Recognizing employees for their good work helps to keep morale up and even increase production in the workplace. A great way to let employees know that you appreciate the work that they do is to hold employee appreciation events once in a while. Here’s how to plan an event that all your employees are sure to remember long after the big night:

Choosing the Venue

You can always save money and hold the event at your office building, but excitement might not catch on if employees have to “go to work” in order to attend the event. Consider choosing a venue that offers a different atmosphere and has some type of entertainment built into it such as:

• The Bowling Alley—most alleys offer the ability to reserve a private room to hold your event.
• The Park—Volleyball, horse shoes, and Frisbee are just a few examples of “built in” entertainment to be found. Many parks allow groups to reserve sections for special events like yours.

Other efficient options include restaurants, theatres, and even lounges as long as they’re big enough. It’s important to reserve your venue before planning anything else for the event. Otherwise you might find that your venue falls through and you have to make lots of last-minute changes to your event plans.

Feeding Everyone

It’s a good idea to put some kind of food on the menu for your event no matter how long it’s scheduled to last. Events lasting less than two hours can get away with having appetizers served at it. Simple options such as popcorn, dips and veggies, and punch will do the trick.

Longer events should include a full meal to ensure everyone is fuelled and stays upbeat while they’re attending. There are a few unique ways to make this happen such as:

• Setup a buffet style catered table.
• Have a potluck and ask everyone to bring one dish to share.
• Keep things simple and plan a salad and soup bar.
• Have foot long sandwiches made and sliced into personal serving sizes to create hoagie party.

Keep things light and fun so it isn’t necessary to create formal dining areas. This will make things easier and less expensive for you, and allow employees to manage how they want to spend their time during the event as opposed to having to sit for dinner.

Appreciating the Employees

Just having the event alone is an effective form of appreciation. But to make it more memorable, consider presenting crystal awards at some point during the occasion. Simply set up a microphone where you can announce the winners and have employees come up to receive their awards.

Crystal awards, available from businesses such as Trophy Awards, can be engraved to make them personalized, and they’re something your employees can take home to remember the night forever. Whether you’re offering awards to hand-picked employees or you want to present them to everyone, make sure that you find a unique reason each employee is getting theirs. Keep their work ethics, personality, and progress in mind, and come up with titles for the awards such as:

• The best note taker.
• The fastest typist.
• The best sales closer.

The idea is to find something valuable about each employee you present a crystal award to, as this is what makes the award personal and valued when all is said and done.

Documenting it All for Later

A good way to make sure that everyone around the office remembers the big event for weeks (or even months) afterward is to document it all so it can be relived later. Try these documentation options:

• Have one or two people capture the event on film and then have a copy made for each employee.
• Leave disposable cameras on the tables at the event so employees can take pictures. Collect the cameras at the end of the event, have the pictures developed, and then share them around the office.

Encourage employees to share their own pictures from the event by putting up a bulletin board in the break room where they can hang their favourites.

Putting together an event just once a year is enough to make sure that your employees know how much you care about them and appreciate their services.