We all want our work environment not to just survive but thrive in the modern, competitive market. Our staff members need to be fully engaged and committed to a shared vision of company success. There’s no better way to inspire and get everyone on the same page than to regularly appreciate and recognize your workers, especially if you’re a manager or business owner.

But whether you’re a middle manager, department supervisor, or chief executive officer, it can be tough to come up with the best employee of the month ideas and other ways to appreciate your employees’ great work. You have a lot on your plate, and the big-picture problems beckon. We’re here to lighten your load. Let’s look at seven ways you can recognize and reward employees and ensure that their morale stays high year-round.

Start an Employee of the Month Program

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It might be a bright idea to begin an employee of the month program. Why?

An employee of the month program has two significant benefits for your office:

• It recognizes rock star employees for the excellent jobs they do, giving them the motivation to continue performing above and beyond. This increases employee engagement and can improve employee morale.
• It inspires a little healthy competition in the office. If done carefully, an employee of the month program will help your employees focus on personal achievement and growth — not inter-departmental or inter-team comparisons. With individual achievement as the center and team wins as the major goal, you’ll have a friendly, energetic environment. This kind of workplace fosters teamwork, innovation, and collaboration.

A healthy employee of the month program will maximize employee recognition and appreciation, especially for those high achievers, perfectionists, and type A personalities. High-achieving employees flourish with extra recognition, so an employee of the month program that you hold every 30 days is a great way to give them what they need!

Employee of the Month Ideas

Of course, there are better and worse employee-of-the-month programs for you to implement to boost morale.

Generally, a good employee recognition program should include a recognition award, like a plaque, sign, or another prize. To sweeten the deal, you can offer a gift for each employee that wins the employee of the month recognition competition, like a personalized eGift card from Prezzee.

But what if you have employees across several departments and want to ensure everyone gets a chance to participate? In that case, consider starting an employee of the month program for each distinct department, measuring your employees using different metrics.

For example, the sales department could have an employee of the month competition where the employee with the most sales at the end of each month wins. In contrast, your customer service department could have a contest where the team member with the most positive customer interactions wins instead.

It’s essential to make sure your employee of the month program is inclusive rather than exclusive. That way, every employee will feel like they have a chance to win, not just employees in one section or another of your business.

Shout-out Rock-Star Employees on Social Media & in the Office

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Rock-star employees appreciate a little additional attention and recognition; extra effort deserves an equal amount of praise. One way to do that is to give those rock-star employees a shout-out on social media and in the office.

By giving your best employees a shout-out or a unique social media post, you show them that you recognize their specific contributions to your business and appreciate everything they've done.

In-office praise works well, but public recognition takes on a new form when the company is remote first or hybrid. Your work-from-home winning employees benefit from social media posts, perhaps most of all. Post this digital shout-out during a lunch break and send along a more tangible recognition award as well.

In addition, publicly recognizing excellent employees will help you mentally track which workers you should consider giving promotions to. The best promotions are usually those that are already in your company fold. If you regularly recognize the best employees on your roster, you’ll have no trouble identifying who’s ideal for an open position as soon as a new job appears.

There are nearly infinite creative ways to give employees a public shoutout, including temporarily giving them a special parking space or encouraging them to rock a trophy as their Slack icon.

Sign Up the Office for Team-Building Activities

Team-building exercises such as scavenger hunts, escape room games, and trivia nights are fantastic for boosting team morale and showing employee appreciation.

For example, say that you had a particularly profitable quarter with your business. To reward your employees, you take everyone out to dinner somewhere with a trivia night competition and a prize of $100.

Such team-building exercises bolster company culture and allow workers to socialize and mingle outside of workplace contexts. Furthermore, the right team-building exercises can help your workers do better work when they return to the office.

In any case, team-building exercises like games, adventures, or tours can be a fun way to show your workforce how much management appreciates them and to facilitate better team management in the long term.

Note: Think about timing. For example, don’t require everyone to come in on their day off. Plan this during regular working hours for maximum impact.

Improve the Employee Break Room

Your employees will spend quite a lot of time in the break room. It’s a no-brainer to show appreciation for them by improving the break room as much as possible.

For example, you can add a new coffee machine, add a bulletin board in the break room where employees can see new corporate announcements or schedules quickly and easily, or offer other workplace perks, like comfortable chairs or free snacks.

