Does your business take part in employee appreciation? It’s human nature for people to crave recognition from their peers, yet so many bosses get caught up in the success of their business, they forget to recognize the hard work put in by their employees. People love when their hard work gets noticed, but when it goes unnoticed, it’s easy to get frustrated and not feel appreciated at all. This is one of the reasons people leave their jobs: lack of appreciation. Keep your best talent and add an employee recognition program in your office. We’re here to share creative ways to show your employees appreciation for their hard work and tell you why employee recognition matters.
Employee recognition goes beyond the financial bonus. It’s likely you can agree that all the recognition in the world couldn’t make up for a poorly paying job. It’s been proven that companies with the knowledge of how to show appreciation for their employees experience an increase in employee engagement, lower turnover rates, and overall higher performance.
So the next question becomes, “how can I do a better job of recognizing employees for their hard work?”. This is your chance to have some fun and get as creative as you want to come up with a program or list of ideas that works for you and your business. Here are some ideas you could use to give your employees the recognition they deserve:
- Reach out on social media – show off your employee on your social media profiles.
- Value their passions – By valuing their passions, you are showing them you are valuing their individuality. Allow them to spend time during the week doing something they are deeply passionate about. This gives them time to step away from the stress of work and come back refreshed and happy that their passions are important to you.
- Dedicate a spot on your website for an “employee of the month” or “employee spotlight”. Be sure to include a real story about their lives and passions as well.
- “Crush-it” calls – Have weekly meetings to share with the whole team who is “crushing it” for the week and why, and also sharing something you’re grateful for that week. This gives you a chance to recognize each other and take advantage of positive thinking. It also brings that person’s hard work to the attention of the whole team.
- Recognize team members in the moment – who says you need to wait until the end of the month or year to recognize your employees? Build recognition as part of your everyday language, celebrate the contribution they are making to your business in the moment, everyday. They will begin to realize that the little things count and it will motivate them to do it again.
- Offer cool perks – Even if your company isn’t as large as Google or Facebook, you can still offer awesome perks to create the best company culture. Company culture adds tremendous value to the workplace, and perks add to the culture. When people ask your employees about how they like their job, you want them to say they like it, or it’s awesome, or have another positive answer. This is how it’s done. Some examples of cool perks would be half-day Fridays or working remotely one day a week.
- Design perks around your company’s story. Maybe before you started your business, you gained inspiration from traveling to Spain. Offering a trip to Spain after 5 years of being employed would be an example of a perk inspired by the company story.
These are just some ways to get started with your employee recognition program. When employees feel appreciated, they will be more likely to stay longer with the company. Remember, even the smallest of companies can do something creative and fun to make employees feel like they are a valuable part of the company.