I received an email from a promotions company last week informing me that “Employee Appreciation Day” was coming up on March 4th and I should show my team I appreciate them with a gift card to their website. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know there was an “Employee Appreciation Day”. Although I shouldn’t be surprised because it seems like there is now a “day” for almost everything, and even more so in the food industry. I’m sure you’re planning on celebrating National Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day (3/11), National Artichoke Hearts Day (3/16) and National Turkey Neck Soup Day (3/30) later this month.

Now, you’d think with our emphasis on culture and our team, I’d be all over this “holiday”. Not so fast. I was actually disappointed to learn about this. My immediate reaction was that it is the equivalent to only telling your significant other you love them on one day of the year. I’m all for certain days that celebrate accomplishments of individuals, significant days in history, and traditional holidays. When it comes to employees though, we need to be celebrating them all year long, not just one day of the year.

Consistently showing your employees and co-workers you appreciate them improves morale, builds trust and boosts confidence. When we feel appreciated we feel safe and are then able to do our best work. That begins a virtuous upward cycle that creates more energy and allows us to do even better work. When we are worried or feeling that our jobs are at risk, that does the opposite and diverts energy from our ability to do our best work.

I realize this doesn’t necessarily come naturally for many people. We are more inclined to point out areas for improvement instead of appreciating what people are doing well. By paying attention to what others are doing and highlighting the positives, we can build that muscle and become stronger at showing appreciation. When recognizing your team, it’s also important to make it specific. When it's too general, it gets diluted and loses its impact. If you’re struggling with ideas on how to show your appreciation, here are 97 suggestions.

To the people that did something for your team on employee appreciation day, that’s awesome that you showed your team some love, just please don’t check that box and think you’ve done your job for the entire year. Build appreciation into every week and you’ll start to see some amazing things happen. And for those of you that are already doing a great job here, there’s always room to MIBE!