Kickstart Employee Engagement with an Annual Calendar

Energize your year with our tailor-made Employee Engagement Calendar. This daily guide brims with unique ideas to foster a culture of appreciation, celebration, and high morale. Let’s make employee engagement a year-round celebration!

Innovative Team Building Ideas

Then dive into the world of team building with our insightful articles. “How Ice Cream Builds Employee Engagement” and “Host a Virtual Ice Cream Social” reveal how shared experiences and rewards strengthen team bonds, even when working remotely. It’s time to create lasting, positive memories with your team.

Employee Appreciation on a Budget

Worried about budget? No need! Our article, “How to Celebrate on a Tight Budget”, offers cost-effective ways to express gratitude and keep employee engagement high. Remember, a “thank you” is always free!

Engaging Your Remote Workforce

Don’t forget to include everyone! In the era of remote work, our “Supporting Remote Employees Now” guide is more relevant than ever. Find out how to manage and engage a dispersed team, ensuring productivity and satisfaction across miles.

Unlocking the Secrets of Employee Loyalty

Additionally, discover the key to employee loyalty and how cultivating workplace friendships can lead to higher job satisfaction rates. With less employee turnover, your workplace becomes a more engaging environment.

Engagement Strategies for Transportation, Manufacturing, and Other Blue Collar Industry Workers

Delve into the specific needs of transportation, manufacturing and other blue collar workers. Learn strategies to increase retention, reliability, and improve customer service. It’s time to value and appreciate your hard-working, on-the-go team.

Stimulating Employee Motivation

Finally, gain valuable insights from employee motivation experts like Paul Herr. Learn how to stimulate intrinsic motivation using extrinsic rewards. Imagine this: Even if your employees hit the jackpot tonight, they’d still show up at work tomorrow!

From year-end festivities to engaging blue-collar workers, our webpage offers a wealth of engaging, informative, and enjoyable content. Let’s work together to create a vibrant, loyal workplace culture through effective employee engagement and team building.



  • March Madness = Slam Dunk for Employee Engagement

    March Madness is a fun time for employee engagement

    March Madness is back! For the next few weeks, both diehard and occasional fans will dive into college basketball. Instead of being irritated by the distraction of employees filling out brackets and chatting about buzzer-beaters, take this opportunity for some exciting employee engagement. Here are some considerations for turning March Madness into a team-building opportunity!

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  • 2024 Employee Appreciation Calendar Now Available!

    gThankYou Employee Celebration CalendargThankYou 2024 Employee Appreciation Calendar
    Now Available

    We are thrilled to reveal our annual Day-to-Day Employee Appreciation Calendar! It’s free and downloadable, as well as extremely helpful, insightful, and fun! If you’re focused on employee retention, improving recognition practices, or workplace engagement, we have you covered.

    We work all year to create this annual employee appreciation calendar for YOU, the people focused on employee engagement and appreciation; those who are actively building vibrant, loyal workplace cultures.

    This is a much-needed resource to turn to for creative workplace ideas. Not only does it take the guesswork out of workplace events, it provides a variety of ideas for all budgets to improve workplace culture.

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  • Team Building Exercises That Show Appreciation for Employees

    Team Building Exercise

    A culture of appreciation is essential for any successful workplace. When employees feel valued, they are more likely to be engaged, productive, and loyal. There are many ways to show appreciation for employees, from simple gestures to more elaborate team building exercises.

    Grateful leaders go beyond simply saying “thank you.” They create an environment where employees feel celebrated and respected. This can be done by providing opportunities for growth and development, listening to employee feedback, and sharing successes.

    Here are some ideas that may work well for your teams.

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  • Beat the Summer Heat with an Ice Cream Social

    Ice cream gift certificates

    Just because school is back in session, doesn’t mean that summer is over! In most of the country, we’re still experiencing heat waves that SCREAM for ice cream! Popsicles, ice cream sandwiches and sundae bars are a fan favorite, no matter how old you are and where you live. 

    Whether you have a small staff or large teams with remote employees, a hybrid ice cream social is a great way to reward employees and bring smiles to everyone. Let us help you plan one today!

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  • 8 Gratitude Exercises for Groups

    Gratitude exercises for groups

    Gratitude activities for adults can play a crucial role in building a kinder and more purposeful workplace culture. Tangible expressions of gratitude are proven to enhance engagement, reduce turnover, and boost overall morale. One practical way to foster a culture of gratitude is by incorporating gratitude exercises for groups. Here are 8 exercises that you can (and should) try.

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  • Be Enthusiastically Engaged!

    enthusiastically engaged resource for HR and engagement leaders

     

    A workplace requires employee engagement to thrive — or even survive. Increasingly more research supports the fact that people need to be positively engaged to perform their jobs, let alone enjoy them and stay with organizations. Retention is a critical topic in workforce management, and it requires attention and consistency. Post-COVID, when employees were quitting in droves, the theme was hot again — What IS employee engagement? But we’re here to make sure it doesn’t go dormant — complacency doesn’t work in talent management. The key is to lead as someone who is knowledgeable, excited about people-centric and leadership trends, and enthusiastically engaged.

