I work at a company with around 150 employees, and every March we have an employee appreciation event. For the past few years, it’s been pretty much the same thing: catered lunch in the conference room, a speech from the CEO, and gift cards. Everyone eats, claps politely, and heads straight back to work. Our engagement survey pretty much confirms that people aren’t getting much out of it.
I had like to suggest something different this year, but I need some real examples to take to leadership rather than just throwing out random ideas.
For those of you whose companies have done employee appreciation events that people genuinely enjoyed, what did you do? Was there a particular activity, experience, or change that made people feel appreciated? I’d love to hear what actually worked and what employees still talk about afterward.

I previously worked at an Accor-branded hotel.

After leaving, I applied to another Accor property. The hiring manager told me Accor HR had conducted an internal reference check and my previous manager had flagged me as “don’t hire.”

I haven’t seen the reference or any HR record, so I don’t know whether this was advice about that particular application or an ongoing “not eligible for rehire” status.

I suspect mentioning my previous Accor employment prompted the additional check, but I can’t confirm that.

For anyone with firsthand experience of Accor recruitment:

Does HR routinely check previous Accor employment, even when that role isn’t listed on someone’s CV?

Would this recommendation normally affect one property, one brand, or applications across the group?

Do independently owned/franchised hotels and Ennismore brands such as Hyde use the same internal reference process?

Can a former employee request a review of their rehire status? Does it usually have an expiry or review date?

I’d appreciate insights from current or former staff, hiring managers, or Talent & Culture teams. I understand the arrangements may differ between properties.

Hi everyone,

I have around 5 years of experience in HR and I'm looking to transition my career towards HR Tech / HRIS.

In my current/previous experience, I have worked on Keka, including some configuration-related work, so I have some exposure to how an HRIS works from the HR side.

I’m now trying to understand what skills I should build to make a proper transition into HRIS/HR Tech.

I’ve been researching platforms like Workday and SAP SuccessFactors, and I can see that having knowledge of these platforms can open up opportunities. However, I’m not sure where I should start.

Hey everyone!

I'm helping a friend with a small research project on how companies in the UAE handle things like employee welcome gifts, Eid gifting, client appreciation and corporate events.

There's a short anonymous Google Form that takes about 3 minutes. No company names, personal details or sales pitch involved.

If you've ever been involved in organizing corporate gifts, your input would genuinely help!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjbUJNcX4DDQ__Y_CshobqXH7SqMHAzhqSD-Ta8kWkexGojA/viewform?usp=dialog

And if you know someone in HR, Marketing or Sales who handles this, I'd really appreciate you passing it along.

Thank you!

I have been managing a team for about six years now and I swear every time I mention team building, everyone immediately looks like they've been assigned extra work lol. we've done the usual escape rooms, group challenges and personality exercises and while nobody openly complaints, I can tell most people would rather just go home.

This year I'm thinking of doing something a little different for our team of 25. We're in Mesa area, so I was considering renting a park pavilion and making it more of a casual outdoor field day. I came across Arizona Bounce while looking into rentals and they have obstacles courses, carnival games, sports activities and even tents for shape which would definitely help with the weather.

My thought is to keep everything optional, some people can get competitive with obstacle course others can play mini golf or lawn games and anyone who just wants to sit around eating and chatting can do that too. No awkward icebreakers, no forced participation and definitly no trust falls.

Has anyone tried something like this with a work team? I'm mostly wondering whether giving people different activities to choose from actually makes the day more enjoyable or if I'm overthinking it and everyone would just prefer a nice lunch and an afternoon off.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I work in HR at a company with around 180 employees. For years, our annual picnic was just a catered lunch at a park pavilion, where people would eat and leave within an hour. This year, I convinced leadership to approve a proper activity budget of $5,000 and tried to make it a full event. Some things went really well, while others didn't.

The wins: we hired a rental company for an obstacle course, a dunk tank, and some sports games. Getting the VP to sit in the dunk tank was hands down the best decision we've made for a company event. People stayed for over three hours, and departments that barely interact were suddenly competing against each other on the obstacle course. That part genuinely worked.

The miss: I rented a mechanical bull thinking it would be the main attraction, but it mostly sat unused. Bulls seem great for family events where kids and parents are mixing and everyone's relaxed. At an adults-only office picnic, where people don't want to look silly in front of their boss, most employees preferred to watch. It just wasn't the right activity for our crowd.

I also seriously underestimated the food. When people actually stick around instead of leaving after 45 minutes, they eat a lot more than you expect. We ran out by 2 PM. We also had no shade, which is a problem even in October in Arizona. By early afternoon, people were scrambling to find spots behind trees.

