Employee Appreciation Day Gifts

Employee Appreciation Day

It doesn’t seem fair that there should be a Bosses’ Day without an Employee Appreciation Day, does it? Though many people have not yet heard of it, since 1995 an Employee Appreciation Day has existed on the US calendar, to be celebrated always on the first Friday in March, this year on March 5th. It’s the perfect day to show your employees how much you appreciate them and what they do for your company. ExperienceDays has some unique and exciting gifts for you to express your appreciation.

Background: Employee Appreciation Day was started by Bob Nelson, along with his publishing company, Workman Publishing, “as a way as a way of focusing the attention of all employers, in all industries on employee recognition.” It makes sense that Bob would get an idea like this one because he is one of the founding board members of Recognition Professionals International.

The history of RPI began in 1995 when Debbie Patrick of AT&T Universal Card and Rafik Bishara of Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals met at a conference devoted to the topic of Performance Management in Dallas, Texas. Frustrated by the lack of conference sessions devoted to the topic of recognition as an effective management tool, Patrick and Bishara held their own conference later that same year and were joined by other professionals wanting to share ideas about the same topic. Out of this passionate interest grew Recognition Professionals International, which was officially established in 1998. Within just a few years, RPI grew from having fifty members to five hundred. Clearly, there was an interest in this topic and a market for their services.

Employee Appreciation Day is a fitting outgrowth of the goals and philosophy of this non-profit organization. People work better when they feel affirmed and valued by their supervisors. When the affirmation is genuine and thoughtful, the result is happier and more productive employees. In their list of suggested activities for Employee Appreciation Day, RPI gives some that link nicely with activities offered through ExperienceDays.com.

Ways to Show Appreciation: On their website, RPI makes the point: “We all know cash bonuses are spent on bills and many perks are soon forgotten. Personalizing recognition can create a memory and those memories build higher performance.” This idea connects with the underlying principle behind ExperienceDays.com: while a material gift is appreciated, the gift of an experience is much more satisfying and memorable. RPI suggests: “Give the gift of wellness. Have a limousine pick up an employee for a full day at a spa.” They also suggest giving gift certificates for lessons in things like cooking or sailing, or even flying a helicopter for instance.

ExperienceDays offers a wide variety of these kinds of gift experiences for you to give your employees on this special day. We offer dance lessons such as our “Dancing in New York” or our “Philadelphia Dancing” gifts. We offer other types of lessons from cooking class to training in horseback riding and, yes, we do offer a gift of golf lessons as well. Or take one of your employees to lunch, as RPI suggests, but do it on one of our fabulous lunch cruises, or treat an employee and his or her spouse to dinner, again as RPI suggests, but let it be on a romantic dinner cruise, with dancing on board ship following the meal. You might even thrill an exceptional employee with a gift of a flight experience, like a helicopter flight or hot air balloon ride or even flight lessons. These, and many more unique experience gifts, are all available on ExperienceDays.com.

So, let your employees know how much you value them on this Employee Appreciation Day. ExperienceDays.com has a wealth of ideas to help you make their day a special one.

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