Administrative Professionals Day 2025 falls on Wednesday, April 23rd. It marks a special day on which the working world celebrates administrative professionals, secretaries, and support staff. These professionals deserve recognition for the hard work they do to keep offices everywhere running smoothly, and there’s no better day to say thanks!
Whether you’re planning to commemorate National Admin Day with thoughtful gifts, team-building activities, development opportunities, or just some time off, preparation is key! Especially if you plan to celebrate the full Administrative Professionals Week.
This guide will help you get ready to show your appreciation for the admin professionals who contribute so much to your workplace.
About Administrative Professionals Day
National Administrative Professionals Day celebrates the important role of secretaries, assistants, receptionists, and other administrative support professionals. It’s observed in several countries and may also be called Administrative Assistant Day, Secretary Day, or Admin Day.
Administrative professionals are often the unsung heroes of the workplace. They keep businesses running smoothly by providing support and assistance, and even something as simple as saying “Happy Admin Day!” can help show appreciation for their important contributions. Remember, everyone likes to be noticed and appreciated.
When Is Administrative Professionals Day 2025?
Sure, you’re excited to celebrate the holiday, but when is Administrative Professionals Day?
Administrative Professionals Day is celebrated on the Wednesday of the last full week in April every year. For Admin Day 2025, it lands on Wednesday, April 23rd. If you plan to recognize the full Administrative Professionals Week for an expanded celebration, it’ll be from April 21st to April 25th, 2025.
This holiday started in 1952 between June 1st and June 7th, and Wednesday, June 4, 1952, was designated National Secretaries Day. In 1955, the observance of National Secretaries Week was moved to the last full week of April.
The name was changed to Professional Secretaries Week in 1981. In 2000, it became Administrative Professionals Week to encompass the expanding responsibilities and job titles of administrative support staff.
Why You Should Celebrate Administrative Professionals Day 2025
Administrative Professionals Day has become one of the largest workplace holidays in the United States. Companies have celebrated through community events, social gatherings, individual corporate activities, and recognizing support staff with gifts.
Many US companies celebrate by giving flowers, candy, trinkets, lunch at a restaurant, gift cards, corporate training opportunities, or time off to their admin staff. Gifting experiences instead of things has also become a popular way to show appreciation for your employees.
In recent years, many more employers and supervisors have started arranging events to show their gratitude. These events highlight the importance of administrative professionals within the organization and provide opportunities to grow their skills and build connections.
5 Ideas To Celebrate Administrative Professionals Day 2025
If you’re wondering what to get to show your administrative professional staff how much you appreciate their contributions this year, consider an experience rather than just a gift box. Here are some fantastic choices for celebrating Administrative Day 2025:
1. Invest in Software to Facilitate Administrative Work
One of the best ways to make someone feel like their job is important is to invest in their role or department, especially in ways that make work more fun, efficient, or easier. Your administrative team will be more productive and feel recognized when they have the right software.
Remember to ask them what they need before you invest. You might find that your administrative team has a couple of tools or software they’ve been wanting, which would make great gifts for Administrative Professionals Day.
For example, if you’re managing a marketing department, ask your team to help identify opportunities for more data and automation. If you’re managing an accounting team, ask for their input on tools and training for programs like Salesforce. Likewise, if you lead a project management team, see what they think of tools like Trello.
2. Arrange a Fun Team Building Experience
Having fun at work doesn’t just lead to great company culture—it boosts productivity! Now more than ever, it’s important for employees to have fun and build connections with their coworkers. Team building activities and events make it easy for your team to take some time away from their daily tasks and enjoy themselves on National Admin Day.
Providing opportunities for team bonding is a great way to celebrate and create a culture of teamwork. Whether your team is virtual, in-person, or a bit of both, you have plenty of fun events to choose from. So this year, remember to schedule time for your team to participate in a friendly team-building competition or grow their skills together.
For Admin Day 2024, we suggested fun icebreakers to help any new members of your team create bonds that are as authentic as they are deep. This could be a fantastic opportunity if your team recently expanded.
Here are a few of our favorites:
Corporate Survivor
True to its namesake and inspiration—the Survivor TV show—Corporate Survivor is an opportunity to see your group working, laughing, and learning together like never before. They’ll enjoy all the drama and adrenaline rush of the real Survivor experience as they work to outwit, outplay, and outlast the competition.
To better unify your organization, shuffle up the teams so employees get to work with different colleagues. This event can be a great opportunity to take advantage of the improving weather and bring your team closer together, too.
High-Tech Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts have become an exciting way to celebrate Administrative Professionals Day. We suggested this same idea for Secretary Day 2024, and we’re recommending it again in 2025! Why? Because with over 25 years of organizing these events, we can tell you that scavenger hunts are always a hit.
With a wide variety of high-tech scavenger hunts to choose from, there is no shortage of excitement. The challenges built into each of our hunts can be customized around your company culture, location(s), time constraints, and participants.
