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If you have children and work outside the home, then you know you owe teachers a debt of gratitude. These dedicated professionals choose to spend their time with dozens of kids every day — not just taking care of them, but also preparing them to become informed, thoughtful, and well-behaved members of their communities. As anyone who’s ever wrangled even a handful of kids at a time knows, that’s exhausting and too often underappreciated work. But do you know how to really thank a teacher?
Today is National Teacher Day, and this is also Teacher Appreciation Week. To mark these important occasions, here are some ideas about what makes hardworking educators feel valued — straight from teachers themselves.
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Celebrate your nursing staff this week! Every year, May 6th kicks off the start of National Nurses Week which concludes on May 12th, appropriately on nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale’s birthday.
Nurses impact our lives in so many ways.  They are with us when we bring new life into the word, at the end of our lives and the lives of loved ones, at school, in the office and help us all cope with medical issues both large and small our whole life long.
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Building employee loyalty is worth the time and effort

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Conventional wisdom suggests sharing workplace “Thank You’s” as close to possible to the act that you are thanking colleagues for. But that’s not always possible, especially in a busy workplace.
Another approach is to use a traditional holiday like Thanksgiving, a year-end celebration or an annual event such as National Thank You Month in January as a prescribed time and opportunity to show gratitude to your hard-working team. (more…)

Spring is here, and World Health Day is April 7 — two good reasons to set employee wellness goals this month to support and engage healthier habits in your workplace!
Most employees aren’t even aware of the wellness benefits their company offers. According to the Transamerica Center for Health Studies 2017 Consumer and Employer surveys, 62 percent of employers say they provide employee wellness programs — yet only 40 percent of employees say their organizations offer them.
“The survey isn’t the first source to show a disconnect between how employers and workers view their wellness programs,” HR Dive noted. A 2017 Willis Towers Watson survey showed 81 percent of employers said their wellness programs were meeting workers’ needs, but 61 percent of employees disagreed. (more…)

Did you recently receive a gThankYou! Ham Gift Certificate? Congrats! We hope you love sharing your ham gift with family and friends. Redeeming your Certificate is easy. Just choose any major grocery chain store in the U.S. and you’ll be enjoying your delicious holiday ham in no time!
Your Certificate can be redeemed today — or whenever works for you. Redeem it as the centerpiece to your Easter or other holiday meal, or save it for a summer barbecue. gThankYou Certificates have long expiration periods so you choose when to enjoy your gift and where to redeem it. It’s all up to you! (more…)

An Easter ham gift from gThankYou allows your recipients to shop locally for their holiday ham, for the size and preparation of ham they want. Plus, all gThankYou! Ham Gift Certificates come with free, customizable “Thank You” Enclosure Cards so you can share your holiday greeting in style!
Spring is here! Celebrate with employees with an Easter ham gift. It’s easy, practical and appreciated.
Celebrating milestones with employees is a valuable way to honor accomplishments and share gratitude. This includes work milestones, like a good sales month, and personal milestones, like birthdays.
But it also includes the milestones we mark together: holidays. (more…)

Employee happiness is the natural result of a recognition-rich culture that engages everyone.
In a truly happy workplace, no one gets left behind, even new hires and remote staff.
International Day of Happiness is Tuesday, March 20. This year’s theme is “Share Happiness” — a focus on the importance of relationships, kindness and helping each other.
We need it! The U.S. ranks 18th among the world’s countries, with an average life satisfaction of around 6.88 on a scale of 10, according to a United Nations report. (more…)

Brighten up the last few weeks of winter with these employee team-building ideas for Pi Day on March 14!
Pi Day — not to be confused with National Pie Day, our other favorite excuse to enjoy pie — is a holiday made up by math geeks to celebrate the irrational number that describes the ratio of a circle’s diameter to its circumference.
That number is typically rounded up and shortened to 3.14, so the holiday is celebrated on March 14. And 3.14 backwards spells … you guessed it, P-I-E. As PBS describes it, “Pi Day is a holiday for math (and pie) enthusiasts to celebrate their love of numbers.” (more…)

International Day of Awesomeness is today, Saturday, March 10. Celebrated every year for the past decade, it’s the perfect excuse to have a little workplace fun!
“An acceptable level of fun is rarely defined when companies speak of their corporate culture,” Adam Gale writes for Management Today.
But a company’s attitude to workplace fun is “constantly role-modelled.”
“You can see from the senior leadership how long it’s okay to spend chatting in the kitchen (five minutes is fine; an hour probably not) or how far non-work conversation or jokes at your desk are okay,” Gale writes.
Workplace fun isn’t just for downtime on the job. (more…)

