To show employee appreciation and build morale in 2025, think beyond free pizza and beer

Miami Herald

12-05-2025

At the fitness media company Personal Trainer Development Center, owner Jonathan Goodman and his team wanted to show appreciation for a hard-working editorial director, who joked about landing a sneaker endorsement deal, despite not being a big-name athlete.
So Goodman and his team made him a mock-up of a Nike endorsement contract, which included an added perk: The company paid for a new pair of shoes for him every month for a year.
"It's not a huge bonus, but it's representative of something like, 'Hey, these people listened to me,' and it was very personal," said Goodman, who has authored several books. "We didn't just say, 'Buy a pair of shoes every month.' We had a contract made, and a bunch of people were involved."
To show appreciation and build trust with employees, companies will often recognize workers by giving out free lunches, sending thank-you emails, and offering other personal rewards. However, appreciation gifts aren't one size fits all, and workers don't always want them in the form of free pizza or a salary increase. WorkTango examined news reports and studies to explore how companies have approached employee appreciation, and how their efforts can boost savings, increase retention, and improve morale.
Dr. Bob Nelson, one of the founding board members of Recognition Professionals International, introduced the holiday in his 1994 book "1001 Ways to Reward Employees." In a 2019 blog post for Workman Publishing, his book's publisher, Nelson wrote that workers should be appreciated by their companies every day. He created Employee Appreciation Day, which falls on the first Friday in March, because only 12% of employees felt valued for the work they did for their employer.
Many staffers feel that appreciation makes a difference. According to a 2024 Gallup study, 1 in 3 workers "strongly agreed" they received positive feedback for their work in the past week. A 2024 Gallup and Workhuman study also revealed that over half of U.S. employees were actively looking to leave their current roles. Still, if those workers receive authentic and personal recognition from their supervisors, they are 65% less likely to leave the company.
The staggering statistic shows the importance of high-quality employee appreciation, which the research said should be authentic, personalized, and equitable.
Without managers who emphasize their value-add or offer meaningful growth opportunities, employees can feel unappreciated or taken for granted. For instance, companies that have continually required frontline hospitality and transportation staffers to learn more advanced technologies and customer service skills without recognizing that effort have seen high turnover, according to a 2022 Deloitte study.
"If you do not have happy employees, you do not actually have a potential long-term success as a company," said Rishad Tobaccowala, author of "Rethinking Work" and former global chief strategist and growth officer at Publicis Groupe. "If you unappreciate them for 364 days and give them a cake on Day 365, it is actually underlining how much you underappreciate them."
When top-performing staffers feel appreciated and remain in their roles, it keeps morale high among other employees. This also keeps a lot of knowledge within the company-two things that are hard to measure but extremely valuable.
"Once that morale is down, no matter what you do, it's going to be really hard to get [your employees] back," said Trevor Fry, a tech business consultant who has also worked in director-level roles. "Their foot is out the door. They're likely looking for somewhere else [to work]. If they're not, and you keep them, they're not engaged."
Retaining staffers and reducing turnover can save companies money in the long run. According to 2024 Gallup and Workhuman research, turnover can be expensive for companies, costing them 200% of a manager's salary, 80% of a technical staffer's salary, and 40% of a frontline worker's annual pay.
"It's expensive, and it's also a morale hit when people leave the company, especially when it's a well-liked employee. It's important to try to retain them," Fry said. "I think how you do that is showing that appreciation, just making it a place where they want to work."
Years ago, free pizza, beer, or branded swag was considered a sufficient show of appreciation. However, as our understanding of what makes employees feel valued and recognized has evolved, that one-size-fits-all approach is no longer enough. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, recognition efforts need to be authentic, tailored to the individual, and respectful of how the employee wants to receive recognition.
Getting to know direct reports includes acknowledging staffers' lives outside of work. Ask about how their families are or even how their favorite team is doing. Author and workplace wellbeing expert Dr. Heather Lamb said this one move could make a big difference in rigid corporate environments.
Eventually, these conversations should start to ask the employees how they feel about their jobs and how things can improve for them. "It really is not about the money," Lamb said. "It's about the quality time and the quality conversations that eventually implement change."
Getting to know direct reports can lead to ideas for personalized appreciation efforts, like Goodman's Nike contract for his editorial director. After noting that one of his companies employed a lot of single mothers and employees with families of their own, he and his team gifted house cleaning services every three weeks to his workers.
Employee appreciation doesn't always have to involve a gift service or item. It can also take the form of fun events that everyone-even remote workers-can enjoy. Goodman's other company, Online Trainer Mentorship, holds an annual awards ceremony on Zoom. Everyone attends in costumes and wins a trophy in a funny category.
Some tech companies, like Spotify, give their staffers a mandated week of time off, labeled Wellness Week. At one company, Fry knew his team had a big launch ahead of them, so he set up a kickoff week, inspired by Sprint Zero in Agile, a business framework that helps teams solve challenging problems in the most efficient, productive way possible. The team used the week to rest and recharge but still prep for the launch with a few mandatory meetings and a lot of optional activities.
"[We] let the teams kind of self-organize into what they want to work on," she said. "They get to know their team, really set those foundations and build some fun team bonding things before it then becomes work. Giving people space and time to actually enjoy each other is key."
From personalized gifts to mandated time off, employee appreciation comes in many forms. But as research shows, there's no one-size-fits-all approach. The best method will depend on what each individual employee wants and needs to feel recognized.
Story editing by Alizah Salario. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick.
This story was produced by WorkTango and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker.
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