Plan an Employee Appreciation Day

Employee appreciation days are a great way to engage employees and increase morale. Demonstrating an organization’s commitment to its employees can help retain quality staff members and can serve as a valuable tool when recruiting qualified candidates. Employees that feel valued and appreciated will be more effective in their duties. In short, it’s good business to show your team how much you appreciate them. An employee appreciation day is a great way to start.

Steps

Preparing for an Employee Appreciation Day

1. Check into company policies. Depending on the size of your company there may be company-wide policies in place you should review before planning your employee appreciation day. Some companies require recreational activities be reported to corporate for tracking purposes. This is particularly common in large companies where different departments or locations may get jealous of what goes on in your location.
   • Speak to your local human resources officer if you are unsure where to check for company policies.
   • Some companies prefer that you report these types of events because they can aid in recruitment.
2. Identify high and low output periods in your team’s schedule. Depending on the industry your company is in, there may be busy and slower periods in your schedule. Manufacturing tends to be busiest near the end of the month to fill orders, whereas retail businesses may have sales, events or inventory-counts to schedule around.
   • You should schedule your employee appreciation day during one of the slower output periods of time to alleviate stress caused by missing work or impending deadlines.
   • You may want to plan your employee appreciation day for soon after a particularly busy period of time.
   • Come up with a few possible dates to use when presenting the plan to managers, supervisors or human resources.
3. Determine the scope and budget of your plan. Your budget will dictate how you proceed in planning your employee appreciation day. You will need to consider how many employees will be participating in the day’s festivities and whether or not you are going to open the event up to their families. Determine how many people you anticipate will be coming to the event so you can get a sense of how much food you will need and begin to ballpark financial figures.
   • If you have a budget set before you begin, you can use that to guide your decisions about whether or not to invite families.
   • Food is an important part of an employee appreciation event, but remember to keep room in your budget for entertainment like music or activities.
4. Meet with managers and supervisors. Once you have an idea of your budget and when you’d like to throw the employee appreciation day, meet with team leaders within your building or department to discuss the possible dates and any suggestions they may have.
   • Offer the dates you have determined and ask managers if they have a preference for one of the dates based on the requirements of their teams, then try to choose a date that best suits everyone.
   • Tell managers that you are open to suggestions if anyone has an idea as to things they would like to see included. If you allow them to participate in the process they will be more apt to ensure their teams can attend.
5. Enlist help. When meeting with managers, you may want to suggest putting together a team to help you put the employee appreciation day together. You can ask for members of each group so everyone is well represented, or you can choose a few people that you know are good at organizing these kinds of events.
   • Human resources officers and people that work in marketing may be well suited and willing to assist. Employee morale programs fall within the purview of most human resources professionals and marketing may have experience organizing events.
   • Consider allowing anyone to participate that shows an interest, provided it does not interfere with their formal responsibilities.

Planning an Employee Appreciation Day

1. Establish a concrete date. With the preliminary work out of the way, you will need to determine a solid date that you intend to have the employee appreciation day. This is important, as you will need to give the date to businesses and vendors, as well as advertising the date internally to your employees.
   • The date will need to be established early on in order to get price estimates from local businesses for food and similar expenses.
   • Employees may need to plan their work schedule to allow for a day of festivities. The more time you give them to prepare the more likely they will be able to attend.
   • Make fliers and send out e-mails to let employees know the date, time and location of the employee appreciation day as soon as you have the date set.
2. Choose appropriate activities. Depending on the size of your company and the number of people you anticipate participating in the employee appreciation day, the types of activities that are appropriate for your event can vary widely. The time of year and venue are also important to consider. Some good examples may be:
   • Outdoor activities like volleyball or softball may be appropriate for some groups of people during warmer months.
   • If you have the budget, inflatable play areas for children and adults can often be rented for indoor or outdoor use.
   • Raffling off prizes can be done in any location at any time of year and can add an element of excitement.
3. Determine what kinds of food you will have. It is important that you are sensitive to the dietary needs of your employees if you intend to let them know that you appreciate them. You should have vegetarian alternatives and be aware of religious concerns that may come into play. If you are going to order a number of pizzas, you may want to put out a signup sheet asking people to list what they would like. If you intend to have the event catered, discuss the options you have available to you with the catering company. You may also want to consider making a “pot-luck” style event in which each employee is asked to bring in one dish to share with their coworkers.
   • Muslim employees cannot eat during the day while observing Ramadan and cannot eat pork at any time.
   • Some Christian employees may not be able to eat meat on Fridays during lent.
   • You may want to offer a variety of vegetarian and dairy free options to ensure everyone can have a tasty meal during your event.
4. Seek partnerships with local businesses. One way to reduce costs and get the most out of your budget is to contact local businesses and bring up the opportunity of partnering with them on the event. You could offer to advertise local businesses at your employee appreciation day in exchange for discounted catering services, rented activities, or housekeeping after the party.
   • If your business also offers products or services local companies may benefit from, you could offer discounts in return.
   • Some companies may be eager to participate simply to have an opportunity to engage a new potential customer base in your employees.
5. Purchase the necessary supplies. Purchase all of the materials you will need for the party early to ensure you aren’t surprised by budget limitations the day before the festivities. Decorations can be important, as they can help set the mood of the day and make a workspace look more festive.
   • Hanging up streamers and balloons can be a great way to make a regular workplace look festive and fun.
   • Make sure to buy plastic cutlery, paper plates, and cups if they will not be provided by a catering service.
   • If you plan to have a raffle, make sure to buy quality products as prizes. A handful of good raffle prizes like gift cards or electronics can be more exciting than a dozen small, cheap prizes. Ask partnered businesses if they would consider providing things for the raffle.

Executing Your Employee Appreciation Day

1. Get help setting things up. It’s going to take some serious work to decorate for your employee appreciation day, set out the food, and organize any activities. Remember that the point is not to give your employees additional work to do, but it’s important that you get some help setting things up before the event begins. Ask for volunteers or choose a small team to help you.
   • Make sure to credit those who helped prepare for the event during the festivities.
   • You may want to offer an incentive for those who help set the party up like allowing them to leave early the day prior.
2. Address your team. At the onset of the employee appreciation day, you should address the group and let them know why you are throwing such an event: to let them know how much you appreciate their hard work. You may choose to share stories about individuals that have gone above and beyond the call of duty or discuss recent successes you have experienced as a group.
   • Leave out any lingering concerns you or the team may have. Employee appreciation days should be about what’s going well, not what needs to go better.
   • Emphasize how much you personally appreciate your employee’s hard work.
3. Leave work out of it. After you address the employees and explain why you are having an employee appreciation day, try to steer conversation with individual employees away from work. Allow them to enjoy their day instead of treating it as an extended staff meeting.
   • Don’t bring up things you need done to employees unless you expect them to leave the event to do it.
   • Only ask an employee to work during an employee appreciation event if it is absolutely imperative to the success of the business and make sure they are aware that you appreciate their sacrifice.

Related Articles

• Engage Employees
• Train New Employees
• Discipline an Employee
• Empower Employees
• Motivate Your Employees

References

See also

• Create a Productive Working Environment
• Be Appointed to a Board of Directors
• Become a Better and Effective Team Leader
• Set Up an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Retain Good Employees
• Be an Artist Manager
• Build a Management Team
• Use an In Basket
• Write an Employee Handbook
• Plan an Employee Retreat

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