The Mystery Bus
The Mystery Bus is a staff favorite for creating lasting memories and getting everyone excited. It’s a custom-tailored team building event that will transport your team to some of the weirdest, coolest, most wonderful destinations in and around your city of choice. They truly won’t know where they’re going till they get there, which adds a hint of mystery that they’re sure to love.
3. Gift Your Team Learning & Training Opportunities
Professional training programs delivered by industry experts are designed to energize your organization. Each team building and professional development program is based on your specific needs and is led by passionate, experienced, and often local trainers.
They combine work and play with programs like Breaking Barriers, in which your staff will learn through hands-on experience and have fun in the process. Giving administrative professionals the opportunity to develop new skills and enhance existing ones has several benefits, such as:
- Offering more value to the organization
- Opportunity for career advancement
- Increasing confidence
- Improving job satisfaction
Is your team spread throughout the country or around the world? No problem! Programs like our Virtual Resiliency Training workshop can still help you celebrate Administrative Professionals Day 2025 while learning in the process.
4. Support Causes That Are Important to Them
Celebrate Administrative Professionals Day 2025 by giving back as a team. When employees see that their company is actively supporting issues that matter to them, it boosts morale, improves company culture, builds trust, and improves loyalty.
If you’re looking for Administrative Professionals Day gift ideas, consider letting each employee choose a cause that’s important to them and then making a donation on their behalf.
For something more hands-on with an added team building element, arrange a charitable event they can be involved in. According to Harvard Business Review, volunteering as a team is shown to boost engagement, productivity, and retention.
Here are a few examples of activities your team could participate in:
Clean Water Connection
Giving the gift of clean water to those who have no access is more than a drop in the bucket. The ripple effects of the Clean Water Connection water filter donations include providing health benefits, increasing sanitation, saving hours of time each day, and improving education and work rates.
You’ll get to connect with your team as you connect with a global community in need of the most basic of elements: water. How’s that for a feel-good celebration?
Wheels Around the World
In this Wheels Around the World, each team will sponsor a wheelchair, complete a set of activities, and then decorate and personalize a wheel safety cover after discovering more about their recipients. In doing so, participants make a direct impact on a person’s life while raising awareness of what it is like to live with a disability.
Little Team Library
Give the gift of literacy in this hands-on charitable program that combines the building of Little Free Libraries with the creativity of storytelling. Teams will work together to assemble the kits, decorate, and write and illustrate a children’s book to go in the finished product. In this unforgettable event, you’ll create a permanent neighborhood book exchange in the community while having fun and connecting with your team.
5. Sending Gifts and Kits
Everyone loves to receive a gift now and again. It is a simple, meaningful way to show your administrative team that you appreciate their consistent hard work and dedication.
Here are some of our favorite ideas for gifts and kits to celebrate Administrative Professionals Day 2025:
Self-Care Items
Sending items to improve self-care and wellness can help employees reduce stress and improve their overall well-being. Essential oils, spa gift certificates, and cozy blankets are just a few examples. And if you’d like to provide a self-care experience, consider something like a spa or massage gift certificate paired with a day off so they can go enjoy it.
Customized Office Supplies
Consider gifting your admin professionals a customized stationery set, personalized notepad, or fancy pen. These types of gifts are useful for the day-to-day and show you spent time thinking of them when they’re personalized.
Experience Gifts
Remember, Administrative Professionals Day gift ideas don’t have to be things. Giving your team members an experience with their gift, like a cooking class, wine tasting, or tickets to an event, can make their day special. Here are a couple of our favorites that they can experience together:
Want To Celebrate Administrative Professionals Week?
If you’d like to celebrate Administrative Professionals Week, consider picking an event or gift for every day. For April 23rd—the official celebration of Admin/Secretary Day 2025—you might even give them a midweek day off. To make their day off extra special, consider letting them decide if they’d like to take Wednesday off or save it for the end of the week so they can have a long weekend instead.
Here’s an example celebration schedule for a 5-day workweek using the ideas from this article:
- Monday: Kick off the week with a charitable spirit by participating in the Clean Water Connection program.
- Tuesday: Reward a job well done with the Breaking Barriers program and a software investment to make your team members’ lives easier.
- Wednesday: Day off! Encourage your team to take Administrative Professionals Day 2025 off so they can relax and recharge.
- Thursday: Get out of the office with a Mystery Bus event and discover a city of your choice together.
- Friday: End the day early with a Happy Hour & Mixology Class—even virtual team members can have a drink together!
If your office follows a four-day workweek instead, consider combining two of these options into one fun-filled day. For example, consider scheduling the Mixology Class after the Clean Water Connection program to celebrate helping others.
Have Some Fun on Administrative Professionals Day 2025!
Giving back to your team for Administrative Professionals Day will make them feel appreciated and create a better working environment. Whether you decide to reward them with learning, gifts, experiences, or all of the above, what matters is that you recognize what they do and thank them for their hard work.
