7 Great Employee Appreciation Ideas to Help Your Reward Your Awesome Team

There’s a famous quote by Sterling K. Brown that reads “Always have an attitude of gratitude.” Now, we’re not here to talk about Brown’s incredible acting career or his great portrayal of Randall Pearson on the tear-jerking TV series This Is Us, but what he said is certainly true. This idea can be applied to your company and your team and showing your employees gratitude should always be a priority. But how exactly do you appreciate your employees? Keep reading as we dive into 7 great employee appreciation ideas that can help you show gratitude to your team. 

1) Celebrate their birthdays and anniversaries 

As long as your staff doesn’t mind - celebrate their birthdays and anniversaries with the company! Catering a lunch or ordering a cake can be a great way to engage the whole team. You can also offer employees a perk such as an extra vacation day during their birthday or anniversary month.

2) Cheers for peers

This system allows employees to shout out each other's great work. Coworkers can acknowledge unseen efforts that go on in the office day-to-day. This could be in the form of a bulletin board where positive notes are posted or an online forum where positive messages can be added. 

3) An award/employee of the month

Create an award of some sort that is given each month that is recognized as a symbol of staff appreciation. This could be a gift card to a place that the employee enjoys or a fun gift basket full of goodies. The possibilities are endless!

4) Thank you notes or emails

A quick little note thanking a staff member for their hard work can go a long way. Whether it’s as simple as a quick post-it note or a written-out card or certificate, there are many ways that you can give your employees the message that they are doing a great job. To learn more about how to construct meaningful thank you notes for your employees, stay tuned for next week’s blog post where we give some great message ideas. 

5) Treats, just because

Everyone deserves a treat once and a while and your employees are no different. Have a coffee cart come to the office for the day. Grab sweets from your local bakery and leave them in the break room. It really is just as simple as treating your staff just because you appreciate them. 

6) Include your staff on your website

Take a look at your website. Are only the leaders featured on the site? While it may not make sense to put everyone on the website depending on how large your company is, putting a consistent effort to feature as many of your staff members as possible shows that you are proud of your team and want to highlight all the great things that they do. Also, by allowing them to write their own bios, you show them that they are appreciated for who they are at the company. 

7) Put thought into the break room

Nothing kills employee joy faster than a boring and uncomfy break room. Show that you appreciate the time that employees take out of their days to work at your company by creating a welcoming and relaxing break room. Allow your staff to make suggestions about improvements they want to make to the breakroom. Maybe they want to pick the music, have a weekly snack, a comfy couch - allow this room to be something that your staff loves. 

As you can see, it really doesn’t take much to show your employees that you value and appreciate them. These small acts of kindness may not seem like much on their own but once you build up an employee appreciation system, all of these little things will add up and your employees will notice the effort you make.

But, if you’re still having a hard time coming up with employee appreciation ideas that work well with your business, there are teams of workplace professionals that can help you develop tailored approaches that fit your business perfectly. Here at STEPS, we offer small business support services and can work with you to create strong employee appreciation tactics that can help you acknowledge and celebrate your team. Find out more about our services on our home page or send us a message on our contact page.