5 Cool Ways to Effectively Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day

Holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween are celebrated at work almost universally here in the States, and many companies take advantage of other holidays to give employees a day off, a free meal or other gifts.

But what about Employee Appreciation Day? According to research, 56% of companies said that they don’t celebrate it, despite the fact that it’s one of the best opportunities to convey value, support and recognition to the people who fuel your business’ success.

With Employee Appreciation Day taking place on March 7th this year, it’s the perfect time to plan a unique, fun and meaningful celebration for employees.

The Impact of Appreciation for Employees

When employees feel that their work is noticed, appreciated and recognized, they react in many positive ways. Here are some of the benefits you can expect to see:

• 31% lower voluntary turnover
• 14% increased productivity and performance
• 43% better employee engagement
• 3x greater employee loyalty to the company, and
• 56% decrease in the likelihood that employees will look for a new job.

While these benefits are amazing, leaders shouldn’t only concern themselves with the measurable ROI that affects their bottom lines. Appreciation at work makes employees happier, helps them feel more motivated, keeps them satisfied, and can lower stress and anxiety—not to mention that new research shows happier employees are 13% more productive!

Here’s the kicker, though: 75% of employees wish they were more appreciated, and 50% feel that they’re undervalued.

Employees give a lot of time and effort to their work every day, and a paycheck plus an occasional service award isn’t enough to convey adequate appreciation. An annual Employee Appreciation Day celebration is a great place to start improving your recognition strategy to take advantage of these benefits.

Ways to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day

The most important thing about Employee Appreciation Day is showing employees how much you care. The actual activities, rewards or gifts aren’t as important as the feelings of value you spread during that day and spread throughout the year. 

However, the day itself can be extremely impactful when done right. Here are some ideas to help inspire your own Employee Appreciation Day celebrations.

1. Give Extra PTO

Let’s start off simple. Everyone will appreciate getting an extra day off, and what better day to provide that than Employee Appreciation Day? This works for every business of every size, whether employees are remote or in-person. 

Better yet, let every employee choose a day they want to take off in the month of March to really give them the freedom to enjoy the day when it’s best for them. A floating holiday gives employees more freedom and shows you care about their lives and schedules.

2. Empower Employee Professional Development

Everyone has skills they’d like to learn, work they’d like to get better at, or hobbies they want to try. To help your employees live a more fulfilling life, both professionally and personally, provide the time and resources each employee needs to work on themselves.

This could include paying for online courses, covering a subscription fee, reimbursing part or all of school tuition, setting up mentoring opportunities, and anything else employees may be interested in.

3. Plan Week-Long Activities

One Awardco client stretches Employee Appreciation Day into a full Employee Appreciation Week each year, with activities, games, contests and fun incentives to reinforce their core values. It’s like a spirit week but more focused on celebrating their people, and their employees love it!

Think about ways to fill the first week in March with activities that show appreciation to your employees. Games, free food, raffles or opportunities to win cash or points on your recognition platform are great places to start.

4. Mitigate Small Expenses

Recognize the many things that are on every employee’s plate by helping your people get things done, such as:

• Free in-office haircuts
• Free massage
• Mobile oil change service
• Grocery stipend, and
• Gas cards for everyone.

Everyone has things in life that are necessary but annoying. Take some stress off your employees’ shoulders by helping them take care of these things. And if some of these perks are really popular, you could even consider making them permanent benefits.

5. Surprise Everyone With a Care Package

Imagine getting home from a long day of work to see a package full of goodies on your door. Talk about feeling appreciated. Here are some ideas:

• Company swag box. Send out some high-quality branded items for employees to enjoy. Bonus points if, before you assemble the boxes, you survey your employees to find out the items they’d actually enjoy, and then customize each box to fit each person.
• Spa in a box. Create a box full of home wellness items, such as essential oils, a massage gun, a coupon to a local massage clinic, scented candles and other related items. If you’re sending this to everyone, find items that will be exciting for both men and women.
• Experiential box. Include tickets to local or national experiences, such as a concert, a book signing, a National Park entry, a theme park or something similar.
• Interest-specific box. Survey your people to find out what they’re interested in (reading, video games, sports, outdoors, etc.). Then, create boxes that fit these interests and hobbies.

The theme of this idea is that you need to find out what your people will appreciate. That will increase employee excitement and feelings of value exponentially (compared to a cookie-cutter box full of unwanted items).

Celebrate Your Employees Every March

Many employees feel a little down and forgotten after the high of the holidays. Employee Appreciation Day is the perfect way to keep everyone’s spirits up, spread a culture of recognition, and get the ROI you want to see throughout the year.

At Awardco, we help businesses develop, implement, and run recognition programs, incentives, and more, all while offering millions of reward options.