Employee RecognitionIncentive Program Success

The Problem With Employee Appreciation Day

By February 22, 2021 No Comments
Snowfly Employee Recognition Rewards

What? You didn’t realize Employee Appreciation Day was a real annual holiday?

Well, it is, and it’s right around the corner! It is the first Friday of every March… last year the news was probably overshadowed by the big announcement of cruise ship passengers testing positive for COVID on the first Friday of March. Let’s hope this March Employee Appreciation day is much more boring!

According to Wikipedia, Employee Appreciate Day “was created for the purpose of strengthening the bond between employer and employee. According to David Nuualiitia ‘Employee Appreciation Day first arrived on calendars in 1995. One of Recognition Professionals International’s founding Board members, Bob Nelson, together with his publishing company, Workman Publishing, created Employee Appreciation Day as a way of focusing the attention of all employers, in all industries on employee recognition.'”

As Wikipedia says, “companies often celebrate by letting employees leave early, offering gifts, events or special recognition for workers.”

So what’s the problem with Employee Appreciate Day? The problem is that, in order to create and reinforce the culture you need at your organization, you need to appreciate your employees more than one day a year.

Imagine going to work every day and feeling unappreciated. You feel like your work doesn’t matter, and your boss doesn’t notice. You wonder why you are there most days. You’d rather be in a job where you make a difference and are important. Then, on the first Friday of March you get an email saying “Please join us in the conference room for our Employee Appreciation Day celebration!”

If you haven’t felt appreciated every day for the last year, why would going to the conference room for 30 minutes to eat tasteless cake make you all of the sudden feel appreciated?

Hey listen, I’m not trying to deter you from celebrating and appreciating your employees on March 5th of 2021! I definitely want you to show your appreciation. Shower it on them! Whether that is leaving early, offering gifts, or whatever wikipedia says, show your appreciation. Make this the best appreciation celebration they have ever seen!

Snowfly Recognition Gratitude Thank YouWhat I want to emphasize is part of our core message here at Snowfly: You need to show your appreciation regularly. Maybe daily, maybe multiple times a day.

Showing appreciation should be a part of every manager’s DNA. Showing appreciation can be easy and free. It is easiest encapsulated in “thank you.” It can also be shown with words like “great job!”, “I like this!” and even “How did you do that??” Appreciation can be shown in private, perhaps in a one-on-one, or in a team or company setting, where someone’s work, efforts, accomplishments, or ideas can be highlighted. If you’ve ever had that happen to you, you know how the recipient can feel like king or queen for a day!

I’ve had my work highlighted at the organizational level, and getting compliments for the next few days by people I didn’t even know was pretty flattering. You can bet I felt very appreciated.

When leaders show this appreciation regularly they invite others to perpetuate this type of behavior, which is how you create a culture of appreciation. No cost involved. Just genuinely recognizing and appreciating others. When this happens regularly, and not just once a year (or even once a month), you create an environment where people want to work. They feel valued, and know their contributions and ideas mean something.

BONUS points if you show appreciation for failure… but that’s a different topic for a different blog post.

Snowfly is a recognition and rewards platform. We make it easy to share manager and peer recognition in the best ways. We give you the added value of attaching real incentives and rewards. For example, if your employee did something you want to recognize, you can award them dollars on their rechargeable debit card or points (that easily convert to dollars). “Thanks,” and other words showing appreciation, is really important. Adding a reward, or as we say, “putting your money where your mouth is,” is definitely next level, and can be very meaningful.

We’d love to show you how this works. Click the link below to contact us and let’s get on a call to talk about your needs and how we might be able to help.

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Jason Alba

Jason Alba

I'm passionate about building great cultures. I love respect in the workforce, especially respect that is earned. I love strategic management, leadership, and vision. I love healthy companies through profitability. I love employee engagement, employee performance, and employee satisfaction. I love how Snowfly can help YOUR organization work towards all of these things.

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