5 Ideas to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day

This year’s Employee Appreciation Day falls amid an unusually stressful period of layoffs across many industries. Even if your company hasn’t had to make a workforce reduction, your employees will likely have a friend, family member, or former colleague going through a rough adjustment period. 

Whether you have an established employee recognition program or are looking to start one, Employee Appreciation Day on Friday, March 3, is the perfect time for your leadership team to look at what you’re doing, what your goals are, and what to do next to create a culture of recognition and appreciation.

Recognizing your employees for their hard work and contributions goes a long way to creating an engaged workforce. According to a study from the American Psychological Association, 93% of employees who felt valued at work said they were motivated to do their best work, and 88% said they felt engaged in their workplace.

Here are five ideas for your company’s Employee Appreciation Day celebrations!

Give personalized gifts, such as handwritten cards

Gift cards are lovely, but they’re even more impactful with a handwritten note. Personalized gifts show your employees that you’ve taken time to think about them and their efforts in your workplace. 

If you have remote employees or are a 100% remote team, these personalized gifts and notes can help create connections. Remote employees can often feel disconnected or suffer from video call overload. Personalized notes are an excellent analog way to make a connection between managers and employees that help foster open communication.

Frank Newman gave a great talk on the importance of handwritten notes at last year’s Disrupt HR KW. Here’s a video of his speech.

Offer time off or flexible schedules

You don’t have to give your employees a physical gift, either. Offering extra time off or a flexible schedule on Employee Appreciation Day (or any other day) can help your employees take care of the things they need to do outside the office.

The more your employees feel confident in their outside lives, the more focus they can bring to the workplace.

Host a company-wide event

Nothing brings people together like—well, bringing people together. A company-wide event is a fantastic way to help your employees unwind and connect. You can bring in a guest speaker or other activity to add a bit of flare to the event. One of our teammates mentioned a previous employer who brought in an improv trainer for their Employee Appreciation Day. The number one rule of improv is to “say yes.” It’s a mantra that can apply to the workplace too. It doesn’t mean saying no to a request. Instead, “say yes” is never leaving a coworker to solve something independently. If you don’t have the answer, help them find someone who does!If you are a 100% remote team or hybrid, companies like Wavy offer fantastic virtual team-building events that can be great for your Employee Appreciation Day. Give public shoutouts and recognition on social media or company communication channelsThe key to recognition is showing it—and what better way than on internal communication channels and company social media? If you use Slack or another internal chat tool, consider creating a “Shout Out” channel where managers can recognize their employees.Sharing “employee of the month” on social media is another excellent way to show recognition. If you’re not doing this already, Employee Appreciation Day is the perfect time to start. Giving your employees personalized gifts can also help encourage them to share on their social media channels!

Recognize your employees!

Showing appreciation needs to happen 365 days a year! Our subscription program takes the load off your people and culture teams by automatically sending work anniversary, birthday, and other essential milestone gifts to your employees. We even take care of kid and pet birthdays too.