5 Ways to Celebrate an Employee Anniversary

*Collaborative Post

Anniversaries are a big deal. It doesn’t matter if it’s your wedding anniversary, an anniversary of buying your new home, or a business anniversary, these moments are worth celebrating. An anniversary isn’t just an excuse to reminisce about an important moment in your life, like a wedding. These celebrations can also be a way to pay homage to the time and effort someone’s put into something.

If your employees have been working with your company for a few years now, it might be time to start thinking about how you can let them know you value their input. After all, today’s talented team members have plenty of options to find careers elsewhere if they stop feeling appreciated by you. Here are some great ways to show your staff that you care and celebrate an employee anniversary.

1.    Celebrate as a Team

An employee anniversary is a great time to encourage group bonding. Bringing people in your team together for a pizza party on a Friday afternoon is an excellent way to develop connections between members of your staff, without pushing people into uncomfortable situations.

It can also be the best opportunity to gather everyone for a fun and special day together. Collaborative activities like sports and group games never fail to bring laughter and make every celebration even more memorable. You can hand out sports trophies and other special awards to the winning teams and take this segment to the next level.

Celebrating an anniversary as a team is also a great way to motivate your staff. When your employees see that staying committed to the company leads to rewards in the long-term, they’ll be more likely to stick around. That means that you can spend less time looking for replacements for members of your staff, and more time helping your company grow.

2.    Give a Gift

What better way to show your employee how much you value their hard work than with a gift? It’s up to you how significant this present should be. Some companies have special items that you get with a certain number of years spent with a firm. For instance, you might get a watch after ten years. Other companies prefer to keep things simple with a gift card or some other token of appreciation.

To make sure that the gift really makes the right impression, pay attention to your team and what they actually enjoy. It’s no good giving your employee a gift card that he’s never going to use, for instance. It might even be worth running polls to see what kind of things your staff would like to see in their anniversary gift box.

3.    Give Them a Day Off

Sometimes we all need a break-even when we’re in a job that we love. If you know that your employee has given you several years of his or her attention, then reward them with a paid vacation day. Let them pick the day that they want to take – provided that it’s not an important moment in your company’s calendar. This will ensure that they can schedule a celebration with their family that’s perfect for them.

You could even arrange something to do for your staff on their behalf. For instance, maybe you could give them a day off and a trip to a spa on the same day. This is an excellent way to show your employee that you’re interested in keeping them feeling their best for years to come.

4.    Send a Personal Message

Bonus payments, gifts, and free days off are all excellent things to receive when you’ve been working with a business for a while. However, if you really want to show your employees how much they mean to you, then you also need to be willing to say something from the heart. Many employees will still appreciate getting a custom note from their employer or supervisor after they’ve spent several years with the company.

A message is a chance for you to show your employees that you recognise the hard work that they’re putting in. This is particularly important if you find that you often forget to give feedback in your day-to-day work routine.

5.    Give Them a Cake

Finally, what better way to celebrate a person’s anniversary in certain business with everyone on the team than with a delicious cake? You can get cakes made in virtually any flavour or theme these days. Adding some balloons and decorations to the cake celebration can turn the event into a bit of a surprise party – even if it only lasts during a lunch break.

A great thing about celebrating with cake is that it’s often a good opportunity to get pictures of your staff having fun together. If you need to stand out on social media, or you want to show future candidates how fun it is to work for you, these snaps can be very valuable.

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.