To All of Our Faculty, Staff and Student Employees – We Appreciate You

TODAY is Employee Appreciation Day.  Yes, it may seem as if it is one of those “Hallmark Holidays” designed to ensure that greeting cards are purchased or tailored for local restaurants to capitalize on catering to the lunch crowd.  In fact, National Employee Appreciation Day dates back to 1995, when Dr. Bob Nelson, a founding member of Recognition Professionals International, proposed it as an unofficial holiday.  As with any good academic, Dr. Nelson based his proposal on a study highlighting the important benefits of building employee-employer bonds through proper acknowledgement and that employee satisfaction is critical to an organization’s success. At Syracuse University, we have over 5,500 employees performing so many roles—faculty, staff, student employees.  Each and every day, our employees complete amazing feats, from teaching, researching, answering questions, processing information and data, fixing our buildings, preparing and serving food, guiding students and prospective students.  The University has a rich history of doing amazing things through its amazing employees, for over 150 years.  Many leaders, managers, supervisors and employees know the importance of recognition and showing appreciation. And employee recognition does not and should not simply be about a one-day event.  There are so many simple ways to recognize employees, including:

• A hand-written note or brief thank you note, even by email or a text message.   It does not need to be lengthy, but it should be honest, authentic and tailored to a specific accomplishment.
• Taking the time to stop, reflect and approach a colleague and say, “Hey, I really appreciate you for the work that you did on that project” or “I noticed how you handled that situation.  I appreciate it and I learned that I am going to do the same when I face a similar situation”.
• In the right situations, sharing recognition and appreciation beyond the individual to a group, team or division, can be inspiring for the individual and also their colleagues.  Even the use of a bulletin board, for a “Kudos Corner”, is a simple way to recognize others.

The opportunities are endless and are only limited by your imagination and assurances that it achieves the simple goal of recognizing that we are all doing amazing things. Particularly, as these times seem to be uncharted and acutely uncertain with the changes being brought about by abrupt changes directed from Washington, DC, I believe it is even more important going forward this year, to take the time to recognize each other for the amazing things that we do. So, I strongly encourage you to stop on a regular basis and acknowledge the great work of each of our employees through simple acts of gratitude.  And on this Employee Appreciation Day—to our 5,500 PLUS—deepest and sincere THANK YOU FOR BEING AMAZING. Sincerely, Andrew Gordon Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer