What people actually feel appreciated by
- Time given back. An afternoon out during work hours says more than an evening event that costs people their own time.
- Being chosen. Something planned for this team, not the company default repeated.
- Being named. A moment where specific people are thanked for specific things, out loud, by someone senior.
- Being included. The event works for the person who does not drink, the parent who has to leave by six, and the colleague in a wheelchair, without any of them having to ask.
- Not being asked to perform. No skits, no mandatory fun, no scorecard that embarrasses anyone.
Appreciation events, by how much time you have
Half a day · 6 to 80
The afternoon off, somewhere else
Vans at the office after lunch, a Hill Country winery at three, a reserved patio, a seated pour, golden hour, back downtown by seven. The company gave the team an afternoon and a place to spend it. For a team of forty this is the most effective appreciation event per hour we know of.
A full day · Any size
The appreciation day
The full wine-country day with an appreciation moment built into it: three wineries, lunch at the pit, the blind tasting challenge with bottles for the winners, and at the second stop, ten minutes with the leader on their feet thanking people by name. At larger sizes, a winery reserved whole with a microphone and dinner. The moment is the point; the day is what makes the moment land.
Two hours · 6 to 20
The long lunch
Not the catered conference-room lunch. A reserved long table at a good restaurant, ordered for the table, with the manager present and phones away. Small teams get more out of this than out of a bigger event they share with the whole company.
A Saturday · Any size
The family day
A ranch or a park pavilion, food, shade, something for children, no program. The appreciation is for the families who absorb the late nights. Spring and fall only, and shade is not optional.
No event · Any size
The handwritten note and the real gift
Not every appreciation needs an event. A note from the manager that names the thing the person did, and a gift that shows someone paid attention (the bottle they liked at the last outing, the book they mentioned), beats a gift card every time. Pair it with one of the above and the year is covered.
The appreciation day we would build
- 110:30 — Vans at the office. The team did not know the day was coming until the calendar invite said "out of office, provided."
- 211:15 — First winery. A seated, guided tasting; the winery's own people doing the talking.
- 312:45 — Lunch at long tables at The Salt Lick, ordered for the table.
- 42:15 — Second winery. The Blind Tasting Challenge, then the moment: the leader on their feet for ten minutes, people thanked by name.
- 53:45 — Third winery, a patio, the view, nothing else on the schedule.
- 65:15 — Back downtown, a bottle each in the van for the people who were named.
Including everyone
- Ask the dietary and accessibility question in the invitation, not on the day.
- A wine-country event works for non-drinkers when the non-alcoholic pour is real and nobody comments on it. Say so in the invite.
- Hold it during work hours. An appreciation event on a Saturday asks people to pay for it with their weekend.
- Plan the way home. Nobody should be arranging their own ride back from the company's thank-you.
- Make it optional in fact as well as in name, and make the people who skip it feel nothing about it.
How to tell it worked
Not with a survey the next morning. With the photo that ends up pinned above someone's desk, the colleagues from different teams who are still talking in the hallway on Monday, and the question, a few months later, of when the next one is. If people ask when the next one is, it worked.
Austin Wine Car
An appreciation day, planned for them
A team of twelve or a company of two hundred. Tell us who it is for and what they did, and we will build the day around the moment.