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  • Build a 2023 Employee Engagement Calendar

    Happy, engaged employees

     

    January is full of forecasting, goal-setting, and looking forward to a successful new year. It’s also National Thank You month, which is why it’s the perfect time to plan ahead for acts of gratitude and appreciation.

    Not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered! Check out these gratitude resources that will inspire and help you build and maintain a culture of appreciation and employee celebration ALL YEAR LONG!

    We have a wide variety of FREE RESOURCES to help you
    build your own employee engagement calendar.

     

    2023 Day-to-Day Employee Appreciation Calendar

    Employee Appreciation Calendar 2023It is our tradition to publish a day-to-day appreciation calendar tailored to people who are committed to celebrating employees. This popular guide helps you plan for holidays as well as your own anytime celebrations; it offers tons of ideas to keep employee appreciation front-and-center all year long.
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  • Top 10 Ideas for Year-End Office Festivities

    Year-End Office Festivities and Workplace Activities


    Let the fun commence!
    Here are 10 ideas for throwing year-end office festivities. This time of year can be stressful, but also full of gratitude, wonder and joy! Set the tone with simple, impactful workplace activities that spread the spirit!

    Not only do year-end office festivities offer a way to have some fun, but they are a strategic way to show employee appreciation and enhance employee engagement. Be true to your culture — what would be authentic and enjoyable? Tap some creative minds and enjoy the process!

    Top 10 Year-End Office Festivities

    Volunteer together at a food pantry or host a holiday meal at a shelter. Bring employees together to give back to the community, offering unity, perspective and goodwill to all who participate.
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  • You’re JUST ON TIME! for Holiday Gift Planning.

    Just in time for holiday gift planning.


    Believe it or not, the holiday gift planning season is here!
    Here are some details you should know as you prepare to celebrate employees for a year of hard work. The good news? We can handle the heavy lifting for your holiday gift planning.

    Many gThankYou customers are faced with the daunting task of distributing gifts to a large number of locations, employees working from home, or to clients across the country. With dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of offices and associates nationwide, it can be challenging and very time-consuming. Let us help. (more…)

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  • How Ice Cream Builds Employee Engagement

    Ice Cream Builds Employee Engagement

    Ice Cream Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

    Hopefully you are already aware that July is National Ice Cream Month! This is the month to celebrate our love of all things ice cream, including sorbet, Popsicles, sundaes, floats, shakes — we could go on and on. It’s a lot like a good employee engagement program: it brings people together, makes everyone feel happy, and is endlessly creative.

    That doesn’t mean you can drop off a tub of vanilla in the break room with a scoop and expect (more…)

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  • How to Celebrate on a Tight Budget

    Piggy bank for savings

    Photo by Braňo on Unsplash

    Organizations often shy away from celebrations when on a tight budget. We’ve all been there! But a small budget shouldn’t impede employee appreciation and recognition. Never forget that a “thank you” is free! But there are many ways to share gratitude that don’t end up costing a fortune. We have many ideas for how to celebrate with little time or money. (more…)

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  • Supporting Remote Employees Now

    Work from home.

    Let’s start this blog post with kudos for you for hanging in there during these uncertain and challenging times.  That you’re taking the time to click on this post shows your commitment to staying engaging with and supporting your remote employees.  So hat’s off to you for remaining curious and committed to bringing out the best in your staff.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a host of challenges to everyone and we are seeing that people are dealing with those challenges in different ways.

    Maybe you already had remote employees at your company so your challenge was expanding that scenario to many more employees.  Or perhaps you are like many companies who find themselves dealing with a remote workforce for the first time. 

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  • How Companies Cultivate Workplace Friendships

    Did you know August 5th is National Friendship Day?

    Happy Friendship Day! Photo of Friendship Day celebration display by Ananta Bhadra Lamichhane


    As National Friendship Day approaches in August, it’s the perfect time to reflect on how companies can cultivate workplace friendships and why workplace friendships are important.

    Survey Says…

    In an article about workplace friendships for L & D Daily Advisor, writer Lin Grensing-Pophal cites a Gallup Q-12 employee engagement assessment tool which asks the questions, “Do you have a best friend at work?” Why ask that question?  Well, research by Gallup indicates that having a best friend in the workplace correlates with higher job satisfaction rates AND a reduction in the likelihood that an employee will depart to find a different job. (more…)

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  • Engaging Remote Workers in 2018: What’s New

    Effectively engaging remote workers is increasingly important for employers.Engaging Remote Workers Is Increasingly Necessary

