Happy Employee Appreciation Day: 5 leaders share ideas to show your employees you care

Whether it's a simple 'thank you', a gift pack, or some paid time off, every gesture — big or small — speaks volumes.

It is time to shine the spotlight on employees all around the world! Today is Employee Appreciation Day (EAD) and employers everywhere are taking the time to show some love and appreciation to their team. 

In celebration of this special day, four leaders globally share their top three favourite ways to show appreciation to their employees, ranging from a simple thank you, to paid time off.

"I like bringing a personal touch to any appreciation gesture. For example, adding a signed note in a gift pack that we give to staff. Treating them to small intimate meals to acknowledge them and connect deeper. Call me old-school, while digital signatures are more efficient, I still like signing off each certificate or note by hand using the trusted pen!"

- Jitender Khurana, Country Head and Managing Director, Signify Singapore.

1. Company-wide PTO (paid time off) day: one day each month the entire company takes a day off. It’s a great way to recharge.
2. Gratitude posts: We send each other beautifully designed cards to practice gratitude for the little and big things.
3. Say 'thank you!' Simple yet means so much.

- Pia Broadley, Head of APAC, Dropbox

1. Proactively sharing constructive and detailed feedback to show that we are invested individual growth and development.
2. Empowering employees to take ownership over their time — we appreciate them and understand their time is valuable
3. Creating avenues for recognition across the organisation, including shoutouts, awards, and our company-wide "Love" aka appreciation project.

- Geana Barbosa, Head of SEA, Asana

"Nothing is more important than directly expressing appreciation to your colleagues for their efforts and sacrifices and listening to their feedback. The DAS management has regular townhalls with different groups of colleagues throughout the year to check in with them and ensure their wellbeing. I think we had over 20 townhall sessions in 2021!"

- Lee Siang, CEO, Dyslexia Association of Singapore

"It became clear to me that a strategic move would be to plan where my administrative teams would come back to work, and how we would do it in a way that carried forward the safety, wellness, and inspiration we received from our current HQ. So we created a design studio.

We determined the priorities for the new design studio:

1. Designated wellness space
2. Conference room for team collaborations
3. Office space with plenty of natural light
4. Showroom space with easy street access

This space will embrace the future of flexible working. It will support collaboration between teams at Mercury Mosaics as a model to promote working together in harmony. I wanted my Make team to be able to blast music during the week without worrying about important client meetings. Loud noises for various forms of manufacturing should happen freely, without concern for in-progress conference calls. "

- Mercedes Austin, CEO, Mercury Mosaics

ALSO READ: 10 simple and fun ways to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day on 4 March 2022

Images / Provided

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