This week I was approached by one of my dear friends who serves as a principal for a local Early Childhood Center (PS-2^nd Grade). His requested deliverable: monthly staff appreciation ideas for 40 teachers and staff with some money to spend, but not a ton. Challenge accepted.

As I formulated the plan for him, I thought about our customers in the K12 sector and how many of them must be facing the same 2015-2016 school year appreciation ideas blank stare. Well, good news! I’ve outlined a pretty fantastic teacher and staff appreciation plan for you – balanced with both cost and no-cost ideas!

When we developed our Team Shirts™ product line, we hoped to partner with our customers to fulfill their special event apparel needs. To our surprise, our shirts also served another purpose for a great printing company right down the road! Brightformat, a Grand Rapids-based digital printing company, had been riding on the proverbial uniform struggle bus for years – until they saw our Smart Sayings™ Team Shirts! Read more about how these fun tees have impacted their business WAY beyond “just a shirt they wear every day.”

This week we celebrated our Digital Marketing Manager, Kim’s, birthday! I am reminded every time we celebrate a birthday here at the ‘ville of how important and EASY it is to make our co-workers feel the love on their special day. Here are your quick ABCs for how to make your next employee’s or co-worker’s birthday sing! We've got a list A-Z to help you make workplace birthdays a blast for everyone:

Day-to-day recognition is defined as the genuine everyday expressions of appreciation given to reinforce and reward positive behaviors. Although each dimension of recognition (day-to-day, informal, and formal) is important, day-to-day recognition occurs most often and has the greatest ability to impact employee performance. In this series, we’ll explain how day-to-day recognition can help you create a great place to work, establishing higher levels of employee motivation, engagement, and retention.