Employee Anniversary Recognition: How To Do It Right

According to Tony Robbins, world authority on leadership psychology, humans have six needs:

1. certainty
2. variety
3. significance
4. connection
5. growth, and
6. contribution

As an employer, it may not be realistic to serve all six, but you can and should serve this basic need for significance.

Why significance?

Significance means employees feeling unique, important, special or needed. In fact, everyone loves to feel this kind of appreciation.  

One easy way to achieve this is to recognise employees on their anniversary.   By anniversary, I mean the date they joined your business, not their birthday or wedding anniversary.

When and how you celebrate, of course, is up to you. However the key is consistency.

3 ways to recognise an employee's anniversary:

Speaking of celebrations, here are 3 ways to celebrate an employee’s anniversary.

Acknowledge commitment

Ensure the celebration is actioned upon on the day in question.  It may be a personalised note, a phone call or taking time to stop by their desk and personally thank them for another year of service.

Acknowledgement goes a long way to strengthening employee loyalty and engagement.

Cost: a few minutes of your time.

Celebrate with food

Many say celebrating behind closed doors is not the done thing so why not consider throwing a little party for a milestone anniversary like 5 years of service?

Depending on the number of staff, you may want to make this a group celebration.  It will not only boost morale, but it will show the rest of your employees how much you value them.

Whether you shout everyone a coffee or organise a tray of muffins...  Be Consistent.

Cost: approx. $25 – $100 total, depending on the size of your company.

Give a personalised gift

You may choose to personalise a gift or give an item that shows value and one that will be appreciated by the employee. Depending on your budget, it may be a gift certificate, tickets to an event,  something more technical, or even a magic bean.

Cost: approx. $3 – $150/person, depending on your budget.

The most important aspect of employee anniversary recognition is to remember that an employee’s work anniversary is just as important as a birthday. Take the time to recognise their service and you’ll find you have a workforce of people that are far more engaged and feel valued.

Not sure where to start?  Let Live Love Bean help you design your own custom employee anniversary gift.