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!

At 11:30 on the Sunday night before last, I stepped off a plane after a whirlwind weekend in New York City. Then, just four days later, my parents pulled in my driveway and I hopped in their car for a road trip to Iowa. Talk about two ends of the spectrum: sky-high buildings, swarming streets, and foreign accents were replaced with top hat-high corn, long stretches of desolation, and mid-western drawls. Now I’m back at work trying to make sense of it all.

The dog days are over! That is, if you strategically saved a stash of your PTO for the summer months (AKA: When everybody wants to be outdoors enjoying the sun instead of looking at it from thier desk.) But, if you didn’t, and your employees are in the same boat, you’re in luck. I’ve come up with a handful of ideas to keep you and your team productive when the struggle is real and the drag between the 4^th and Labor Day feels like an eternity. We all know the importance of employee engagement and employee motivation, so I’ll get right to it:

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.