Next week, we’re celebrating Spring Break in the marketing department. It’s become an annual tradition to make work fun and exciting for employees who aren’t traveling for spring break. Each day, we have games, food, and fun as a team.

Annual holidays and events are an important part of the culture at Baudville. Our management and SPIRIT Teams  plan outstanding events for Employee Appreciation Day, Customer Service Week, and milestone days in between. Employees look forward to those events, and it infuses a welcome dose of fun and competition into our goal-driven days.

We’ve created our Recognition Event Calendar to help you do the same! Located in our Recognition Resource Center, the Recognition Event Calendar has a holiday or event for every day of the work week. Regardless of the time of year, you can find a fun holiday to celebrate as a team – just for fun!

For instance, coming up in April is National Cherish an Antique Day. Ask employees to bring in their favorite antique and display it at their desk, or have them share a short story about it in a meeting. Then there’s National Siblings Day when you can encourage employees to bring in a childhood picture of them with their siblings. There’s also Scrabble Day. Host a scrabble tournament at lunch or start a team-wide game of Words with Friends.

And that’s just one week!

 Celebrating holidays and events as a team is a fun and easy way to build camaraderie, engage employees, and foster loyalty. Today, you can sign up for Recognition Event Calendar reminders. Each month, we’ll send you an email highlighting some of the upcoming holidays and ideas for celebrations. It’s an easy way to make fun a priority for you and your team. Sign up today by visiting the Recognition Event Calendar.

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook. 

National Doctor’s Day is celebrated annually on March 30 to show appreciation to doctors. The holiday dates back to 1933 when Eudora Brown Almond, the wife of a doctor, decided to honor physicians like her husband. She sent greeting cards to physicans and placed flowers on the graves of doctors who had passed away. Her display of recognition proved to be very powerful! The U.S. Congress established a National Doctor’s Day almost 60 years later!

Fun Fact: The date for National Doctor’s Day is the anniversary of the first use of general anesthetic in surgery.

 

If you forgot that today is National Doctor’s Day, don’t worry! There’s still time to send a free ePraise, or write a handwritten thank you note , like Edora Brown Almond. The simple and genuine expression of appreciation in a note can be mean more than any expensive gift!

April is National Volunteer Month, and I encourage organizations to honor their volunteers during National Volunteer Week, April 15-21. I’ve been able to learn a lot about volunteer through my work with local non-profit organizations on their events and my personal volunteer work. After all, one of the best ways to learn about appreciation is to be appreciated!

If you’re looking for volunteer appreciation ideas, I recommend you grab a cup of coffee and watch our 10 minute Recognition TV webisode. I share popular themes for volunteers and volunteer appreciation event ideas you can use this year.

In the video, I also recommend a few free resources that will help your volunteer appreciation event planning go smoothly. You can download all these resources from our Recognition Resource Center or by clicking on the links below.

Volunteer Appreciation Ideas eBook



Employee Event Planning Check List



Award Presentation Guide

 

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook. 

Since Volunteer Appreciation Week is in one month, I know there are lots of volunteer coordinators and leaders who are working on their volunteer appreciation plans. To help you out, I've lsited five great free volunteer appreciation resources you can use this spring: 

When is National Volunteer Week 2012 and how will you celebrate volunteers this year?