Thank your employees this Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is a time when everyone comes together to enjoy each others company, relish turkey and give thanks for the good things in life. And it’s that sweet spot of the holiday season — just between Halloween and Christmas, where you might be planning to spend time with your loved ones while munching on those pumpkin pies.
Thanksgiving and the spirit of celebrations don’t have to be limited to our time outside the office. In fact, it is an ideal occasion for employers to show their appreciation and say ‘thanks’ to employees for their contribution at work. It’s an opportunity to go an extra mile to shower them with some love and encouraging words. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to appreciate the people around you.
While employees might be taking some time off to celebrate with their families, employers can also do their bit by incorporating some fun ways to give thanks to them for their year-long hard work. I’d like to share some ways employers can make this harvest holiday special for employees and ensure they feel loved, appreciated and valued for their contribution to work.
“Celebrate thanksgiving by bringing sanity in your work life. Start using ProofHub.”
Turkey and treats
Thanksgiving is all about celebrations and food. So it’s the best time to bring good ol’ food traditions to the workplace. To make this day special, organizations can host a ‘Thanksgiving lunch’ with the staples like turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry juice and pumpkin pie for employees.
If you haven’t allocated budget for an all-employee lunch, you can encourage them to bring home-cooked meals and have a potluck together. This will not only help employees to flaunt their cooking skills but will give them an opportunity to know each other personally and enjoy a meal together. Interestingly, many studies have found that the best bonding happens over food. As they say, ‘employees that eat together stay together.’
Make a ‘Wall of Thanks’
The essence of Thanksgiving is being grateful and acknowledging other people’s efforts. Every day employees do little things for each other to make one another’s job easier. Remember when Sarah decided to stay to help Nicole finish the project? Or when John gave insightful suggestions to improve the company’s logo design?
This Thanksgiving make a ‘Wall of Thanks’ to appreciate small-big acts of kindness done by others. Employees can use sticky notes to write ‘Thank-you’ notes for others who made a difference in their lives — professionally or personally. Use this wall to honor and celebrate little deeds or acts of kindness done by employees.
Perk up the ambience
Festivities are all about decorations and celebrations. At ProofHub, we celebrate each festival with equal zest and gusto. Every year we decorate our office with turkey-shaped lights, pie candles and fake cranberries that not only make great cubicle decorations but also spread the feeling of gaiety and joy at our workplace.
By doing so, employees look forward to the festival without stressing about the work. Surprisingly, the look, feel and functionality of your workplace can maximize employee productivity and overall company performance by as much as 19%.
Go bowling with pumpkins
Celebrations and fun-games complete any office party. Play some games to break the office monotony. You can set up a bowling game with a pumpkin and a few water bottles or even play ‘two truths and a lie’ and give it a Thanksgiving spin. Ask employees to share three holiday-themed characteristics about themselves, and everyone has to guess which are true and which one is a lie.
Fun-filled games and activities infuse enthusiasm and positive energy among employees.Along with that, they also get to know about interests, strengths and weaknesses of others that can strengthen their bond and make them better team players.
Give back as a group
Although people mainly focus on the ‘thanks’ element in Thanksgiving but it would be incomplete without the ‘giving’. This year don’t just encourage employees to give back rather help them to do so. Allow them to take time off to volunteer a project and give back to the society.
Your company can also give back as a group. Let your employees organize a fundraiser for charity, join a food drive for not-so-fortunate, or volunteer at a homeless shelter and more.
We often forget to thank people for their hard work but this Thanksgiving, let’s thank the ones who deserve it the most — EMPLOYEES!
ProofHub wishes all its readers a Happy Thanksgiving and hopes employees and employers realize the power of a ‘Thank you’!
I’d love to know how are you guys celebrating Thanksgiving at your office? Let us know in the comments below.
“This thanksgiving help employees to manage work better. Switch to ProofHub.”
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Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder of ProofHub — a leading project management and collaboration software. A passionate leader, Sandeep is always on the lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams and companies. He is also a featured writer on LinkedIn and a contributing author at YourStory. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Also follow our company page @ProofHub to get the recent updates about our tool, published articles, motivational quotes & presentations.
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