The Coach SpaceYour employees always deserve a thank you and what better way than to show your appreciation towards them? Without teamwork, you can’t keep your business running and business owners with talented employees always have more success.
In America, nearly 50% of employees have left their jobs because they feel unappreciated. However, there are many ways you can make your employees feel appreciated at work and once they feel the appreciation, there’ll be a significant difference in their contribution levels.
Let’s dive deeper into this article to find out the top methods you can adjust to make your employees feel appreciated at the workplace.
12 ways to make your employees feel more appreciated at the workplace
1 – Always look for the good
Value employees all the time by seeing the good in them. The basis of all progress begins with a shift in mindset. In contrast, it is easy for leaders to correct negative behaviors among their employees. The best leaders always look for the positive changes people are making in their lives.
Giving recognition doesn’t need to be challenging, but it’s important enough to notice the good people are doing at the workplace. Always pay attention to the daily accomplishments people are making and say thank you. This creates a more positive environment, and leader acknowledgment is a powerful thing to consider.
2 – Encourage employee recognition rewards
Employee recognition awards are a primary way of showing appreciation toward employers. Usually, whenever you think of recognition awards, you can associate them with performance. Usually, whenever we are thinking about rewards, we think about performance. Therefore, a reward management strategy has many advantages regarding job satisfaction and productivity levels.
There are plenty of ideas for employee rewards you can implement. However, to give you a head start, here are some you can consider using:
- Team player awards: Teamwork is the root of all achievements. A good idea is what contributes to the success of the project. Unfortunately, it’s not always common for people to achieve this success. There are awards you can give out to teamwork, which include the best team member awards, helping hand awards, ultimate teamwork and more.
- Employee of the month award: Employee of the month can directly contribute to increased employee appreciation, but there may be better choices. Sometimes, one employee might continuously receive appreciation, which might negatively affect how the rest feel.
- New hire award: To show an increased appreciation for new hires, it’s always a good idea to give out a reward to make them feel better at the workplace. Some recent hire awards include the extra mile award, everyday hero, ace employee and more.
- Listener and engagement driver: Employee engagement shows how committed an employee is to the workplace and organization. Anyone encouraging engagement is maintaining your culture and making your organization better. Celebrating their engagement and listening capabilities is a great way to show gratitude.
Overall, employee appreciation is a direct influencer in driving up workplace engagement levels, productivity levels and employee retention.
3 – Be open to feedback
It’s never a smart idea to always have it “your way.” Therefore, it’s always good to accept feedback at a macro level. If you want feedback to be more effective, you can consider asking a set of questions. These questions include:
- What can we improve?
- What are and aren’t we doing well?
- What do we have to improve?
- Do you have anything in your mind?
You can ask these questions at the month’s end and see what improvements are made monthly. It’s never a bad idea to ask what can be done better. Any incremental improvement still matters in the organization.
4 – Offer food or gym discounts
If you have any gym or food discounts from partnerships you may have, it’s never a bad idea to give them out to your employees. Any discount can be a major advantage for them when they aren’t working. In other words, you show gratitude towards them and how much they matter to you.
5 – Encourage effort
Maybe you aren’t sure what you should appreciate? It can be to start encouraging your employees in their daily efforts. Employees will feel valued when efforts are acknowledged along their path. Working does require quite some energy before goals are reached, but it’s important to always cheer for your team.
Encouraging effort during a project allows you to show appreciation towards your team and makes the process more fun for your team. It’s never discouraging to be on a journey with your team, so make it fun!
6 – Don’t forget to celebrate
Celebrating careers isn’t only about recognizing the years of service, but also valuing employees in the workplace means loving their experience, insights and level of experience they have gained over the years. Overall, celebrating the person is enough to bring out the organization’s values, the level of value their personality brings to the team and the amount of contribution their work has to the world.
Employee recognition is best achieved by creating personal and long-lasting memorable career celebrations.
7 – Offer adequate compensation packages
You can always retain top talent by offering them reward compensations that show how much your company values employees. Creating an industry-leading and competitive compensation package is an excellent way of ensuring employees are valued and satisfied. Here’s an effective way how to do this:
- Raises
- Bonuses
- Health and wellness benefits
- Flexible scheduling
- Pay based on performance
- Vacation off-days
- Fair pay bonuses and more
8 – Help your employees grow professionally and personally
Professional and personal growth go together and what better way than to be your employee’s daily motivator? A leader’s support includes formal training, learning programs, mentorship, coaching, cross-training opportunities, stretch assignments and more.
9 – Acknowledge hard work
Hard work must always be appreciated among employees regardless of the better performer. After all, what better feeling than getting a pat from the manager for all the work you did, right?
It doesn’t cost anything to acknowledge hard work; it’s free. Hard work acknowledgment reduces turnover rates by 31%. Moreover, recognized employees are six times more likely to stay in a job than those who aren’t. Most employees also claim that the most effective way to improve engagement rates is to give recognition.
10 – Encourage flexible work schedules
Flexible work schedules are in favor of every employee. However, keeping them in your schedule is always a good idea, so prioritizing this is increasingly important for creating long-lasting results. Maintaining a balanced and healthy work environment is important for reducing stress, preventing employee burnout, saving enough money and promoting a better work-life balance for employees. Here are a few ways how you can do this:
- Establishing flexible working hours
- Giving remote work out as an option
- Providing paid time off opportunities
- Having respectful expectations
- Presenting time-management skill developments
- Encouraging autonomy in the workplace
Currently, nearly 20% of global companies work remotely, which is an increasing trend. The new normal in the modern workplace is offering remote work and office work together, aka the hybrid model. Therefore, it’s an excellent option to consider.
11 – Provide training
In the beginning, it can be challenging for employees to get a hold of their daily tasks and responsibilities. Especially if they don’t have enough experience, employee training can effectively impact the amount of work done and how much they contribute to the company. Therefore, you can provide the training on your own or offer paid online courses and tuition reimbursement.
Cross-training is another cost-efficient alternative for allowing employees to learn more and discover new skills to support their professional and personal development. Some alternative ways employees can grow are the following:
- Enough dedicated learning time
- One-on-one meetings
- Talent and career management guidance and more
12 – Offer pay bonuses for high performance
Offering pay bonuses is not always a bad idea. When you see someone performing more than expected, it’s never wrong to provide them with a pay bonus or even a gift you have to offer. Everybody who is appreciated because of their hard work will contribute more towards a job. It’s important to put performance above everything else and this way, contribution rates will increase.
The final breakdown
There are numerous ways to make your employees feel appreciated, so it’s time you start getting creative about it. Your employees are the base of your business; if they aren’t treated right, your productivity rates won’t be as high as you think.
Moreover, whatever you do, the best thing you can do is to show appreciation. Afterwards, everything is just a bonus!
About The Author
Tony Ademi is a freelance SEO content and copywriter. He has been in the writing industry for three years and has managed to write hundreds of SEO-optimized articles. Moreover, he has written articles that have ranked #1 on Google. Tony’s primary concern when writing an article is to do extensive research and ensure that the reader is engaged until the end.
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