Top 10 Occasions to Celebrate with Your Staff

There are many good underlying reasons for having celebrations with your staff, including:

• improvement of morale,
• cultivation of workplace atmosphere,
• enrichment of employee experiences, and
• overall staff retention.

There are also many situations that would be suitable to commemorate with your organization. The kinds of parties will differ by organization, goals, and your individual staff culture.

If you are looking for times to gather up the office and have a little (or big) party, here is a quick top-10 list of occasions to celebrate with your staff.

1. Staff Birthdays – People love to be celebrated, and everyone has a birthday! You can easily acknowledge staff birthdays and improve morale in the process. If you have a large staff, you may choose not to recognized the birthdays individually. However, a once a month party for all people with birthdays in that month can be a perfect way to celebrate and build team community.

2. Workplace Promotions – Whether you're welcoming a new hire, or recognizing a staff promotion, making a big deal out of personal individual advancement will also encourage others to achieve.

3. Recognized Holidays – As a business, you might like to create some fun traditions around the regular holidays. Think beyond the staff Christmas party, though that's always a great place to start. Celebrating the 4^th of July (or Canada Day), Thanksgiving, even lesser holidays like Valentine’s and St. Patrick’s Days can liven up a workplace.

4. Regional Festivities – Every area has their own flavour. Your staff can celebrate the local culture and festivities together. County or State Fairs, cultural festivals, sporting events, etc. Even the Olympics or other larger global happenings can lead nicely into a staff party!

5. Organizational Achievement – When the group achieves something together, it's worth celebrating! This could be organizational restructuring, acquiring industry-specific certifications, business excellence awards, public recognition of the business, and the like. These kinds of things that require the participation of the whole group can also be celebrated as a group.

6. Business Anniversaries – Without the business, the staff wouldn't be there. So, celebrate the business together! For example, you can commemorate the date of business establishment, either annually or for landmark anniversaries (5, 10, 25 years, etc.). Also consider celebrating milestones like reaching a certain number of employees or branch offices, earning a specific amount of profit, or opening new locations.

7. Employee Outside-Of-Work Accomplishments – Your staff have lives outside of work, and their activities there help make them who they are at work. It's definitely worth celebrating weddings, milestone anniversaries, new babies, purchase of a new home, personal achievements like running a marathon, and other important real-life occasions.

8. Staff Appreciation – People who are appreciated tend to work harder! Take an opportunity to show the employees that you appreciate what they do, and allow them to show that gratitude to each other.

9. Customer/Client Appreciation – Without customers, there would be no business either. Celebrate those you work for, as well as those you work with! It's a good reminder for your staff, too, of the value of your clients. This works in your favour from all sides.

10. Just for fun! - There is an unofficial holiday nearly every day of the year. National Waffle Day, Shuffleboard Day, Small Business Week, etc... It's usually not difficult to find a reason to have a staff celebration, just for fun. Everybody enjoys a party!

Keep in mind that a staff party can be a huge event, or a small gathering. You can go all out for a big celebration, or you can keep it simple with small parties. The event will fit the celebration and your staff.

Some celebrations my warrant dinner and entertainment. Other gatherings can simply be a BBQ at someone's house. Also consider in-office events like birthday cake in the break room. There are many options available to you when it comes to bringing your staff together for some fun.

Also, it is obviously not necessary to celebrate in all of these ways. These are just a few ideas.

It is worth it to your business to find times to congratulate and recognize your staff in ways that are most appropriate for your organization. Even small celebrations can help with morale, atmosphere and overall employee experience. In the end, this leads to better staff retention, and a better work environment.