, and recognition. 
  • 9: Book Lovers Day – a perfect day to recognize your bookworks with a book
  • 19: Work Humanitarian Day

Week

  • Be Kind to Humankind Week

Month

September Holidays

Day

    • 6: Labor Day
    • 10: Swap Ideas Day
    • 11: National Day of Service and Remembrance
    • 12: National Day of Encouragement Celebrate and encourage your employees to achieve their goals. Find out 3 core ways you can encourage your team on this day! 
    • 13: Positive Thinking Day
    • 16: Working Parents Day
    • 21: IT Professionals Day  focuses on your IT staff and those who keep your systems running!
  • 21: World Gratitude Day
  • 22: Business Women’s Day 
  • 26: Human Resources Professional Day 

Week

  • Payroll Week

Month

  • Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month A month to focus on your marketing staff
  • Self Improvement Month

October Holidays

Days

  • 7: You Matter to Me Day Let your team know how important they are today, especially the employees facing challenges or recent failures at work. 
  • 5: National Do Something Nice Day
  • 10: World Mental Health Day
  • 15: National Boss’s Day
  • 31: Halloween

November Holidays

Day

  • 3: International Sterss Awareness Month
  • 4: National Candy Day
  • 13: World Kindness Day
  • 15: National Philanthropy Day
  • 25: Thanksgiving
  • 28: Start of Hnukkah
  • 29: Electronic Greeting Card Day. 50 Heartfelt Messages for Employee Appreciation eCards – Get your inspiration from these heartfelt messages. Use this day to send your employees an ecard letting them know how much of a difference they make.

December Holidays 

Day

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Getting Started: Create an Employee Recognition Program 

How To Recognize Employees and 125 Award Names – 125 award names and other ideas on employee recognition.  

How to Implement an Employee Recognition Program – Check out these important questions to answer when you are setting up an employee recognition program 

9 Aspects of Effective Employee Recognition – Learn the 9 keys to effective employee appreciation such as aligning recognition with your core values and making it relevant. 

How to Create an Employee Recognition Budget – Your company is probably already spending more than you realize on employee recognition. This article will help you identify the total costs and create a more effective recognition budget. 

The Reason Most Employee Recognition Programs Fail To Engage Employees: The Missing Link – Even with the best of intentions, many recognition programs fail to communicate to the employees the value management places on employees. Find out why. 

Why Employee Recognition Programs Fail (5 Things You Can Do About It) – These five steps can propel your recognition program from a system to a culture. 

10 Steps to a Successful Mentoring Program – How to set up a successful mentoring program

Two Critical Errors Recognition Programs Make That Harm Work – When control is disguised as recognition, it harms productivity. 

Increase Employee Performance Through 5 Simple Changes – Employees waste time, but it’s not because they are inherently lazy. 

7 Pillars of Creating a Culture of Integrated Recognition – How to embed recognition into your culture. 

10 Tips to Build an Inspiring Employee Recognition Program – Get started on the right foot when creating your recognition program. 

Leveraging Three Types of Recognition to Improve the Employee Experience – From company to manager to peer recognition, find out when it’s important to utilize all three recognition types. 

Finding the Purpose Behind Your Employee Recognition Program – Important information when you are setting up your recognition program. 

27 Ninja Tips to Improve Employee Recognition – These tips will transform your recognition and make it more meaningful to your employees. 

101 Amazing Awards to Recognize Your Employees – Check out these award names.  

Connecting with Managers

5 Tips to Better Engage with Millennial Managers – Millennial Managers are at high risk of attrition and are often forgotten because they are so team oriented. Find out what you can do to better connect with your younger managers. 

Manager Led Recognition Creates a Culture of Recognition –  How to make the most of manager recognition 

5 Steps To Creating a Culture of Recognition In Your Organization – Creating company culture happens intentionally or unintentionally. If you create a strong culture, it will yield incredible results. 

Understanding Employee Connection and Its Importance Today – How recognition builds seven critical connections for employees.

What is Employee Recognition 

Why Employers Need Integrated Recognition; Saving Managers – Saving managers from burnout.

employee recognition affects performance

The Correct Recognition Software

Designing the Right Employee Recognition Experience – Learn how technology affects (for better and worse) the employee experience and impacts HR and recognition. 

16 Ways to Use Thanks And Recognize Employees – You may not realize all the different ways your Thanks Platform makes recognition easier.

Thanks by O.C. Tanner Honored As Gold Stevie Award Winner in 2021 – Find out why Thanks is winning awards and why that means something for your company. 

Thanks Wins Brandon Hall Group Award 2021 

Harcourts Case Study – Find out how the right software transformed Harcourts recognition program. 

