21 Ways to Celebrate Your Best Workplace Status

Taking the time to celebrate your workplace wins with employees is important. Whether you’re commemorating getting Great Place to Work-Certified or announcing your new status as a Best Workplace, it’s a crucial opportunity to pause and take pride in what your team has built.

Over the years, we’ve compiled quite a list of the different ways companies on our Best Workplace lists have shared the good news with their team. For many, it’s a big event that inspires some creative activities and fun rewards for staff.

Whether you’ve just been awarded Great Place to Work Certification or are awaiting the announcement of our Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for list, we hope these ideas inspire you.

1. Email from the CEO. Send a note from the CEO that announces the exciting news and explains what it means! Don’t forget to thank employees for making the company a great place to work.
    
2. Do a champagne toast with leadership. Nothing says celebration quite like a champagne toast, especially one led by the company leadership.
   
   
3. Order a GPTW cake. Or cupcakes, or cookies! We’ve seen it all. Decorate them with your Great Place to Work certification badge or Best Workplace list logo.
   
   
4. Host a happy hour or free lunch for employees. Now is the time to get social – gather everyone together and offer drinks or a meal on the house.
   
   
5. Hang banners in your headquarters and local offices. Keep the news top of everyone’s mind with banners hung up at the office. Some companies even include a few photos featuring employees.
   
   
6. Swag giveaways. Hand out some creative swag so employees can boast about their workplace to friends and family.  Cadence hands out foam fingers!
   
   
7. Start a fun #GPTW campaign. It’s the perfect time to spotlight employees and let those personal stories shine. Start a campaign where you ask employees to submit photos or record messages on what makes the company a great place to work. You could even put up a banner where employees can add their big reason.
   
   
8. Hold a video contest. Take your #GPTW campaign to the next level with a video contest! Ask employees to record a short video illustrating what makes their company a GPTW, and offer a prize to the winning submission.
   
   
9. Hand out special “Fortune” cookies.  Commemorate earning your spot on a Best Workplace list with personalized Fortune cookies. This is a cute idea that many of our companies do – one company sent out 14,000 cookies!
   
   
10. Create custom lapel pins.  Handing out pins is a common practice for companies where employees may already wear badges and are regularly interacting in-person with clients.
    
    
11. Come up with some share-worthy social media content.  Employees will want to share the news with friends and family! Make it easy for them by pulling together come celebratory photos and posts that they can share on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.
    
    
12. Post a few billboards. This is a billboard-worthy announcement – why not show it off to potential customers with a billboard near your headquarters?
    
    
13. Executives greet the employees as they walk in. Ensure employees make a grand entrance into work on the day of the announcement. Gather top leaders together early in the morning and have them greet and thank employees at the door. You could even rent a red carpet for the occasion.
    
    
14. Give an additional day of PTO. A great way to say thanks can be offering employees some extra time to pause, relax, and take in what they’ve accomplished. You can also add a twist like Perkins Coie; to celebrate 14 years on the Fortune 100 Best Companies list, Perkins Coie employees could roll three dice, and if they got a 14, they received an extra day of PTO.
    
    
15. Offer an extra day off to volunteer. The perfect way to celebrate getting on our Best Workplaces for Giving Back list, and help employees feel pride in their workplace.
    
    
16. Close early on the day of the announcement. Encourage employees to celebrate with family and colleagues.
    
    
17. Host a special leadership celebration. Beyond champagne toasts or a happy hour, why not make the day more ceremonial? Texas Health Resources held a pinning ceremony in which the Leadership Team presented a commemorative pin to each leader, and then took selfies with an employee-created “100” poster.
    
    
18. Go casual for a week. Give employees a break from formal attire with a week-long casual Friday.
    
    
19. Donate to a charity. Take a note from Build-a-Bear, who celebrated 7 years on the Fortune 100 Best list by awarding each district $777.77 to donate to a charity of their choice.
    
    
20. Order a branded piñata. Follow in TekSystems' footsteps and fill a piñata full of branded goodies and candy!
    
    
21. Hold up signs as employees arrive. On the morning of the big day, hand security officers or staff at the front big signs to hold up and announce the news as staff arrives.

These 21 ways to celebrate are just a few of the many creative festivities our certified companies and Best Workplace list winners put on each year. Many are also a great way to strike up a conversation with customers about the good news.

How will you celebrate your win with the team?

Teresa Iafolla