Employee Appreciation Day is an annual event, which means you are ALWAYS looking for new ideas to make this recognition celebration fun and memorable. We’ve put together a list of our favorite Employee Appreciation Day Ideas to help fuel your creativity for 2011.

1. Personally deliver a snack or sweet treat to employees. One year, each Baudville employee received a small pack of salted cashews. We added the note “We’re nuts about you!” to each box to make it more personal.

 2. Get the entire team involved in recognition. Create a short-term peer-to-peer recognition program by giving each employee a set number of Tokens of Appreciation. Over the course of the day or week, employees can give their tokens to express their appreciation. Recognize those with the most tokens on Employee Appreciation Day.

3. Employee Appreciation Day ideas can take place outside the office, too. Write letters to your employees expressing your appreciation and mail them to their homes. Receiving a personal letter via snail mail is great way to end the week.

4. Giving employees a casual day is a free (and favorite!) Employee Appreciation Day idea. Hand out Casual Day stickers for all employees to wear on Employee Appreciation Day. For a more personal twist, write a note for the individual on each sticker.

5. If you’re a manager with a small team, your staff probably values one-on-one face time with you more than anything else. Schedule a team lunch for Employee Appreciation Day, and arrange for lunch to be delivered or host a potluck. Then sit down with your team for good food, conversation, and some valued face time.

6. Shine the spotlight on your stars with our Star Performer theme. You can show a short movie over lunch and treat every one to a bag of popcorn as an afternoon snack. As a gift, complete this Employee Appreciation Day event by giving a new mug to employees so they can enjoy their favorite beverage with their popcorn.

7. Give each of your employees a gift for Employee Appreciation Day. A gift serves as a tangible reminder of both the Employee Appreciation Day celebration and your appreciation. Use our Gift Finder to discover the perfect gift for this year's Employee Appreciation Day!

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

If you’re a recognition guru or the Director of Positive Mojo at your organization, you probably celebrate your employees on Employee Appreciation Day. Employee Appreciation Day is always celebrated on the first Friday in March. This year, that falls on March 4, 2011. 

All this month, we’ll be sharing Employee Appreciation Day ideas to help you plan an impactful appreciation event. Check back each week or sign up for email updates (in the navigation on the right) to have our ideas delivered right to your inbox.

Employee Appreciation Day can be a fun time to celebrate your staff. However, for your efforts to be interpreted as sincere, recognition and appreciation should be happening regularly in your organization. Don’t let your Employee Appreciation Day go awry like it did for Dilbert.

Source: Scott Adams, dilbert.com What should I do for Employee Appreciation Day?

Keep your Employee Appreciation Day plans simple and focus on authentic recognition. Give managers and employees thank you note cards and encourage them to write a handwritten note to a co-worker they appreciate.

Giving an Employee Appreciation Day gift is also popular. An employee gift can express your thanks and serve as a lasting reminder of your appreciation. Some of our most popular Employee Appreciation Day gifts have been small snacks, like individually packaged cashews or jelly beans.

At Baudville, our employees have a blast with team competitions or activities on Employee Appreciation Day. Last year, we split our employees into six different teams to compete in the Baudville Winter Olympics. It was a blast! You can see videos and photos from the day on our Facebook page.

What happens after Employee Appreciation Day?

For your Employee Appreciation Day efforts to be effective, you need to continue to practice recognition everyday. It’s easy! Equip managers with simple tools that they can use on a daily basis. Regular recognition is about genuine recognition that reinforces desired behaviors, so give managers tips on identifying and recognizing behaviors that you want repeated at your organization.

For more information about day-to-day recognition, visit our Recognition Resource Center. We have articles, videos, and white papers that all go into greater detail about Employee Appreciation Day.

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.