CBRE Case Study – The right technology can transform an employer’s ability to recognize across regions and locations. 

Millers Plumbing and Mechanical Case Study – Instant and timely recognition provided by the Thanks Platform has revamped this company’s appreciation program

Unique Recognition Ideas 

Money Isn’t the Key to Employee Recognition, but What Is? – Learn why money can decrease motivation and what IS central to effective employee appreciation. 

Why Offering Workspace Choices Employer-Employee Engagement – Six workspace choices that can improve employee attention and increase production and engagement. 

12 Exciting Ways to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day Remotely – A great resource on celebrating remotely with your employees throughout the year. 

9 Great Altruistic Actions That Show Employees You Value Them – Want to make the world a better place and reward employees at the same time? This article will give 9 great recognition ideas that feed the desire for good in all of us. 

13 Written Ways to Show Employees Appreciation – Written words of appreciation can speak volumes to employees’ hearts and make an impact that verbal recognition doesn’t. 

14 Creative Ways To Celebrate Employee Success – Check out these unique ideas for celebrating employees and creating a strong company culture. 

200 Award Names For Employee Recognition – Over 200 recognition awards you can give your employees to recognize their hard work. 

11 Ways to Recognize Employees By Investing In Their Professional Development – Helping grow your employees professionally demonstrates how much you value them as individuals. 

60 Ways to Recognize and Reward Employees For Free or Almost Nothing – Great ideas on how to reward your employees even if your budget is spent or almost non-existent

17 Ways to Recognize Employees By Giving Control Over Workspaces – 17 small ways you can provide greater autonomy and trust to your employees. 

100+ Inspirational Quotes to Inspire Your Employees – Over 100 inspiring quotes to motivate employees. 

101 Employee Appreciation Ideas to Increase Engagement 2022 – Check out these 100+ ideas on ways to recognize and show appreciation for employees.

Employers Guide to Creating an Employee Gifting Policy 2023 – Having a gift-giving policy is a critical component of your HR policy. 

25 Great Gift Ideas For Remote Employees – Check out these ideas for rewarding your remote employees. 

10 Fun Products For Your Recognition Program’s Company Store – How to fill your company store.

Team Recognition Activities and Ideas

18 Team Building Activities That Recognize Teams – From learning a skill together to work clubs or Movie Day, these activities are more than your usual team activities and will build and celebrate success with your team. 

Best Ways To Reward Teams For Optimal Performance – Learn from historic teams to avoid mistakes and maximize team performance. 

How to Use Lunch and Learn Events to Reduce Turnover – Lunch and learn events don’t have to be just the traditional lunch during a meeting. From clubs to mentoring, lunch and learns can help inspire and grow employees. 

How to Plan and Host a Successful Lunch and Learn – These 20 steps to a successful lunch and learn will make your next event worth the time and money spent. 

7 Tips For Recognizing Remote Employees and Teams – Remote employees are often forgotten or neglected during team events. Learn how you can incorporate your remote team members into your total team. 

Getting to Know You Questions For Work Teams, Staff, Events – Get to know your teams better by asking better questions. 

5 Steps to Building a Sense of Team Among Remote Workers – Individuals on teams do better than working alone. Learn how to build a community of team among your remote workers.

Over 100 Inspiring Quotes For Great Teamwork – Quotes to inspire any team.

Build Connection For Employee Resiliency Retention Productivity – How recognition can build connection in the workplace and why that’s important. 

Building Connection in the Workplace: Guide to Increasing Engagement – How to deepen connection at work among your teams. 

Building Effective Teams: 5 Important Tools –  Critical tools for building strong teams. 

9 Historic Lessons on Teamwork For Managers Building Strong Teams – Some of the best historical lessons from the world’s top leaders.  

Random Acts of Kindness Team Scavenger Hunt – A fun activity for your team. 

Worst Employee Recognition Awards: What Employees Don’t Want – These popular recognition awards are usually detrimental to employee morale but often given.

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Employee Appreciation Philosophy

Employee Recognition Through Celebrating Failure – Every company faces employee failure. How it’s handled can either embitter employees or increase engagement. 

10 Ways to Really Mess Up Employee Recognition – Avoid these common mistakes that managers make when recognizing employees and that usually lead to disengaged employees. 

The Power of Storytelling: Get Employees Excited About Your Company’s Vision – Learn how to connect the dots from your company’s visions and values to your employee’s performance so they can see their impact on their community. 

How Money as a Motivator Affects Employees – Using money to motivate your employees can have some long-term detrimental effects on performance. 

