10 Simple Ways to Show You Care This Employee Appreciation Day

Employee appreciation day is right around the corner, and the way you say thank you can lay lasting foundations of trust and engagement on your team. Although Employee Appreciation Day falls on March 3, you can celebrate all week long with these simple ideas.

When it comes to recognition, personalization is key

Research tells us that 65% of employees want more feedback. In younger generations specifically, feedback and connection are critical to their job satisfaction, growth, and future efforts, so heart-felt and personalized forms of thanks will go a long way.

Remember, each person experiences appreciation differently. While some enjoy public praise, others benefit more from a personal touch. Leadr’s personality insights module can help you better understand the preferences and communication styles of each person on your team for more intentional communication all year around. If you want to learn more, let us give you a tour of the Leadr platform.

Here are 10 ways to show your team you care this employee appreciation day:

1. Write hand-written thank you notes specifically calling out the unique strengths and hard work of each person on your team. There’s nothing like being recognized for your personalized skill sets. Your team will feel seen and appreciated for what they bring to your mission.
2. Surprise each team member with their favorite drink or snack. Bonus Tip: Use personality insights inside Leadr to find out the favorites of each person on your team.
3. Start a thread within Slack, Microsoft Teams, or wherever your team communicates offering praise to team members who have gone above and beyond. Ask each manager to participate throughout the day, highlighting each person on their team for something they’ve excelled at. (Psst. Leadr is about to add a Recognition feature where you can share public praise all year around. Ask us about it.)
4. Gift each team member a book that relates to their growth goals. Schedule discussions for them to share what they’re learning over the upcoming few weeks.
5. Bake a homemade treat to share with your team.
6. Invest in a new piece of company swag and hand it out - think funky socks, pop sockets, Yeti tumblers or the good pens everyone loves.
7. Offer an extra day or half-day off for each employee to use later in the month.
8. Personally share one thing you appreciate about your employees each day for a week and end on Employee Appreciation Day. What’s celebrated gets repeated.
9. Schedule a team lunch or happy hour and treat your team members.
10. Create awards using our free template for each team member based on their strengths. Things like “Most Efficient,” “Best Cheerleader,” “Strongest Communicator,” or “most helpful.” You can print them out and frame them or download and send them in an email. This is another simple way to make your team feel seen for their unique strengths and allow them to keep the reminder at their desk all year round.

Employee recognition all year long

How great would it be if you had a software that could make it easy to share recognition with your team and deliver the positive feedback they're looking for all year around? Our recognition module makes it easy to highlight team members, groups, or departments who are going above and beyond. You can view recognition across the organization or filter by your direct reports, department, user groups and more for a simple way to recall team wins.