Every good business owner knows that their company’s most important asset is their employees. Without your dedicated and hardworking employees, your company wouldn’t be able to grow and be successful as it is today.
While your company is growing in revenues, your employees are working in the background, doing their best to make more sales, finish reports, and achieve quotas. Thus, as part of your strategies for growing your business, it’s essential to pay attention to your employees and show them appreciation now and again.
Showing appreciation to your employees isn’t only about giving them rewards or material gifts. Instead, it’s about ensuring they feel valued and that their presence and talent are highly recognized in the company. Failure to recognize and appreciate your employees could lead to lower employee retention.
According to a survey, 44% of the employees surveyed mentioned that the lack of recognition from their employers is their main reason for leaving.
So, to retain your best employees, you must show them they’re highly valued and appreciated. For your guide, here are four meaningful ways to show appreciation to your employees on any occasion.
For new employees, there is a lot unexpected. Even if employees do diligent research into your company culture, audit past employee reviews, etc., it’s hard to know what they’re walking into until their first day. Because first impressions are everything, the top companies around the world have made it standard protocol to give their incoming workers a new hire welcome kit. To buy new employee welcome kits check out these Swag Bar.
- Listen And Address Your Employees’ Needs
It’s easy to buy a bulk of gift cards or ‘thank you’ cards and give them to your employees as your way of saying thanks. However, that method doesn’t necessarily show genuine appreciation, and your employees may eventually think of it as an empty gesture out of obligation.
If you want your employees to feel appreciated, you need to do something that will significantly impact or benefit them. You may do this by learning how to listen to and address your employees’ needs.
Make it a habit to approach your employees individually and ask them about their day, if they’re dealing with any personal or work-related problems, or if there’s anything you can do to help them. If they mention wanting to request a personal time off, listen to their reasons and avoid rejecting their request right away.
According to an article from Terry Katz & Associates, several reasons are considered good excuses to miss work, and it’s best that you acknowledge them.
For example, if they’re feeling under the weather lately, struggling with losing a loved one, or needing a ‘mental health day,’ be open-minded about their reasons and consider granting their request. As long as they have documentation or proof to justify their excuse, then there’s no reason for you to reject their leave request.
Listening to and understanding your employees’ needs can be an effective way to show appreciation.
- Encourage Family Activities
It’s often rare for employees to associate their work with their personal or family life to practice work-life balance. But what do you think your employees would feel if you encouraged them to engage in family activities in your workplace?
If you haven’t implemented this before, you can try and encourage family activities for your employees at least once a month or every quarter as your way of showing appreciation.
For example, allow your family members to visit the workplace during lunch breaks so they can have lunch together. Or, when hosting an employee reward program or an acquaintance party, allow them to take one or two of their family members to the event. You can send monthly activity boxes containing family-friendly games or activities if your workforce is in a remote work setup.
Ultimately, the objective here is to help your employees stay in touch with their families and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
- Celebrate Personal Milestones
Often, employers are used to celebrating their employees’ work anniversaries, birthdays, or if they achieved or exceeded their work-related goals. But one way you can step this up is by celebrating their personal milestones.
Did one of your employees recently have a baby? Or, perhaps one of your employee’s kids has finally graduated from high school or college. Or, maybe your employee recently mastered a hobby or completed a marathon.
Please take note of their personal milestones and acknowledge these events by sending them small gifts or handwritten congratulatory notes. Your employees will feel extra special and appreciated as you are able to recognize their achievements outside of work. More importantly, doing this will also help the other employees get to know their co-workers on a personal level.
- Offer Them Extra Time Off
Aside from their usual rest days, you can reward them with an extra day off when possible. If some of your employees can achieve or exceed their monthly or quarterly goals, reward them by letting them take a longer rest. Remember that they had to sacrifice their sleep and extra hours at work to finish their workload before their deadline.
So, demonstrate that you care for their health and give them extra time off if possible. When you value your employees’ well-being, you will see that they also value you and your business.
Key Takeaway
These are only some of the simple ways you can show your appreciation to your employees. Remember, showing appreciation doesn’t always have to be costly and time-consuming. As long as you’re making these efforts with genuine care, they’ll surely see your good intentions, promoting better employee engagement and fostering a culture of gratefulness in your workplace.