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Employee Appreciation Day

Employee Appreciation Day is the first Friday of March. This year's celebration is Friday, March 1, 2013.

A Brief History

Employee Appreciation Day was first introduced in 1995. The purpose of Employee Appreciation Day is to focus the attention of all employers, in all industries, on employee recognition.

Why Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day?

Employee recognition is more powerful than any other motivator. The great thing about recognition is that it can be given in many forms and at varying costs (including free). Recognition is most effective when it takes place on a regular basis and when it is sincere While Employee Appreciation Day provides a great opportunity to recognize those you work with, we encourage you to check out the rest of our Recognition Toolkit for tips and resources on year-round recognition.

Ways GW Celebrates Employee Appreciation Day

Stop by Rice Hall or Enterprise Hall between 8:00-10:00 am to get your Appreciation Day goody.
Enter for a chance to win a Kindle Fire by completing the Colonial Community Quest.
Enter for a chance to win a Kindle Fire by submitting a Staff in Action picture.

Ways You Can Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day

Below are just a few low-cost, non-cash ideas that you can incorporate into your recognition practices for Employee Appreciation Day or any day.

For Everyone

Send a Positive Vibe to a peer or colleagues to publicly thank and appreciate them.
Tweet your appreciation of a GW colleague to @ColCommunity and we’ll share it with the GW community.
Check out our ecards in the Recognition Toolkit.

For Managers

	Career Milestones For those employees who will be recognized at the 2013 Career Milestone Awards, make recognition more meaningful by having special acknowledgement in your newsletters and during team meetings.
	Thank You Personally thank each of your employees for their contributions. You could do this verbally; however, you might have a bigger impact if you wrote thank you notes to each employee individually. Make sure your notes are personal with specifics about what you appreciate. If you don't have time to do this, enlist your direct reports. Want to save trees? Take a look at these free Recognition E-cards to create electronic thank you notes. Sending a Positive Vibe is also a great tool for providing recognition. Submit 2 to 3 days before March 1st so it can be posted by Employee Appreciation Day!
	Feed Them Bring in bagels or doughnuts for breakfast. Most employees LOVE to get special treats and if you bring them in the morning, it just starts the day off right. If you have employees with special dietary needs, make sure to include them by bringing something they can have too.
	Gift of Time Allow employees extra time to attend the Annual Proud to be GW Employee Appreciation Festival on June 12 in Foggy Bottom and June 13 at the Virginia Science and Technology Campus. Allow employees to attend wellness events and learning events the Service Excellence Conference. Participation in programs that help work-life balance like Flexible Work Arrangements demonstrate to employees that they are appreciated and their work is valued.
	Small Token Give each employee a small gift. It doesn't have to be much. One example is a supervisor who gave each employee a pet rock with inspiring words on them. What made the gift meaningful - she did it for each employee and matched the sayings with their personalities.
	Award Certificates Create unique award certificates. For example, give out awards for best smile, most upbeat, perfect attendance, go-to person, etc. Develop your own categories that are unique to GW or use some from this Award Name Ideas list. We’ve made it even easier by providing an assortment of Certificate Templates. Looking for something easier? Check out these fun Recognition Print & Posts.

Need more ideas? Take a look at the Day-to-Day Recognition ideas and our Recognition Resources page. Also, make sure to print a copy of the Annual Recognition Days calendar and post is somewhere you’ll easily see.

CLICK HERE to return to Recognition Toolkit Overview