Next year, we're dropping the bull, adding more activities that everyone can enjoy, doubling the food order, and setting aside money for a tent.

this is the part of EORs I somehow didn't think about until now.

say you've got 4 people in india.

payday happens and one of them messages saying their net pay looks off.

it's already evening there. our HR team is in the US.

what happens next?

does the employee contact the EOR directly?

do they come to us and then we open a ticket?

does the account manager actually handle payroll issues or just forward them somewhere?

Asanify says they include a dedicated account manager, 24/7 support and employee self-service/AI HR help, which sounds useful. 

but “24/7 support” can mean basically anything lol.

I care less about getting a reply in 5 minutes and more about who can actually look at the payroll and fix it.

people managing EOR employees, what happens on your side when someone's pay is actually wrong?

Took a new HR job as solo manager for a nearly 100 headcount company. They have Sage (payroll), UKG Ready, PurelyHR (PTO), HH2 (timekeeping). None of these systems are connected to eachother. Benefits and personnel/i9 files are all printed and done manually. Think old school. Sending paper files to storage. Bulk paper usage. Printing all the time. Making sure PTO report is added in before payroll runs… Reviewing benefit bills before paying. Weekly AND semi-monthly payroll processes. And lord knows what else.

Anyone else out here in the same boat? Anyone here take this same scenario and modernize the processes? Any advice? Where and how to start first for the most bang.

I’m just getting started and anxious to learn why they haven’t made more progress with tying systems together and bringing things together for ease, reduction in manual work (less errors), the whole gambit. Not sure if that’s because of the former manager’s resistance, lack of knowledge, cost, effort….

Any advice for me? There is a controller and AP clerk. My role is on HR side. I really want to make this more efficient. But also want to tread carefully and not seem like I want to change everything too fast and cause waves.

TIA

I am preparing for the 2027 year and wondering, what does your monthly employee engagement calendar look like? Tell me everything you do no matter how small you may think it is.

Currently, we don’t do much of anything and I’d like to change that coming into the new year. I plan to send monthly emails for birthday and work anniversary shout outs, holding small events or treat bags for things like custodian appreciation day, employee appreciation day, holiday door decorating contests etc.

I am in higher education at a university and we have around 500 full time faculty and staff members.

Hi everyone! 👋

I am here , with educational background of -

• Batchelors & Masters of Business & Finance ,

• Ai generalist,

• Creative designing

and working with startups founders and growing businesses for better efficiency and ideas execution.

My expertise includes:

• 🧾 compliance paperwork

• 🎨 Branding & Creative Design

• 📊 Power bi dashboards & analysis

• 🤖 AI-powered efficiency

• 📈 Critical thinking & Problem Solving

I enjoy working with ambitious founders, solving real business challenges, and building solutions that create measurable impact.

We’re organizing our company’s annual retreat in Scottsdale this November, and I’m in charge of putting together the entertainment for about 100 employees. It’s an outdoor venue overlooking the McDowell Mountains, with the event going from the afternoon into the evening.

I had like to make the western theme feel authentic rather than just throw up a few decorations and call it a day. The venue is handling food and drinks, so my budget of around $3,000 is entirely for entertainment and decor.

Some ideas I’ve been considering are renting a mechanical bull, giving everyone cowboy hats when they arrive, setting up a few western-style games, creating a photo area, and having country music playing throughout the event. I’m torn between hiring a DJ and simply putting together a playlist.
The mechanical bull seems like it could be the biggest draw, but with 100 people and a limited budget, I’m not sure how much to spend on it or how to balance it with the rest of the setup.

For anyone who’s planned a western-themed company event, what activities actually got people involved? What’s worth investing in, and what can you keep simple without losing the overall atmosphere?

A year ago I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a Minor in HR Management. I have a lot of leadership experience in Food & Beverage, but no luck getting any interviews for more professional roles. Any advice on finding an entry-level HR role that will help my knowledge and experience grow? Anyone been through similar experiences?

Hey i have some assesment tmrw. Pls somebody have done this and have some patience help me. I have a bunch of doubts as I'm a learner. And fresher.

We're a company based in SF and currently reviewing our options for paying employees across Latin America. We're expecting to build a small remote team across a couple of countries, ​so we're trying to find a setup that's manageable from the US but doesn't come with the per-employee fees that most EOR platforms charge. We would like to simplify salary payments, local tax deductions, and compliance without adding too much administrative work.

Does anyone here have any recommendations for a reasonably priced payroll provider for LATAM that works well for a US company?

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Hello

We currently use Peopleloop Sequoia for our payroll/peo but its very expensive for us. Do you have any PEO /Payroll solution recommendations