Planning an Employee Appreciation Day? Everything you need to know from breakfast to Crystal Awards

Smart bosses know it’s important to recognize their employees for a job well done. It’s no surprise that a simple ‘thank you’ can really help employees feel good about their careers and their companies. However, if you’re really looking for a way to show the whole office that you appreciate them, consider planning an entire work day around employee recognition. If you’re not exactly sure how to approach this, here are some activities you should definitely consider.

Start the day right with breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right? Your employees know this too, so it’s not uncommon to see them start their day with coffee, pastries, and even oatmeal when they first arrive at the office. Instead of letting everyone fend for themselves on recognition day, offer breakfast. Start with gourmet coffee (and lots of it!) and juices, but don’t stop there. If you’re looking for something besides regular donuts, consider providing casseroles for breakfast. You can most likely find a local cafe that can serve you breakfast, but the casseroles are extremely easy if you want to make them yourself. Consider a baked French toast with eggs, cream, brown sugar and blueberries baked with French bread or an egg and sausage casserole topped with cheese. Both can be made together the night before and then baked the morning of the event, which means it won’t take much effort if you want to make it yourself. Be sure to let employees know that you’ll be providing their morning meal so they don’t eat before they get to work.

Give out Crystal awards during a catered lunch

With all that breakfast, you might think you won’t need lunch, but eventually your workers will get hungry! Get out of the office and offer them a lunch served at a local restaurant. While you’re there, give out crystal awards to employees who have worked particularly hard during the year, but don’t forget to have crystal awards for employees who have had the biggest increase in sales or those who received recognition from customers for being incredibly helpful. It’s okay if crystal awards aren’t given to everyone in the company, but you should have some type of recognition award for each member of your team so everyone feels appreciated.

The office closes a few hours before

A fun way to close out the day is to close the office a few hours early and send your workers home. While some bosses are concerned about how clients will react if they receive a message that the office is closed, they are often surprised at how encouraging clients are when this happens. If possible, notify your clients that you are closing the office and encourage your employees to personally call their most important clients to inform them. It gives the employee the perfect excuse to check in and lets your customers know that you value their business and their employees.

Planning an employee appreciation day doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, but it’s a great way to let your workers know how much you appreciate what they do. Don’t forget to include crystal awards on your employee recognition day and you’ll have everyone eagerly waiting to see who receives crystal awards next year.