10 ideas for Employee Appreciation Day 2023

Employee Appreciation Day falls on Friday 3rd March 2023. Below are 10 employee recognition ideas to inspire your celebrations and help your hybrid team feel valued and celebrated. With purse strings tightening, we’ve included low and no-cost employee appreciation ideas too.

Why celebrate Employee Appreciation Day?

Before jumping into our 10 ideas for employee appreciation, let’s remind ourselves why recognition matters at work.

1. Appreciation and Engagement are connected. When employees feel valued and appreciated, it improves employee engagement. In fact, Reward is one of the 5 themes in People Insight’s employee engagement model because the extent to which people feel appreciated and rewarded at work influences their overall engagement.
2. Appreciated employees are more likely to stay. In the wake of the Great Resignation, embedding appreciation into your organisation is more essential than ever to attract and retain top talent. Recognition is also vital for building strong employer employee relationships.
3. Recognition rubs off. Building appreciation and praise into your workplace means that colleagues are in turn likely to recognise and celebrate one another. This culture of recognition motivates teams to work together, value one another’s efforts and contributions, and this in turn helps spark new ideas.

Reward and recognition is an area we recommend investigating in your employee survey, and acting on throughout the year. Employee Appreciation Day 2023 is a great chance to put some new ideas in place, to remind your team how valued they are.

10 employee appreciation ideas for 2023

1. Build appreciation into the everyday 

We can’t underestimate the importance of the human ‘thank you’. Look at your employee lifecycle and assess when the key moments are to check in, surprise them and thank them for their hard work and effort. No, it’s not a new idea… but how many of us actually, consistently recognise employees in this way? Praising employees in team chats, recognising their work anniversary and writing thank-you notes are small acts that go a long way. Micro-gifting platform Huggg empowers managers to surprise their teams at home with small acts of kindness like a cup of coffee from their favourite shop, ‘lunch on me’ or cinema tickets – with all gifts shared via a text or email link.

2. Prioritise learning and development opportunities

Development opportunities are frequently the item most correlated with employee engagement in our surveys. Employees want to find their work interesting and challenging so create a ‘Culture of Learning’ by offering lunchtime talks, access to online courses, collaboration with other teams and allowances towards qualifications. Your employees will feel fulfilled and motivated when they feel inspired in their role. This is important because without access to regular opportunities to grow and learn,

3. Perks and rewards

Offer interesting rewards, based on what your employees want (not what you think they want). PPL overhauled their benefits package after only 43% of employees thought it compared favourably with other industry employers. New benefits include annual expense claims towards music and social activities, additional holiday days and extended access to health and life assurance policies. Overall engagement has improved considerably, with the belief that PPL benefits are good compared to other employers increasing by 18 points.

Before reviewing your rewards programme, read our article for ideas to make your employee perks greener.

4. Find little ways to say thank you 

The last couple of years have been shining examples of colleagues pulling together to help organisations come through difficult and uncertain times. With awards nights off the cards, consider other remote employee recognition ideas and ways of recognising employees for their hard work.

For example, Imperial College London hosted a Thank You day which included sending personalised cards from the President and Provost to 2,000 key workers. Other organisations have encouraged colleagues to nominate ‘Hidden Heroes’; used post-it notes to create a Wall of Praise thanking on-site workers; or hosted virtual events with video messages from leaders and colleagues that celebrate individuals.

5. Build in your brand values

Reinforce your values to align employees with your brand. Cancer Research UK developed the ‘Our Heroes’ recognition scheme to show appreciation for employees displaying the organisation values. Winners are invited to a VIP party. Live streaming of the awards to all offices ensures everyone is involved. Follow up surveys have shown a 7% increase in employee recognition, with their Brand Beliefs embedded into the day-to-day business. Our HR planning round-up shares more ideas to connect hybrid workers with your values in 2023.

6. Crowdsource award nominations 

Encourage teams to recognise and praise each other using a nomination system over email, your intranet or Team meetings. Treats and prizes for employees with the most nominations could include vouchers for a takeaway, additional holiday or a shout-out in team meetings or newsletters.

7. Alternative socials 

Increasingly since lockdown, people have looked for alternative experiences where they can learn new skills such as knitting, painting, cooking and jewellery making. This is a great low-cost appreciation idea. Virtual activities like these will have a minimal impact on your budget; employees just need the chance to develop new skills and engage with each other.

8. Look after employee wellbeing

With the growth of emotional and mental health awareness, it’s important to assess the risk of stress and burnout in your surveys. Flexible working, wellbeing support, massages, and mindfulness training can all support employees.

9. Trust your employees and show it

Give your employees the autonomy of where and how they work. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, three-quarters of UK employees are looking for more flexibility over where they work. Where possible, allow employees to work remotely and make sure they have the right tools to complete their work effectively. Ensure you achieve a balance between communicating through team chats and social activities and offering remote workers space to fulfil their role without guilt or pressure.

10. Ask for feedback – then do something about it

Offer employees a platform for feedback by using People Insight’s employee surveys and 360 feedback services. Many employees don’t believe change will happen after a survey, so keep them updated with regular communication from your leaders, your managers and employee task-forces. Invite them to give further feedback and ideas at open offices and town halls too, to keep up momentum before the big changes are ready to be introduced.