3 Actions to Inspire Employees and Foster Engagement – Learn how to intrinsically motivate your employees so you don’t feel like you have to micromanage them. 

Prizes, Awards, And Rewards: Differences in Employee Motivation – Employes often treat these three things as the same, but there are important differences in how you approach employees and how they respond to tangible gifts. 

Influencing Emotions Through Employee Recognition – Learn how employee happiness is influenced by your company’s recognition program. 

Work Anniversaries: 3 Steps to Lower Attrition – 3 Steps to turning work anniversary celebrations into a deeper employee appreciation event. 

Employee Feedback Cultivate Motivation Retention Engagement – Find out why soliciting employee feedback engages employees in the company culture. 

Remote Employee Engagement Starts With Avoiding Burnout – Steer your remote employees away from burning out with these important actions. 

3 Steps to More Effective Employee Feedback – How to make your employee feedback more effective for your organization. 

Appreciating Employees Isn’t Just About Recognition: Traversing Failure – How to correct employees without building walls. 

Perfect Attendance Recognition Decreases Employee Productivity – Why rewarding employees for perfect attendance doesn’t encourage them to work harder. 

How to Throw an Unforgettable Virtual Retirement Party – Even if your employee is remote, you can still throw an incredible retirement party. 

Throw a Memorable Retirement Party 50 Great Ideas – Check out these 50 retirement ideas. 

15 Retirement Awards and How to Celebrate Retiring Employees – Find the perfect retirement gift for your employee. 

Three Changes in Attendance Recognition That can Boost Productivity – Understanding how attendance policies can be tweeked to boost instead of negate good performance. 

7 Reasons Attendance Rewards Hurt Employers – Attendance rewards can lower overall production. 

The Psychology Behind Employee Recognition; Why It Works – Why employee recognition fulfills an essential employee need. 

10 Ways Annual Reviews Are Wrong (And How to Fix it) – How to make annual reviews effective. 

From Biased Annual Reviews to Compelling Performance Reviews – Learn how annual reviews are often biased. 

Making Employee Recognition Mean Something – Symbolic awards mean more than non-symbolic awards and can elevate your recognition gifting. 

5 Awesome Examples of Employers Who Get Symbolic Awards – Amazing symbolic award ideas. 

The Value of Symbolic Symbols in Employee Recognition – How symbols can transform low-budget gifts. 

When Recognition Isn’t Inclusive, Avoid Praise Discrimination – Recognition can disproportionately favor some employees because of unseen biases.

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Identifying Your Employees

4 Types of Engaged Employees to Increase Productivity – There are four types of engaged employees, but managers usually only recognize one or two. Learn how to recognize all of your engaged employees so you don’t leave some of them feeling forgotten. 

The Differences Between Employee Satisfaction and Engagement A happy employee isn’t as powerful as an engaged employee. Learn to spot the differences and move happy employees into engaged employees. 

Engaging Employees While Returning to Work Returning to an office workplace is difficult for many employees. Find out how to transition employees without increasing attrition. 

5 Love Languages of Employee Recognition – Learn how to recognize your employees’ recognition love language

5 Tips to Increase Retention Through Onboarding – Find out how onboarding often leaves new employees disappointed and how the right experience can solidify their confidence in their new employer. 

15 Ways to Incorporate Employee Recognition Into Your Onboarding – When employees are disappointed with onboarding they question their decision to move companies. But the right onboarding experience can solidify their loyalty to the new employer. 

Recognition that Engages, Inspires and Grows Employees – Service Awards can improve employee morale IF they are done correctly.

Integrating Recognition into the Onboarding Experiences Creates a Strong Culture Recognition should start at onboarding. 

Peer Recognition: Why, Benefits, and Getting Started

10 Reasons Peer Recognition Drives Employment Satisfaction – Peer recognition increases engagement and that’s because it taps into critical elements of employee needs. But you may be surprised at some of the reasons it’s so impactful. 

Peer Recognition: The Fuel For an Employee Engagement Explosion – Explore the 10 biggest reasons peer recognition creates a powerful force for employee engagement 

Recognition Builds Happiness At Work (Increasing Productivity) – Learn how peer recognition and other important aspects of a recognition culture builds employee happiness

Cultural Recognition News and Trends

US Employers Finding Difficulty Bringing Workers Back to the Office – Employee statistics, priorities and problems post Covid-19. 

Rebuilding Connections At Work Post Covid – How to recreate the team you had pre covid. 

2 Reasons The Great Resignation Didn’t Start with Covid – Stats on why the great resignation may have started a few years before covid. 

Combatting the Great Resignation Within Your Team – The one thing that’s effective at fighting the Great Resignation.

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.