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15 Ways to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day

Posted by Kim Gusman, President & CEO on March 2, 2023

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Friday, March 3, 2023 is Employee Appreciation Day—a day when companies make the extra effort to recognize and appreciate their employees' great work and contributions! Showing appreciation to your employees doesn’t have to break the bank.

Whether you hand out gifts or not, the idea is to stop and take a moment to recognize and thank an employee for a job well done. The key is to be specific and authentic in your praise and do it in real-time—don't wait until a performance review.

Depending on your industry, the size of your workforce, and whether your employees work on site or remotely, there are a variety of creative and fun ways to celebrate your employees.

Here are 15 ideas to help get your juices flowing:

  1. Host a trivia contest on-site or online (check out kahoot.com)
  2. Hand out or mail "swag" bags with company-branded items and coffee gift cards.
  3. Early dismissal. Let employees leave work an hour early this Friday if it works for your company. Or give employees extra time for lunch.
  4. Have a morning waffle bar or an afternoon sundae bar!
  5. Send employees Door Dash e-gifts and say “lunch is on us today”!
  6. Send out an email to your team. Write one specific and positive thing about each team member and share the email with the company.
  7. Write personal handwritten notes to say thanks!
  8. Hand out some office plants. A little green may perk up your employees' workspaces.
  9. Depending on the size of your team, take them out to lunch or bring lunch in!
  10. Do some right-brain activity with an office painting workshop.
  11. Take a field trip. Bring out the kid in your employees by organizing an office field trip—get outside to a local park and host a picnic or take in an art museum.
  12. Create a shout-out wall where employees can write positive things they have caught their co-workers doing.
  13. Praise your team on social media using your Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social accounts.
  14. Let employees bring their pet to work—of course, this will depend on if you have a pet-friendly work environment and no competing allergies.
  15. Bring in a car wash or car detail team. Depending on the size of your office, you might be able to get everyone's car spruced up while they work.

Go the extra mile for your employees, and they might just go the extra mile for you.