Today, the calendar on the wall — or your desk, or your smartphone — is asking companies throughout the United States to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day. Companies are their employees, so a business’s success depends on the success of its workers. To attract and keep the employees that make their businesses succeed, an organization’s leaders should remind them that they are valued. Here are a few ways you can show your appreciation for your colleagues.
1. Provide time off and transportation for volunteer work
Support your employees and their dedication to improving their local communities by organizing or taking part in events that help people in need or causes they believe in. From its Tampa headquarters, AVI-SPL takes an active role in Feeding Children Everywhere, which works to ensure that kids don’t go hungry. We also contribute through groups like Metropolitan Ministries, Paint Your Heart Out Tampa, toy drives, and bike-building events. Go to Charity Navigator to find evaluations of charities and choose the ones that you think are worthy of your effort and will do the most good.
2. Share snacks or have a food truck day
Morning bagels or donuts can help your employees get over the midweek hump and keep them buzzing on Fridays, when energy and enthusiasm flags with the weekend in sight. Once a month, AVI-SPL hosts a free dessert day from our Tampa office. And we often have a different food truck visit our business campus during the Friday lunch hour. Sometimes a department will bring in snacks and share them in the break room. A holiday like Valentine’s Day can provide all the excuse you need for a pizza party that encourages people to get away from their desks and connect with each other.
3. Offer day care services or flexible hours
Show the parents in your office that you value their contribution by giving them the time to care for their children and make it easier to attend to their day care or school schedule. It can be difficult — especially for new parents and those with long commutes — to be away from their children and deal with drop-off and pick-up times, so giving them the opportunity to work from home at least part time (such as the morning or late afternoon hours) can really help those who are always rushing through traffic to make it to work or their kids’ school.
4. Reward employees for outstanding teamwork
Invite employees to nominate each other in recognition of their outstanding teamwork and accomplishments. Winners may be recognized with gift cards, company-wide announcements, and other perks, like a monthly parking spot of their choice. You’ll reward coworkers for their great contributions and inspire others to up their game. Tie accolades to activities designed to increase fitness, like walking competitions, and you’ll have set the stage for a lifelong commitment to one’s health.
5. Provide a modern digital workplace
Empowering employees means committing to a culture that values flexibility in the way they work and generate the ideas that spark a company’s success. Modern digital workplaces with collaboration spaces and their technology systems allow people to share content in real time from their personal devices during same-room gatherings, as well as during video conferences that bring in teams from remote locations (such as another office or one’s home).
By implementing a variety of spaces with collaboration technology that is easy to use and meets the variety of ways people prefer to do their work, you’ll be showing you value your employees by supporting their ability to work efficiently in teams of various sizes, and to do it from a variety of locations. And you’ll be effectively meeting your desired business outcomes.
Transforming the workplace can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Visit AVI-SPL’s landing page “Digital Workplace Strategies to Attract and Retain Top Talent” for a look at the top considerations when choosing collaboration technology for your workplace, the variety of work spaces that support different styles of teamwork, and the technology within those spaces.