Employee Experience Roundup: Easy ways to celebrate your employees on Employee Appreciation Day + Glassdoor List 100 Best Places to Work in 2019

Our weekly hand-curated Employee Experience roundup features articles and resources, guidance, and inspiration for those who have a role and responsibility in shaping the employee experience. We include a variety of sources and topics ranging from internal communications, employer branding, content, employee communications & campaigns, HR trends, and workplace culture.

In this week’s Employee Experience Roundup, in honor of National Employee Appreciation Day, read about 51 Powerfully Easy Ways to Appreciate Your Employees, discover the Best Places to Work in 2019 from job and recruiting site Glassdoor’s 11th annual Employees’ Choice Awards, plus more.

51 Powerfully Easy Ways to Appreciate Your Employees on Employee Appreciation Day— Inc. By Peter  @bizzwriter
“Today is Employee Appreciation Day — the first Friday in March — set aside to take a moment to do something special for your employees to let them know you care. According to a survey by employee recognition firm O.C. Tanner, while 44 percent thought it was “extremely or very important” to recognize Employee Appreciation Day, only 8 percent knew when it was observed, and only 10 percent said that their current place of employment does anything to actually celebrate the day.”

Why Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore National Employee Appreciation Day — HR Technologist, By Hani Godldstein
“According to the survey around employee appreciation, nearly half of employees feel their value at the company is reflected in the gifts received. Here are the top reasons people feel unappreciated at work, and what employers can do to correct that.

Employee Appreciation Day might sound like another fluffy holiday like National Donut Day or Talk Like a Pirate Day, but companies should not be so quick to dismiss this day. Given it is still a candidate’s market, businesses are finding the fight to attract and retain top talent is greater than ever. To reduce turnover, employers have to get honest about the status of their team’s morale, and creative with benefits, to show employees they’re invested in their growth as well.”

Enough About Employee ‘Engagement’! Focus on the Digital Employee ‘Experience’ Instead. — Entrepreneur, By Steffen Mair @stgmaier
“While employee engagement has long been a buzz phrase for companies, recently employee experience has become the new, trending focus. Think: a holistic approach that covers engagement, culture, performance management and career ownership, all rolled into one.”

Employee experience must transcend mere engagement, experts say — HR Drive, By Morgan Fecto
“Cultivating better employee engagement was top of mind for experts in HR, finance and marketing who spoke as part of Paycor’s 2019 Rise Web Summit — a two-day webinar series on Feb. 19 and 20. Webinars covered a variety of HR’s other focus areas, too, such as benefits compliance and unconscious bias in recruiting.”

What Exactly Is The Employee Experience? — Forbes Coaches Council, By Anette Franz @ForbesCoaches
“The employee experience. It’s finally getting the airtime it deserves. Yes, some of that airtime is in the form of more consultants talking and writing about it, but when they’re doing that, they’re spreading the word and pointing companies in the right direction.”

Glassdoor Just Announced the 100 Best Places to Work for 2019 (Is Your Company on the List?) —Inc. By Peter Economy @bizzwriter @Inc
“Job and recruiting site Glassdoor just announced the winners of its 11th annual Employees’ Choice Awards, honoring the Best Places to Work in 2019 across North America and parts of Europe. These awards are a bit different than most because the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards are based on the input of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback about their job, work environment, and employer over the past year.”

CAN YOU ‘KONDO’ YOUR COMMS? — Sequel Group @sequel_group
“Decluttering expert Marie Kondo has inspired household purges all over the world, but what would it mean to apply her teachings to the world of internal communication?”

Ep. 75: How HR leaders can shape the future of work. — ex Podcast interview with Jason Averbook @ex_summit @jasonaverbook
“The workforce is changing, and we must change with it. In fact, HR is going through the same disruption as Marketing went through 10-15 years ago with the rise of technology. “HR departments that grasp the value of the ‘digital workforce experience’ and its role in keeping people happy, productive, and engaged will lead the charge into the future. Those who don’t will find themselves woefully behind”.

HR has historically been focus on processes, policies and compliance. HR leaders must seize this formidable opportunity to bring the “human” function at a more strategic level in our organizations, leveraging the power of digital to break downthe silos, bring EX advocates from HR, Marketing, Recruiting, Customer Experience, Operations, IT together to build a frictionless workforce experience, designed with and for the people they serve: the employees.”