
Admit it, your workplace wouldn’t be the same without the hardworking and dedicated employees that walk through the doors every day. Employees who feel appreciated in the workplace have greater job satisfaction, which leads to increased productivity. Sometimes all an employee wants to hear is a “thank you.” For all those other times, especially this March when you can celebrate Employee Appreciation Day, we’ve put together a list of 25 creative ways to say “thank you” without actually saying it.
You don’t have to wait around once a year to make your employees feel appreciated. You can easily make every day Employee Appreciation Day by incorporating the fun ideas below into your workplace throughout the year. Be sure to stock up on employee appreciation gifts for your celebration or event, or just to recognize your team for all the little things they do to make your workplace greater.
1. Teach Employees About Proper Hydration
A healthy employee is a productive employee, and a great way to help your staff is to teach about proper hydration. You can provide them with our new 2-in-1 bottle-to-tumbler to do just that! Whether they use the bottle to fill up on water or the tumbler for tea, this will be useful all year round.

Take the ice cream social up a few notches. Hold a competition amongst employees to find new ice cream sundaes (combinations of ice cream flavors and toppings). Provide all of the ingredients to make them. Give employees mood bowls to put their sundaes in. Gather the names of each employee creation and which ingredients are involved. Let all staff members vote for their favorite dish. Present the winner with a custom fleece jacket.

Sometimes praise from co-workers means just as much, if not more, than praise from management. Pass out stationery sets to your employees. Encourage everyone to use the custom notepads to write positive notes to other employees. They can leave notes on desks for the recipient to find or hand them over in person.

Treat your hard-working employees to a “Relax, You Deserve It Day.” Hire a massage therapist to give 10-minute back and shoulder rubs throughout the day. Have a professional speaker explain the importance of organization, and how less clutter could lead to less stress. Send employees home with a trunk organizer to put practice to work.

Outfit your entire staff with custom t-shirts to wear on your Employee Appreciation Day celebration. Gather everyone together for a few words of inspiration and encourage all to join in a rousing round of applause and cheers. While this is going on, have someone place a gift of appreciation at each employee’s workstation.

Hold a week of theme days to generate fun and build enthusiasm. Start with “Motivational Monday.” Give a stirring speech and hand out tokens of appreciation. On “Teamwork Tuesday,” let employees wear their favorite sports team shirts. Celebrate “We’re Wild About Our Staff Wednesday” and encourage employees to wear animal-print clothes. For “Thank You Thursday,” give everyone a thank-you note. Finally, celebrate “Fiesta Friday” with a Mexican food luncheon.

Design a memento for your staff members. Gather individual photos of all your staff. Then, choose a title for each staffer, such as Most Organized, Funniest, Most Creative, etc. Put the photos and titles together in a “yearbook.” Have high-quality copies made. Give the booklets to your staff members with a keepsake card and keychain.

Surprise employees with a simple, heartfelt gift that puts your appreciation into words. The night before your Employee Appreciation Day event, place a mini jotter and pen set at each employee’s workstation to be discovered first thing in the morning. Be sure to write a small note of appreciation in each jotter!

Divide your staff into teams and ask each one to pick a rock band name. Have the teams compete in games, such as Charades and Hangman, for a week. Award points to the winning team of each game. At the end of the week, tally the points and present custom awards to the members of the team with the best overall score.

Organize a luncheon with heart-healthy foods such as salads, available buffet style. Make sure all salad ingredients are low in saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol. Have a nutritionist come in to speak about eating heart-healthy foods. Pass out salad or food containers at the end of the luncheon.

Decorate a bulletin board or display case with paper raindrops and hang a sign that reads, “We Shower Our Staff With Appreciation.” Draw a template of a large raindrop on a sheet of paper and make copies of it. Write thank-you notes to employees on the paper raindrops, and, each day for a week, tack up several of the raindrop notes. At the end of the week, distribute umbrellas to employees.

Snacking is beneficial to health, if done correctly. Provide your employees with healthy snacks by serving fruit mid-morning. Pick a category of fruit per day, such as citrus or berries—or choose a color such as yellow to focus on daily. Hand out a fruit infuser tumbler to each employee along with the fruit.