You’re going to need great employees if you want to grow your business. Employers are often seen spending lot of money on hiring and training their employees. But all this can go waste if they do not appreciate their employees that often.
Employees spend most time with their co-workers than any other people in their lives. They’d like to be appreciated for the efforts they put to fulfil their responsibilities. Also employee recognition can help in improving employee turnover and recruitment in an organization.
In this article, we will discuss some gratitude activities for employees to help them show that you are thankful to them.
Gratitude Activities For Employees
Here are few fun ways to show your employees that you are thankful to them.
1. Field Trip
Take all your employees on a trip to a place nearby. Organize various activities and get to know more about your employees. This is a really great way to thank your employees for their commitment with your organization. There’s nothing more fun than getting to see the funnier version of your co-workers and employees.
2. Potluck
Throwing potlucks is the most common way to bring your employees together. But it can also be an excellent way to thank them. Have everyone on the team bring in a dish for potluck. Make the event more fun by playing some awesome music.
3. Breakfast From Boss
Set up a meeting and bring your team to the conference room. Surprise them with free breakfast and say out loud how thankful you are to each member of your team. Now that’s a special way to start a day, your employees will stay motivated for a longer time.
4. Company Scrapbook
Have a company scrapbook and write the names of the employees that you want to recognize every week. This will be a fun activity and also will inspire your employees to work hard and get into the list.
5. Monthly Magazine Subscription
You can also gift your employees with a monthly subscription of their favorite magazine as appreciation. Purchasing a magazine subscription will remind your employee of your thoughtfulness month long without breaking your budget.
6. Pets At Work
Allow your employees to bring their pets to the workplace. When your employees are around their furry friends, they feel happier. Happy employees mean, increased employee morale and productivity. There’s no better way of thanking them than to have a chief cuddling officer on board!
7. Hold Contests
Holding contests can bring excitement in the workplace and will help employees take a break from their routine tasks. Try to involve every team in the contest as it will help them communicate and gel with each other. Bring some excitement to the floor by playing music and awarding everyone with small gifts.
8. Volunteering For A cause
Many employees seek out opportunities to volunteer but can not get enough time because of office work. It is a great opportunity for those employees to fulfil their soul’s purpose by helping others. Moreover, as employees now want their employers to be more conscious of their impact on society, it would be great to do these exercises frequently, involving employees from different teams.
9.Personally Thank Employees
Do you recall the time when your boss approached you to thank you for all of your efforts on a particular project? Moments like these leave an indelible imprint on our memories and help us improve at our jobs. Hence, it is important for managers to personally thank their team members for their contributions. To show your employees that their work is appreciated, consider sending a virtual thank-you note or giving them small tokens of appreciation. This will make them feel valued and motivated to do better at their jobs.
10. Appreciate Them In Group Meetings
Everyone likes to be appreciated in front of their team members. It gives motivation a boost and raises morale. In every meeting, you should appreciate employees who have done a job. But you must ensure that appreciation does not come at the cost of others. Therefore, be subtle while recognizing employees in group meetings.
11. Gratitude Wall
Imagine a wall in the office where employees can write down their thoughts about things they are grateful for. You can use a wall in the common area which is accessible to everyone. You can even use creative tools, such as Quicktools by PicsArt, to decorate and customize work calendars. You can add all of your team members’ birthdays and special occasions so no one misses a chance to celebrate with each other.
Once in a month, everyone can assemble in the common area to read the thoughts imprinted on the wall. It is great way to appreciate employees for their work. Also, employees can thank their team mates for their support. Good thins is it can be anonymous too!
A robust employee recognition program can do wonders for your organization. It helps in building trust, loyalty, and bonding within employees. We all know that happier employees are the most productive and stay for longer in the organization.
We hope the gratitude activities for employees discussed in this article will help you build a happy and engaged workforce. Share your experiences of activities to show gratitude towards employees.
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Kylee Stone
Kylee Stone supports the professional services team as a CX intern and psychology SME. She leverages her innate creativity with extensive background in psychology to support client experience and organizational functions. Kylee is completing her master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational psychology at the University of Missouri Science and Technology emphasizing in Applied workplace psychology and Statistical Methods.