How to Celebrate National Employee Appreciation Day 2023
Employee Appreciation Day is coming up on Friday, March 3, 2023, and if you haven’t planned something for your employees, now is the time! However, knowing how to show appreciation to your employees can be tricky, though, you don’t want to skip out on National Employee Appreciation Day. Gone are the days of simply giving employees a company pen, a company t-shirt or a pizza party on a random Friday. Gifts like those are often mocked on social media these days, and you definitely don’t want your employees to feel like you’re not being thoughtful about showing appreciation. There are many ideas out there that show appreciation and that you put some thought into your gifts for employees. Here are some ideas to get you started.
1. Gift Baskets and Boxes
Who doesn’t love a surprise basket or box of goodies? Whether you choose to send wine and glasses, popcorn, charcuterie supplies, cookies, coffee or another kind of gift, your employees will love that you thought of them.
If you’re looking for carefully curated baskets and boxes that your employees will be so excited about, The Basketry has you covered for employee gifts. We know our gifts and we can help you send a box that we’ve put together, or we can help you create something custom. Either way, a gift basket or gift box will go a long way in showing your employees how much you appreciate what they do for your business.
2. Bring in Lunch
It’s not that people don’t love pizza and the pizza lunches that employers once brought into the office. It is more that people want to feel that when you bring in lunch, you’re catering to them a bit. Pizza seems like an easy, non-personal lunch that, again, often gets joked about nowadays. If you’re going to bring in lunch, do it in a thoughtful way. Cater a nice meal from a local restaurant that many of your employees enjoy visiting. You can also choose a restaurant and take orders for all of your employees so they get to pick what they want to eat. Letting them pick makes this seem like a nicer and more personalized experience than just throwing down a few boxes of cheese pizza in the break room.
If you don’t want to coordinate a meal like this because it’s too complex or you have too many employees, you can always send out a survey asking employees for their top two favorite restaurants. Then you can get each of them a gift card for lunch to one of their favorite places. It’s a great gesture that shows you listened and personalized your response.
3. Bonuses
To be frank, everyone loves extra money. So, for Employee Appreciation Day, you can always throw a little cash in each person’s way. Cash in a card with a handwritten note goes a long way, even if it is not a huge sum of money. It is just nice every once in a while to get a little extra cash you were not expecting to buy yourself something. So, a bonus will probably be an employee favorite when it comes to showing appreciation.
4. Games with Prizes
Games with prizes can be another fun way to show employees that you’re grateful for what they do. Announce a day in the office when you have games at lunchtime or that can be played throughout the day as people get to them. Choose games that can be played by larger groups or spread out over different times of the day. Make sure you announce who won the prizes and congratulate them so people know who actually won each game.
5. Drawings for Prizes
Some people honestly don’t love playing games. They might like prizes, sans games, though. So, an alternative to the above suggestion of games with prizes is just doing drawings for a number of big prizes. Other businesses that have done this give away everything from TVs to gift cards to local businesses, to vacations or even a nice gift box or basket full of goodies. A drawing is a great way to give away prizes to your employees without having to do individual gifts. So, if you have a larger company, and it would be nearly impossible to coordinate a bunch of personalized gifts, a prize drawing might be a great option for you.
6. Extra Time Off
Another fan favorite of employees everywhere is extra paid time off. So, gift everyone an extra vacation day or declare the last Friday of the month a rest day. If you can’t have all of your employees off on the same day, it’s probably better to gift some PTO to them to use as they need it or you could stagger Employee Appreciation Days off. You could assign everyone a group and say something like group A is off this Friday and group B is off next Friday. No matter how you do it, this option will be exciting and appreciated.
7. Spa Day
It’s no secret that working can cause a lot of stress. So, help decrease that stress with an employee spa day. If you have a smaller company, you can take everyone directly to the spa. If that is not a possibility, or you would rather do something in the office, you can always bring in people to do chair massages, foot rubs, etc. in the break room. Being able to take a few minutes and be pampered might be just what some of your employees need during their stressful day-to-day schedule.
No matter how you decide to show your employees that you appreciate what they do, the most important thing is to put some thought into what you choose. Consider giving employees options, taking a poll or doing something that your employees as a whole enjoy. Showing that you’re listening and giving thoughtful gifts is key to successfully celebrating Employee Appreciation Day 2023. Hopefully, a few of the above examples will spark some good thoughts about how to show your employees that you are truly thankful for each and every one of them.