Why Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day?

Employee recognition is more powerful than any other motivator.

The great thing about recognition is that it can be given in many forms and at varying costs (including free). Recognition is most effective when it takes place on a regular basis and when it is sincere  While Employee Appreciation Day (March 7th) provides a great opportunity to recognize those you work with, but the sad truth is that it wont happen unless you plan for it!

Below are just a few low-cost, non-cash ideas that you can incorporate into your recognition practices for Employee Appreciation Day or any day.

 

• Award Certificates: Create unique award certificates.  For example, give out awards for best smile, most upbeat, perfect attendance, go-to person, etc.

 

• Milestone Awards: make recognition more meaningful by having special acknowledgement in your newsletters and during team meetings.

 

• Work-life balance: Allow employees extra time to attend their families hobbies, kids games, activities, and or reunites.

 

• Thank You: Personally thank each of your employees for their contributions.  You could do this verbally; however, you might have a bigger impact if you wrote thank you notes to each employee individually.

“My own experience about all the blessings I’ve had in my life is that the more I give away, the more that comes back.” – Ken Blanchard

The purpose of Employee Appreciation Day is to focus the attention of all employers, in all industries, on employee recognition. Employee Appreciation Day is the first Friday of March.

Please share what you plan on doing for your employees below!

 

Enough of “try harder” mentality!

Feeling defeated pushes us further into our cycle of trying harder to measure up to God’s standards. Becoming like Jesus is difficult enough without this “Try harder!” mentality we force upon ourselves. It sucks us into a cycle of “I must do better,” “I ought to pray more,” and “I should be spiritually more mature by now.”

But can you see that this keeps us focused on ourselves and on the things we can’t do?

Paul, ever the exhort-er, says we’re to push toward the ideal, but these standards were never meant as imperative “ought-to” statements demanding immediate perfection from us. Perhaps more than any one of us, Paul understands our desperate need for God’s grace.

God wants us focused on the things He can do through us.

Our objective is to make every effort to mature into believers who think just like Jesus. We may slip, we may fail horribly, but we press on to take hold of the abundant life. Make sure today that you check your focus on what He can do through you, it will be enough and you wont have to “try harder”!

What you see is what you get.

People of character are authentic and transparent; they act the same, no matter who is present. Their lives are “what you see is what you get.”

People of character live by fairness, even when fairness puts them at a disadvantage or causes them significant difficulty. They fight fair even when those around them do not. People of character consider their word their bond, allowing their “yes” to mean “yes” and their “no” to mean “no.”

So, do you pass the “character” test? Is this what we see in YOU?

* People of character go the extra mile with a smile.
* People of character do more than is required of them.
* People of character are not afraid to ask for help
* People of character act straightforward in their conduct.

They don’t hide what they’re doing, and they don’t say one thing and do another. They are people “in whose spirit is no deceit” (Psalm 32:2 NIV).

If you are facing difficult times right now, I want to challenge you to write this verse on a 3×5 card and memorize it: “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” (Galatians 6:9 NLT).

Don’t look at it with the short-term view, “What’s happening to me right now?” Instead, look at the character that you are building because you haven’t given up.

Are you fighting against God’s purpose for your life?

Do you realize that when you’re not discipline, you’re fighting against what is best for you? You’re fighting against God’s purpose for your life.

Part of the strength God gives you to “do all things through him” is the ability to choose to do his will, even before you know the full implications of what that means. He will begin to change your desire, developing within you more and more of a “want” to do his will but the work of discipline is your choice.

Discipline: behavior and order maintained by training and control, activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill, the rigor or training effect of experience, etc.

Am I willing to start a discipline, (definition above) in advance, that I will do what God asks me to do, no matter what it is? Am I abandoned to him and his will, believing he will strengthen me to do all the things he asks?

The Good News is that, even if you’re not ready to immediate start being discipline, God will give you strength to be honest with him. He already knows about your hesitancy, so he won’t be surprised by prayerful confessions, such as, “Father, I’m not sure I’m ready to do this”

Yet God is gracious and patient. Tell him, “I don’t know that I’m willing to step out in faith without first knowing everything that’s going to happen, but I’m willing to be made willing.”