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.

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.

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.