Show your colleagues and employees how much you appreciate them this Valentine’s Day by bringing lurve into the workplace.

National recruitment group HR GO thinks there’s no better way to raise spirits and get the whole team engaged in a little office fun than to hold a themed Valentine’s Day.

Jack Parkinson, HR GO’s chairman, says: “Quality of social contact plays a vital role in the workplace and in the well-being of employees.”

But what about finding love in the workplace? According to an online poll by job search engine Simply Hired, 50% of its UK visitors think dating a colleague is a bad idea, believing its professional and private life should be kept separate, while 35% felt colleagues who date made other employees feel awkward.

However, 64% felt it was okay for colleagues to date as long as the relationship was kept professional within the workplace – so away with any public displays of affection.

HR GO has plenty of ideas for a themed Valentine’s Work Day:

• Wear something red or pink to work to get the theme alive
• Decorate the office
• Managers put cards on desks with kind words about how much the work of employees is valued, maybe referring to a specific project
• Treat yourselves and colleagues with chocolates, cupcakes etc
• Launch a competition amongst the staff with the reward of dinner for two voucher for the winner.

For those of us who cynically think the day has become sullied by the over-commercialisation of every aspect of the commemoration, to wit the extortionate cost of a tiny bunch of flowers… (sorry, got a bit carried away), then you can ignore the above advice as the actual day is on Sunday.