    Thanks largely to technology, more and more people — full-time employees, part-timers, and freelancers — are working remotely more and more often. One estimate from 2018 says that 3.9 million Americans now work from home at least half the week, or almost 3 percent of the country’s workforce. That’s great news for many employers and employees — remote working arrangements offer flexibility that can mean a lot to your team, as we’ve noted before. But engaging remote workers also takes some extra thought and effort. As HR Dive noted last year: (more…)
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  • Insights into Building Employee Loyalty

    Secrets to Building Employee LoyaltyBuilding employee loyalty is worth the time and effort

    Loyalty in the workplace looks different now than it did a generation ago.  Staying at one job with one employer for your entire working life and retiring with a gold watch is far from today’s norm. While employees are more apt to change jobs after just a few years, creating a workplace where there is mutual respect and trust can bring out the best in all of your employees – from Millennial to Baby Boomers.  Even if an employee doesn’t spend many years working for you, maximizing the relationship you have with them through engagement, appreciation and support is paramount to the success of your business.

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  • How to Engage Transportation Workers

    How to engage transportation workers

    Learn how to engage transportation workers to increase retention and reliability and improve customer service. (Photo via teosaurio)

    Learning how to engage transportation workers in your industry is key to increasing retention and reliability, keeping workers happy and improving overall customer service.
    Retention and an aging workforce are challenges for the trucking industry in particular, according to FleetOwner.
    “As the ‘traditional’ make-up of the U.S. truck-driver population is rapidly aging and heads for retirement, new efforts must be made to attract younger and ‘non-traditional’ candidates to the job of piloting commercial vehicles for a living,” Sean Kilcarr writes for FleetOwner.
    The potential for automation in long-haul trucking is making current employees nervous about their long-term prospects and adding to an overall feeling of being undervalued and under-appreciated. (more…)

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  • 5 Biological Needs That Drive Employee Motivation

    Paul Kerr, employee motivation guru and author

    What’s the secret to employee motivation? Using extrinsic rewards to turn on intrinsic rewards, according to researcher and author Paul Herr.

    What is more essential to drive employee motivation — rewards and recognition, or engagement?
    Both, according to employee motivation expert Paul Herr. You don’t have to choose!
    Instead, “combine the best of both worlds by extrinsically rewarding managers who become skilled at pressing the motivational ‘buttons’ (of employees)” — in short, using extrinsic rewards to turn on intrinsic rewards.
    Herr explores this innovative approach to employee motivation in his recent Incentive Research Foundation paper, “Using Behavioral Economics Insights in Incentives, Rewards and Recognition: The Neuroscience.” You can download the paper here.
    If your employees landed a major financial windfall tonight, would they still show up at work tomorrow? (more…)

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  • Engaging Blue-Collar Workers: A How-To Guide

    Engaging blue-collar workers is one of HR's biggest challenges.

    Is your company engaging blue-collar workers with a focus on recognition and pride? (Photo via UC Rusal, Flickr)


    Engaging blue-collar workers may be one of the biggest engagement challenges facing HR today.
    Hourly workers are unhappier than salaried workers in many job aspects, according to recently released Gallup poll data.
    A Harvard Business Review analysis concluded, “People working blue-collar jobs report lower levels of overall happiness in every region around the world. This is the case across a variety of labor-intensive industries like construction, mining, manufacturing, transport, farming, fishing and forestry.” (more…)

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  • Quick Engagement Idea: Late-Summer Cookout

    Jump start engagement with a late-summer employee cookout!

    Boost engagement in August with an employee cookout or picnic. (Photo via Cellular One IL, Flickr)


    The dog days of summer are here, and your staff could use a little extra engagement. Now’s the time to bring the team back together from their summer distractions with a late-summer employee cookout.
    Why now?
    Workplace productivity drops 20 percent during the summer months, team projects take 13 percent longer to complete and workers are 45 percent more distracted, according to Entrepreneur.
    Push back against those disengagement tendencies by embracing summer fun in a way that reinforces and builds team dynamics. (more…)

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  • 7 Employee Engagement Books to Read

    New employee engagement books for your summer reading list

    Put a few employee engagement books on your reading list this summer for fresh ideas and perspectives. (Photo via byrawpixel, Flickr)

    Make it a goal this summer to check out employee engagement books that will inspire and challenge you, whether you’re planning a major “think week” or just have 15 minutes a day to read over lunch.
    Get a head start on engagement planning for this year by exposing yourself to fresh ideas and perspectives. Spark your creativity!
    According to Kevin Kruse, consultant and NYT bestselling author of “Employee Engagement 2.0,” employee engagement is often misunderstood.
    That lack of understanding is holding back (more…)

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How gThankYou Certificates Work

Step 1

Order Certificates

Choose the gThankYou Certificates you want and order them online or by telephone.

Step 2

Ship directly to your business

Your order is delivered by UPS. Nearly all orders ship the day received. Overnight shipping is available.

Step 3

Distribute to your employees

Personalize your gThankYou Certificates with Giver name or logo (both optional) and give them to employees.

Step 4

Redeem at any grocery store

Recipients redeem Certificates at major U.S. grocery stores and select the items they want.