Employee Appreciation Day – appreciating our employees all year round

Employee Appreciation Day is a chance for companies to thank their employees for their hard work throughout the year. The purpose of the day is to help strengthen the bond between employer and employee.

In recognition of Employee Appreciation Day, we will be giving every member of staff the day off .

We also wanted to highlight some of the other ways we show recognition all year round — not just on Employee Appreciation Day.

Here are five ways we show our employees how much we appreciate them and the work they do:

Internal events

Hosting internal events has many benefits for businesses – it increases morale, allows everybody to get together and motivates employees which in turn increases productivity.

Sellick Partnership host three large company-wide events throughout the year for all employees to come together to celebrate success and recognise achievements.

• End of Financial Year Awards

To celebrate the end of each financial year, we hold a three-course awards lunch where we present the results of our previous financial year and hear from key stakeholders within the business who update everyone on divisional growth and strategies for the upcoming year.

We also award employees with trophies which recognises the achievement of individuals and teams across the business over the past 12 months.

• Teambuilding

One of the most exciting events at Sellick Partnership is our annual Teambuilding weekend — the whole business takes part, meeting in a secret location, announced a couple of days before the event and teams are faced with a variety of activities.

In 2022, we took each and every member of staff to Majorca to celebrate our 20th year in business!

• Christmas Party

Our Christmas party is without a doubt the social highlight of the year. Held at some of Manchester’s most modern venues, it’s the perfect opportunity for everyone across the offices to let their hair down and celebrate the success of the year with entertainment, DJs, excellent food and good company.

During the Christmas party, we celebrate anniversary milestones and if any employee has been with the business for five, 10 or 15 years then we present them with a gift and card at this event. This is a great way for us to show how much we appreciate our employees and the work they do.

Wellbeing strategy

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we decided to review our wellbeing strategy so we could support our employees during this stressful time. Some of our staff have attended a four-day online mental health awareness course with Mental Health First Aid England, to help them develop a wellbeing strategy to support employees. These employees include:

• Simon Briffa, Head of Talent Acquisition & Wellbeing
• Melissa Clark, Marketing Team Leader
• Claire Harrison, Associate Director
• Samantha Hattersley, Senior Marketing Executive
• Sam Sullivan, Senior Consultant
• Chloë Cameron, Principal Consultant
• Rayhaneh Tehrani, Senior Manager 
• Daniella Pye, Senior Manager 

We ran an internal campaign for Stress Awareness Month called Wellbeing Wednesdays which consisted of a number of activities remotely to encourage people to look after their wellbeing whilst working from home. One of these included a virtual meditation session from a professional mind coach, which was really well received. We have continued this campaign and now run a Wellness Wednesday initiative once a month to encourage and remind employees of the importance of looking after their mental health.

Some other campaigns and events we have recently celebrated include:

• Blue Monday
  We know that ‘Blue Monday’ is a myth; there’s no scientific proof to back it up and who are we to tell people how to feel? January in general can be a tricky month: the Christmas break is over and everyone's getting back to reality. However we still wanted to mark the day. So, in line with tradition, we had a special brownie delivery today to thank everyone for their continued hard work and dedication!
  
  Instead, we encouraged staff to have a sit down over a cuppa and chat to colleagues as part of Samaritans' 'Brew Monday'.
  
  
• Time 2 Talk day
  Time 2 Talk day is a day was a campaign to end the stigma and discrimination faced by people with mental health problems. Mind worked in partnership with Time to Change and Rethink Mental Illness to run the campaign. It was all about encouraging everyone to check in on colleagues, family and friends and tackle the silence and stigma around mental health. Now more than ever, it is important to check in with people and have a conversation.

Wheel of Success

Another way we show our appreciation for our employees’ hard work is by rewarding the smaller wins, all year round. In 2019, we introduced the ‘Wheel of Success’ to celebrate all the things that people achieve throughout the year. If someone hits a milestone or goes above and beyond their role they get a spin of the wheel and their reward is determined by what the wheel lands on.

This has proven to be a huge hit across all of our offices and the idea is to reward little every day successes of all employees. It is fun and gets everyone involved.

Prizes include: 

• £75 gift voucher
• £50 gift voucher
• 2pm finish

Birthday celebrations

During the pandemic, we decided to start sending birthday cards and chocolates/gifts to each of our employees as we weren't in the office to celebrate in the way that we usually would. Since returning back to the office, we are still organising these to be sent to each employee’s house to show our appreciation and celebrating each of them individually throughout the year.

Celebrating hard work through hard times

We have a range of initiatives in place to reward the extra effort and hard work of individuals and teams across the business. We try to do a variety of things for our employees throughout the year including sending everyone £20 Just Eat gift vouchers. We always strive to ensure we are doing things throughout the year in order to show our employees how much we appreciate them and all their hard work.

If you would like to find out more about what we offer our employees and how a career with Sellick Partnership might benefit you, please contact our Head of Talent Acquisition & Wellbeing, Simon Briffa.

You can also find out more about what it is like to work for us or view our current internal vacancies on our Careers page.