It’s that time of the year when one strategy execution consulting firm wants to remind its clients to spread a little love.

Meg Wheaton, who leads the creative team at Chicago-headquartered Gagen MacDonald, is working on a project that has been close to her heart for some years.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, she is calling on companies to put some love in their business.

“We really want to have a place where employees want to go to work,” Wheaton, the driving force behind the firm's  “Love in Business is Good Business” campaign, recently told the HR Daily Wire. "That does not always happen. Employees feel disengaged and do not feel valued. If they want to come to work, it makes them better leaders.”

Wheaton cited research that showed that recognizing and thanking an employee is sometimes more rewarding than salary increases.

It’s part of a long-term strategy to keep employees and attract the best ones. If nothing else, it is expensive to replace employees, Wheaton argues.

There are, of course, other ways to reward employees, and show that caring side, including flexibility in work arrangements, such as working remotely.

To promote what Gagen describes as its unique philosophy of “Love in Business is Good Business,” she created the annual Gagen Valentine.

In its fifth year, the Gagen Valentine has become a known industry communication that  serves as an important reminder for employers everywhere to put employees first.

As part of the campaign, the business management consulting firm has posted a range of cards to mark Valentine’s Day, cards that can be distributed to employees.

It’s more than just handing out cards, though. Wheaton said it's about revealing you care, and showing that employees should be appreciated and treated in a good way.

Wheaton, who has worked in marketing for 20 years, said her quest is to thoroughly understand audiences, opinions and behaviors that allow the companies she works with to create meaningful, lasting and impactful communications.

She leads Gagen MacDonald's creative team, developing and executing employee-focused communications for Fortune 500 clients, while creating traditional and digital materials that move people to action, the company said. 

This includes employee engagement campaigns, employee experiences,  infographics, videos, intranet design, web portals and interactive journey maps for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Exelon, Astellas, Hyatt, DuPont and Deloitte.