To attract top talent and retain existing employees, it’s critical to show employee appreciation. Some examples include a strong benefits package, a focus on work-life balance, and peer recognition programs. While showing employee appreciation should be a year-round initiative, the holiday season is the perfect time to amplify your efforts. Here are 7 tips for how you can show employees appreciation during the holiday season. These ideas can take place virtually for your remote workers or in the office.
1. Decorating party
The holidays are a perfect time for your team to have some fun and get creative. Consider hosting a decorating party for your employees. If you’re in the office, this could be for the desks, conference, rooms and shared spaces. If employees are working from home, you could put together a kit for your team to build decorations for their doors, mailboxes, or home offices. For a virtual event, you can decorate together on a video call and then share photos in the team chat afterwards.
2. Holiday lunches
Team lunches are a great way to boost employee morale year-round, and the holidays are no exception. Many companies increase the frequency of company-sponsored lunches during this time. This could be a recurring meal perk for your team to order individual meals during the work week. Or, you might host a team lunch for your staff to come together and bond over delicious meals. Whatever you choose, meals are a great way to show employees you appreciate their hard work.
3. Team-building activities
Team-building activities are another way to foster engagement amongst employees. The team lunch previously mentioned is one great example of a team-building activity you can host during the holidays. Your activities should allow team members to connect with each other, and especially those they might not work with regularly. Additional ideas include movie nights, games, and shared music playlists.
4. Charitable donations
Many companies give holiday gifts to employees, which are always a wonderful way to show appreciation. Some companies are offering to make charitable donations to an organization of their employee’s choosing in lieu of or in addition to a holiday gift. This is an effective way to show employees you care not only about them, but about the community as well.
5. Employee gift exchange
Speaking of gifts, another tip is for companies to facilitate an optional gift program amongst staff. This could be in the form of a gift swap, where everyone brings a gift and then chooses one at random to take home. Another way is to assign specific employees to everyone that chooses to participate. Staff can put together a list of interests to help guide the gift choices. This is a great way to allow your team to get to know eachother better.
6. Volunteer day
During the holiday season, it’s more important than ever to give back to the community. If your team wants to get together in person, you can host a volunteer day at a local organization like a soup kitchen or senior center. If you’d like to facilitate this virtually, you can consider a digital activity like writing holiday cards for veterans or the homeless. Volunteering together is a wonderful way to foster connections amongst your team.
7. Ugly sweater competition
We can’t wrap up our ideas for showing employee appreciation this holiday season without recommending an ugly sweater competition! These are a fun way for your team to get creative and show off their favorite ugly sweater. You can have your employees vote on the winner and provide a prize. Some companies might consider multiple categories for voting including most festive, most fashionable, and funniest.
Showing employee appreciation for the holidays and more
A Grubhub Corporate Account is an easy way to provide meals for your employees during the holidays, team meetings, company kick offs and much more. It’s free to sign up and you’ll only pay for what’s actually ordered by your team. Our consultants are here to help guide you through the process and build out a custom meal perk plan based on your needs.