In one sense, improving your employees’ break room allows you to funnel any surplus profits your company made back into the company, which workers always appreciate. In another sense, improving the break room shows your employees that you want to enhance their experiences specifically, not only pay for improvements to general corporate offices.

Offer New Company Perks and Company Swag

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From time to time, introduce new company perks or give your employees company swag bags, like bags. Fill these bags with fun office supplies (like a desktop mini golf set), personalized nameplates, and cool t-shirts with employer branding.

New company perks are always appreciated since they make each day a bit nicer and more interesting for your employees. Meanwhile, swag bags allow you to personally approach employees to recognize them and say something nice about them before handing over a gift. It shows your employees that you are as committed to their development and success as you are to the success of your entire company.

Examples of Gifts and Perks

For example, you can assign new parking spots for employees or reserve the best parking spot for high-performing employees (consider making this a potential prize for an employee of the month program, too). Or you can introduce things like gym memberships, scholarships, or a daycare center in the office.

If you want to save a little money but still show your employees that you appreciate them, company swag bags filled to the brim with goodies and gifts could be just the ticket. Some examples include:

• eGift cards to an employee’s favorite retail brand. Prezzee offers gift cards to over 370 brands, so you know everyone can get one they like. Plus, they can always swap one gift card for another.
• Snacks and candies for an employee to munch on throughout the day
• Invitations to company retreats
• Desk toys for your employees to adorn their desks

The sky’s the limit when it comes to giving your employees gives and new workplace perks. Get a little creative — the key thing is your employees will remember when you give them these things, improving loyalty and dedication.

Highlight Work Anniversaries

An employee of the month program can be great. Still, not every employee has the chance to win those competitions every month, especially if they have to juggle lots of projects simultaneously.

That's why it's essential to have other ways to recognize your employees cooking in the background. One good example is a work anniversary highlight or shout-out.

Say that you have an employee who hasn’t won an employee of the month award, but they have been working faithfully at your company for 15 years without pause. That’s also deserving of recognition! So it’s only fair to host a special party or get together to recognize and appreciate that employee.

Longtime work anniversaries, like the one-year anniversary for a new hire or the 10, 15, and 20-year anniversaries for experienced employees, incentivize your workers to stick around. Plus, they allow you to recognize those employees whose positions or talents may not gel well with a traditional employee of the month program.

Once more: inclusivity is much better than exclusivity, especially regarding employee appreciation.

Have Staff Appreciation and Employee Appreciation Days

Go above and beyond with this principle and have regular staff appreciation and employee appreciation days. This can improve company culture and worker satisfaction overall.

For example, say that one department, in particular, did a fantastic job over the last quarter securing clients or answering customer complaints. A staff appreciation day for that department allows you to celebrate that entire department without singling out any specific individual.

That could be the best strategy, especially if the department worked as a team and their success wasn’t due to a single employee.

Similarly, you can and should host quarterly or yearly (at the least) employee appreciation days. These are opportunities for your entire workforce to get together and have fun. Consider renting a restaurant for an evening or treating your employees to an in-office, after-hours cocktail party with beverages mixed by you or a hired bartender. For remote employees, send everyone a DoorDash gift card so you can all dine in style wherever you are.

Employee appreciation days go a long way toward proving how much you acknowledge the constant effort exerted by your employees. Combine those days with some of the other strategies above, like giving your employees customized gifts or introducing new office perks to really “wow” your workers!

Wrap Up

Appreciating and recognizing your employees will work wonders for workplace productivity, worker retention, and company morale. The more you acknowledge and directly appreciate your employees, the more committed they’ll be to your company, even when the going gets tough.

That’s why so many companies use Prezzee eGift cards: personalized, customizable gift cards that you can design with your company brand and give to your employees. We offer gift cards for over 360 brands, but each can be swapped out for a different retailer if your employee prefers to shop in one location.

Why wait? Sign up for Prezzee Business and send out eGift cards to show your employees how much you appreciate them today!

Sources:

How to Manage an Employee-of-the-Month Program

The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture | HBR.org

Why Team Building Is The Most Important Investment You'll Make | Forbes

Office Rivals? Keeping Workplace Competition Friendly | Business News Daily

Why a Daycare Is Needed in a Business Office