When is Employee Appreciation Day?

The first Friday of March each year. It is not a public holiday anywhere and has no official status; it is an observance kept by employers who choose to.

Who created Employee Appreciation Day?

Bob Nelson, a management author, in 1995, working with the publisher Workman, whose calendar of unofficial holidays first listed it. Nelson had written on the subject of recognising employees and intended the day as a reminder rather than an event.

What should a company do on Employee Appreciation Day?

Something specific to individuals, from the people they work with. A note from each manager to each report naming one thing from the year does more than any gift bought in bulk. Treat the day as a deadline for recognition that should have happened anyway.

Recognition glossary

Employee Appreciation Day

Employee Appreciation Day is an unofficial observance on the first Friday of March, created in 1995, on which employers are encouraged to thank their staff; it is widely marked in the United States and increasingly elsewhere.

A day set aside for appreciation raises the obvious question of what happens on the other 364. The day is useful anyway, if it is used as a prompt rather than a substitute.

Where it came from

Employee Appreciation Day was introduced in 1995 by Bob Nelson, an American author whose book on recognising employees had just come out, in collaboration with the publisher Workman, which produced a calendar of unofficial observances. The choice of the first Friday in March was pragmatic: a quiet point in the year, away from the holidays and the financial year-end for most companies.

The intention, by Nelson’s account, was a reminder. He had spent a book arguing that recognition should be frequent and informal, and the day was meant to prompt managers who had let it slip. It was never meant to be the recognition.

Why it can backfire

A day of appreciation carries a message about the rest of the year. If a company has been recognising people all along, the day is a punctuation mark. If it has not, the day draws attention to the silence, and a branded tote bag in March after eleven months of nothing is read accordingly.

There is also the confusion covered on the appreciation versus recognition page. The day is for appreciation: telling people they are valued as members of the team. Companies that mark it with a top-performers list have delivered recognition to a few and a reminder to everyone else, which is the opposite of what the day is for.

What works

The site’s post on the day has the longer list. The shape of the good ideas is consistent.

They are individual. A note from a manager to each report, naming something from the year, sent privately. It takes a manager with eight reports an hour, and it is remembered longer than anything with a logo on it.

They come from colleagues as well as from the company. A round where each person names one colleague and one thing, in a call or a channel, makes the day about the team rather than about the employer’s generosity.

They cost time rather than money. The virtual appreciation ideas were written for distributed teams, and the ones that landed were the ones where somebody had to think about a specific person.

Using the day properly

Treat it as a deadline. Whatever recognition should have happened in the past year and did not, the first Friday in March is the last reasonable moment to catch up. Then treat it as a starting point: the frequency page makes the case that a week without recognition is already too long, and a company that does the day well and then goes quiet has learned the wrong lesson from it.

What it looks like

A company marks the day by having every manager write one specific note to each direct report about something from the past year, sent privately, with no template. Several employees mention the notes in exit interviews years later.
Another company announces the day with a company-wide email and a branded tote bag. Staff who have not heard from their manager in months find the tote bag difficult to interpret.
A distributed team uses the day for a one-hour call where each person names one colleague and one thing from the year. Nothing is bought.

Questions people ask

When is Employee Appreciation Day?: The first Friday of March each year. It is not a public holiday anywhere and has no official status; it is an observance kept by employers who choose to.
Who created Employee Appreciation Day?: Bob Nelson, a management author, in 1995, working with the publisher Workman, whose calendar of unofficial holidays first listed it. Nelson had written on the subject of recognising employees and intended the day as a reminder rather than an event.
What should a company do on Employee Appreciation Day?: Something specific to individuals, from the people they work with. A note from each manager to each report naming one thing from the year does more than any gift bought in bulk. Treat the day as a deadline for recognition that should have happened anyway.