Not all work places can be closed for our nation’s Independence Day. For those of you who will be at work this Friday, I have some employee appreciation ideas that can help your staff celebrate the holiday and make it through the work day a little easier.
A lot of a person’s mood can be determined by what one wears. When our office dresses up for different occasions, I’ve noticed everyone is in a lighter, happier mood. To entice people to participate, give an employee appreciation award to the person voted with the most patriotic outfit. You can also spruce up a common area such as a hallway or break room with patriotic decorations.
Put Together Patriotic GamesI have a few employee appreciation ideas for Independence Day games:
Huffington Post has 11 different games you can pay to help foster some employee appreciation during the day. |
A great employee appreciation idea for Independence Day is to bring in food with red, white and blue. There are a lot of healthy choices (think fruit) in these categories. Pasta salads, chips and salsa, green salads and jello can also feature red, white and blue colors. During college, I worked at a big box retailer and our store manager would man the grill during the 4th of July to provide employees with burgers, hot dogs and even vegetarian options. I really liked this employee appreciation idea from eHow.com: if you have an open, flat roof, hold a building party so other people can join in. It might be a great networking opportunity and can help you get familiar with your business’ neighbors. If you have a potluck, be sure to bring in a few employee appreciation awards to hand out to people who brought in the favorite healthy food to share.
In addition to traditional tchotchkes you may want to hand out on Independence Day, there are other employee appreciation ideas you can use to reward employees. Some of our clients give away items such as bicycles, gas grills and iPads in a raffle. Other clients will award winners of different games or contests with gift cards from nationwide retailers.
It is tough having to work on Independence Day while a lot of Americans will be at home or with friends and family celebrating. Employers can make the day a little easier by implementing some of these employee appreciation ideas. They are all a great way to interact with your employees and get people talking with each other-all of which can lead to better employee engagement.