In this month’s Recognition TV webisode, we talked about Service Anniversaries. This is the one recognition program that you can find at all organizations! Recognizing years of service can affect employee morale, retention, and motivation, so make it count! Here are five tips you can follow in your organization that employees will fondly remember for years. 

Watch the Recognition TV websiode here:
 

If you’re a fan of Baudville’s free downloads and eBooks, get excited! We’ve just released Team Up! It’s an eBook of activity ideas that will energize employees and teams. Longtime Baudville friends will remember that we once sold a book by the same title. Since that book is no longer for sale, we decided to share the 60+ team activity ideas with all of you, for free! 

The original Team Up! book was composed of six chapters covering activities for recognition, teams, customer service, milestones, ice breakers, and energizers. There are great ideas in every chapter! Because there was so much in this book, we decided to make it available for download by chapter. That way, you can download just the activities you’re interested in. Right now, you can download the chapters on recognition, teams, and customer service. The remaining three chapters will be available in early February. 

In Michigan, though we never seem to fall short of ways to joke about the weather fluctuations, we can usually count on January to be consistently cold and snowy. Yet, somehow, the thermometer has peaked at nearly 50 degrees several days this week. The forecast for the rest of the week? Between 8-10 inches of the fluffy white stuff! There’s nothing like the unpredictable to overcomplicate getting dressed for the work day—as well as our commute to start or end the day.

Valentine’s Day may be over a month away, but in my opinion it’s never too early to start planning! Although the holiday is typically celebrated between couples, I think it’s a great opportunity to have a fun day with your team. After all, we used to have Valentine’s Day parties in school. Why not bring them to the office?! 

Your celebration should be focused on fun, boosting team morale, and employee appreciation, which is a great thing to do in mid-February. By then, the holidays are long behind us and most people (like those of us in Michigan!) are in the middle of a long winter. The good news is you don’t need to spend a lot. These low cost Valentine’s Day ideas will give you plenty to do on February 14th without breaking the bank!

First, an absolutely free Valentine’s Day idea: send an ePraise card. Choose a card to send to the entire team and say “Love your work” or “Way to put your heart into it.” Using ePraise, you can make Valentine’s Day a day for employee appreciation!

 

It’s estimated that more than 58 million pounds of chocolate will be purchased during the week of Valentine’s Day. Bring some chocolate goodness to the office on Valentine’s Day with a dessert potluck. Invite the entire team to bring in their favorite dessert to share. Elect judges to taste the different dishes and hand out awards, like the Stole My Heart with One Bite Award, and present certificates to the winners. What other awards would you give out?

Everyone loves food in the office, so give each of your team members a small treat on Valentine’s Day. Whether it’s a small bag of Tootsie Rolls or Sweet Treats full of jelly beans, your employees will love that you remembered them. Add a personal note to each piece of candy to make this an effective employee appreciation gift.

One of my favorite Valentine’s Day ideas is having an old fashioned card exchange. Create mailboxes for your employees out of paper bags or shoe boxes, and ask everyone to bring a Valentine’s Day card for each of their teammates. I think this would be a blast at Baudville. We’d have some really creative cards floating around!

Finally, I love the creative Valentine’s Day ideas on Mud Pie Studio blog. They posted 101 Valentine’s Ideas for under $5, and a lot of them would be perfect to give in the office. The valentine using the Pop Rocks is one of my favorite because it has an employee appreciation message. 

I don’t know about you, but I am terrible at sending written notes. I hear it is a problem with my generation, but I think every generation is losing their will to send out hand written notes. This is really too bad because people truly feel appreciated and cared about when you take a little extra time out of your day to write a special note. Luckily for us, we can start 2012 off right because January is National Thank You Month!