Your business depends on loyal, happy customers — show them the gratitude they deserve with an Easter customer appreciation gift, party or promotion, or a combination of all three!
Thanking customers at holidays is just good business, according to the Small Biz Trends’ article “5 Simple Strategies to Improve Holiday Sales Promotions.”
“Saying ‘Thank You’ is a fine way to show your appreciation to someone you’ve done business with. It sends a clear signal to your customers that you’re looking forward to continuing and building on the relationship that you’ve established with them,” writes Etai Elizur, COO at content marketing agency Inboundjunction. (more…)

Are you scrambling for last-minute ideas to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day, or are you looking for ideas to appreciate your team throughout the year? Either way, we have you covered. While a big appreciation dinner is a treat for employees, it’s not the only way to show gratitude for their hard work. Everyday expressions of gratitude can be just as meaningful. Simple gestures such as saying thank you can foster a culture of gratitude, where appreciation is shared frequently and effortlessly. Research has shown that 78% of employees would work harder if their efforts were better appreciated.

Here are 10 employee appreciation ideas that you can execute on the fly:

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Easter ham gifts for your employees, special customers and others in your workplace are the perfect springtime gift to show your appreciation and celebrate the new season!
gThankYou has you covered with affordable, easy-to-share Easter Ham Gift Certificates. Plus, all our Gift Certificates come with free Enclosure Cards, including Easter and Spring-themed designs.
Redeeming gThankYou! Ham Gift Certificates is simple: our Certificates are Manufacturer Coupons, just like the cents-off coupons we all use, so recipients choose the ham they want and redeem their Certificate at checkout just like a Manufacturer Coupon. (more…)

Employee Appreciation Day is always the first Friday of March.
Why celebrate it? Jared Weitz, founder and CEO of United Capital Source LLC, puts it bluntly this week in a Forbes column on why employee appreciation should be a top priority.
“If you aren’t making a conscious effort to let employees know how much you appreciate them, your employees are not performing to the best of their ability,” he writes. (more…)

Civility in the workplace is quickly becoming a topic of concern among HR leaders. The more it’s studied, the clearer it is that civility is not just a matter of “being nice.”
It’s an important part of everyday company culture.
The opposite of civility — incivility, or rudeness — is on the rise and has devastating consequences, we’re learning. Science Daily calls incivility in the workplace “the silent epidemic.”
New research shows that incivility, even a little bit, even when it’s not directed at you, can derail job performance. (more…)

Kindness in the workplace is a big part of cultivating a happy, engaged workforce. What better time to celebrate it than this week during Random Acts of Kindness Week?
The theme of #RAKWeek2018 is “Who’s your one?” — as in, Who’s the person who starts the chain reaction of kindness in your life? Just one kind person can spread kindness across an entire team or community.
This year, the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, a nonprofit organization started in 1995 in Denver, is inviting everyone to tell a story about “that one person who inspires you to be a better human being.” (more…)

A new Harvard Business Review article on “human leadership” is food for thought not only on engaging employees but on how to celebrate Valentine’s Day in the workplace.
The takeaway? Skip the romance, keep the candy. Focus on activities that build or celebrate compassion, friendship and kindness. (Incidentally, this week is Random Acts of Kindness Week!)
The authors of the HBR article “Why Do So Many Managers Forget They’re Human Beings?” are organizational strategists with the mindfulness-training company Potential Project. (more…)

The Official National Pie Day is Jan. 23. It’s the perfect opportunity to start off the year right with a sweet “Thank You” gift for staff or customers: gThankYou! Pie Gift Certificates.
Pie Gift Certificates from gThankYou are good for any brand of pie, cake, cheesecake or similar items — fresh from the bakery section or frozen. Recipients redeem their Pie Certificates at major grocery store nationwide.
Coincidentally, January is National Thank You Month — and nothing says “Thank You” like pie. (more…)

Happy New Year! Is thanking employees more frequently on your management team’s list of resolutions?
How about a “Thank You training”? Make it a company resolution this year to train managers in the art of thanking employees!
January is National Thank You Month. This year, do more than resolve to thank people more. It’s time to recognize that showing appreciation isn’t just a nice-to-have soft skill but integral to successfully managing a team. (more…)

It’s not too late to order Turkey or Ham Gifts for Christmas for your workplace!
gThankYou! Turkey Or Ham Gift Certificates allow you to give recipients the practical and appreciated gift of a holiday turkey or ham to share with family and friends.
And gThankYou offers same day shipping so your Christmas gift can arrive as soon as tomorrow!
Not only are gThankYou Gift Certificates fast and convenient, they’re a meaningful gesture of gratitude that your workplace will love. A Gift Certificate for a turkey or a ham for Christmas provides a holiday meal centerpiece — without the stress of handing out actual frozen turkeys or hams. (more…)