13 Employee Appreciation Strategies To Celebrate Employees

 

13 Employee Appreciation Strategies To Celebrate Employees

What is one way your company celebrates employees? 

To help businesses retain their talented staff and create a fun environment to work in, we asked HR professionals and business owners this question for their best insights. From creating special channels on Slack to offering birthdays off, there are several strategies that may help you appreciate and celebrate your employees in a unique way. 

Here are 13 employee appreciation strategies to celebrate your best people:

  • #Wins Channel On Slack

  • Build Their Personal Brands

  • Personalized Tech and Gadgets

  • In the Spotlight On Social Media

  • Recognition On a Daily Basis

  • Employee Appreciation Holiday

  • Create the Right Culture

  • Celebrate Milestones

  • Celebrity Messages Through Cameo

  • Employee Recognition Tool

  • Extend Performance Bonuses

  • Gift Them Paid Skills Courses

  • Offer Birthdays Off

#Wins Channel On Slack

We have a #wins channel on Slack where we frequently post wins that happened for employees in the company, big or small. Typically Team Leaders will post on behalf of the people they lead.

A couple of examples: "Check out this great video tutorial Attila created for the investment related pages. Should help the conversion greatly, I'm sure he will let us know in a couple of months!" and "Andrei's content got several natural backlinks from Vice in Romania. Great work on the content!"

Paw Vej, Financer.com Ldt

 

Build Their Personal Brands

We have a PTO plan where we give our employees fully-paid vacations, even when they're working remotely. Having a paid vacation plan for employees really helps when it's done in tandem with healthy employee recognition and rewarding schemes.

We also celebrate our employees by helping them develop their personal brands. Employees are often overshadowed by the voice of the brand. Placing our employees into positions where they can provide thought leadership, or seeking forums where they can participate has been a gold mine for us.  We routinely forward some of our employees to be trainers and facilitators in boot camps. We also have an active blog, where our employees build online thought leadership through the brand. Employees love it when they're recognized for their expertise. In our opinion, nothing beats placing them in a position where they are the face of expertise in their areas.

Alina Clark, CocoDoc

 

Personalized Tech and Gadgets

Whether it's a set of wireless headphones or a portable coffee machine with their name on it, gadgets are a fun and exciting reward for most employees. Better yet, if you can offer a piece of technology that aligns with your employee's lifestyles and hobbies. Some may prefer digital watches to keep track of their daily activity while others may prefer an e-reader to read on the go.

Riley Beam, Douglas R. Beam, P.A.

 

In the Spotlight On Social Media

Each week we highlight one member of our team on Facebook & Instagram. We use four fun photos and describe their role within the company, their hobbies, and interests, perhaps a photo of them with their pet, along with a short shout-out thanking them for their hard work and dedication. This is very popular with both employees and our social media audience resulting in one proud team member and engaging comments from our followers. It's also a fabulous way for team members to get to know one another. Win-win!

Stewart McGrenary, Freedom Mobiles

 

Recognition On a Daily Basis

Celebrating employees can take on a LOT of forms, but if you're waiting to celebrate your team once a quarter or just on their milestone dates, you're missing out on opportunities to create more meaningful relationships with them. Here at Motivosity, we make it a point to publicly shout out peers and employees for the awesome things they do every day. So, keep eating cake and celebrating the big moments, but also make time in your day to celebrate the little wins with a "thanks" or a "good job"! It makes all the difference.

Logan Mallory, Motivosity

 

Employee Appreciation Holiday 

Who says you have to stick to the calendar holidays? Why not start your own, dedicated just to employee appreciation? If you're feeling very brave, you could even shut down the business and announce to the world that you and your employees are taking a day off. This is exactly what we do at our firm. Instead of giving folks the day off, it's sometimes a better idea to do something together. So we go on a riverboat tour or have a day at the lake with a BBQ. Whatever it is, we make it a highlight of the year that our employees eagerly anticipate.

Marilyn Gaskell, TruePeopleSearch

 

Create the Right Culture

You need to create the right culture in your company so your employees feel valued, motivated, and heard. A great way to do this is by having a culture that recognizes all of the hard work employees do for the company. They want to know that their work isn’t for nothing. Show them that you see what they do for your company, and demonstrate how much you appreciate their role in your organization.

Thorin Yee, Best Companies AZ

 

Celebrate Milestones

Work Anniversaries are really an excellent way to acknowledge and thank employees for their service.  I worked with a former leader who never missed that date and celebrated with a Top _____ List to mark each of the years. It was so powerful, I have since stolen this idea. I have received my Top List as a personal note and as a Proclamation which I found hanging on my office door. Know your team and deliver this thanks and recognition as they would like to receive this praise.

This cost time and attention and I promise, brought a smile to the individuals who made up the team. An example of the care and feeding of your team to celebrate the individual parts of the whole.

Diane Fennig, The Gallagher Group - Executive Search & Leadership Advisors

 

Celebrity Messages Through Cameo

One cool thing we do to celebrate our employees is using the Cameo app to send team members special messages from a celebrity. When a celebration is in order for an employee, whether because of a big birthday or work anniversary, or following a significant milestone or contribution, we have one of their favorite celebrities on the Cameo platform send them a direct video message. We give the celebrity some basic info about the team member, why the message is being sent, and then surprise our co-worker with the video. To be honest, this way of celebrating people has taken on a life of its own, with people choosing whacky celebrities to send the messages. It’s something cool for the person getting the message, as well as fun for the whole office. In short, this is a perk that has gotten awesome feedback.

John Ross, Test Prep Insight

 

Employee Recognition Tool

Employee recognition tools make it easy for everyone to keep track of and instantly acknowledge achievements. Timely recognition of employee achievements, especially by peers, helps keep employees engaged and happy. The net result of a strong culture of recognition is that your employees feel connected to other team members. Modern employee recognition tools can help motivate your employees to show discretionary effort as a team.

Ed Stevens, Preciate

 

Extend Performance Bonuses

We celebrate our employees by providing them with performance bonuses on top of their basic salaries. Because many of our employees work remotely, activities like parties and retreats won’t suffice. However, since most are motivated by cash, bonuses are preferable and more effective substitutes. That way, we keep their spirits high leading to improved productivity and the company meeting its overall objective.

Ryan Yount, Luckluckgo

 

Gift Them Paid Skills Courses

As the head of a recruiting firm, I feel lucky to have employees who are as ambitious as myself. They're keen on learning new skills and staying updated with the latest industry-relevant trends. Therefore, I find investing in their personal growth or professional development a great way to celebrate their achievements. In some cases, I myself pick out a paid course that would help their career growth. Other times, I ask them whatever they would like me to purchase from Udemy, Coursera, or Skillshare. I see it as a win-win situation; they grow their skill set and credibility while my business benefits from their enhanced expertise.

Anjela Mangrum, Mangrum Career Solutions

 

Offer Birthdays Off

The way we celebrate our employees at ProMoverReview is by offering them non-traditional benefits that boost their morale. Birthday's-off is just one benefit that we have found is really appreciated by our employees and makes them feel celebrated and valued. We also ensure that our employees are always recognized for their work achievements. When our employees go above and beyond, we always post in our central channel on Slack for the entire team to see. By recognizing our employees achievements, both small and large, we have found that their productivity increased and they were driven to achieve even more.

Paul Moody, ProMoverReviews



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