Work anniversaries offer a great opportunity to reflect on all that an employee has done, thank them for their dedication, and celebrate the advances that still lie ahead. Work anniversary gifts and parties are one of the best ways to show appreciation for hard work and build team morale. Keep this list of work anniversary gift ideas and events in mind the next time one of your colleagues celebrates a milestone to make them feel valued, respected, and motivated.
Corporate Anniversary Party Ideas
Everyone enjoys an office party, and it’s a great chance to recognize your employees in front of their peers. Throw an informal lunchtime celebration in the workplace break room by finishing work early to celebrate with cake, tasty snacks, and some words of thanks. The structure of your company will determine the scale and frequency of your parties. Large companies may host one big annual event that celebrates the various milestones of employees at one gathering. Smaller organizations are more likely to hold informal festivities individually and only throw an enormous bash for employees who reach important milestones, such as 15 or 20 years.
For these more significant achievements, you may want to give your workers a thoughtful, once-in-a-lifetime experience that matches their personality. By customizing your party to their tastes, you’ll show them just how much you appreciate them and commemorate how well you’ve gotten to know them over your time together. For example, if they’re a bookworm, throw a book-themed party. If they’re adventurous, take them to an escape room. If your colleague is a master griller, organize a company-wide barbeque.
Employee Anniversary Gift Ideas
While an appreciation speech is appreciated and should always be included at an anniversary party, sometimes an employee anniversary gift can go a long way. You can either collect donations from colleagues for a group gift, or you can splurge on the gift yourself. Work anniversary gifts can be as simple as an extra day of PTO or a paperweight engraved with their name and years of service. Here are some business anniversary gift ideas to get you inspired
- Watch
The gold standard in work anniversary gifts is an engraved watch, a thoughtful present that an employee will cherish for a long time. Instead of a traditional wristwatch, you might give your employee a personalized smartwatch or Fitbit, depending on their style and taste. You can engrave your employee’s name or a customized message from your organization on them. - Give Them a Shout Out on the Company Website
Everyone loves public praise, so consider highlighting your colleagues’ work anniversaries on your website. You can do this through a separate landing page or a section on your “About Us” page called “Featured Employees.” If you want to show even more nuanced appreciation, you can even do an interview with them and write a short post for your blog or corporate newsletter.
Social media is especially well-suited to anniversary shout-outs. Give a brief description of your colleague including their name, years of service with your firm, why you appreciate having them on the team (i.e. their strengths), and what they enjoy about their position. Upload a professional headshot on your social media sites. Having their name and face on the site is something they can show their friends and family and gives them something to be proud of.
- Customize Their Coffee Mug
Customized coffee cups with your employee’s name, accomplishments, and business logo are thoughtful and inexpensive 1 year work anniversary gifts for a minor milestone. Your employee may use their customized mug for coffee breaks at home or work. For their first work anniversary, personalized and company-branded goods like mugs or sweaters are a terrific way to solidify an employee’s place in the team. - Gift Them with an Extra Day Off
Paid time off is a coveted aspect of working life, and we often find ourselves saving it for trips and vacations. Surprise your colleague with an extra paid day off to thank them for all the work they do while in the office. We all suffer from burnout, and anyone would be inspired by the prospect of taking an additional day off. Consider giving an employee an extra day of vacation time for every year they’ve been at the firm. - Electronics with a Personal Touch
For a 5 year work anniversary gift, you can skip the plaque or trophy. Instead opt for something they’ll actually use, like a custom-engraved tablet, Bluetooth speaker, or other gadgets. - Voucher to An Escape Room
Escape rooms are a unique and fun way to show appreciation for your employees. You can either grant them a voucher to use with their colleagues for fun team building events, or they can use it with their families (these are especially popular work anniversary gifts for employees with children).
Major Benefits for Major Anniversaries
Rewarding staff for major anniversaries is a great way to keep them on board for the long-term. Someone who has worked for your firm for five years deserves something special. If they’ve worked for ten or even fifteen years, you need significant company anniversary gifts for major milestones. When you compare the profit involved in retaining your top talent to the expenses of losing and replacing them, you’ll see that keeping your top talent can result in better long-term profitability.
Let Paranoia Quest Handle Your Work Anniversary Party Ideas
Escape rooms are one of the best work anniversary gifts for business groups to come together to work towards a single, memorable goal outside of the office. Develop your team’s capacity to work together to solve problems while celebrating an employee’s achievement at one of Paranoia Quest’s mystifying escape rooms. For parties of 8 or more, our professional escape room events in Atlanta and Buford can handle all the logistics. Contact us today to book your next employee anniversary gift for a night to remember.
