Great Employee Appreciation

Beginning in the 1980s, we learned that investing in employee appreciation returns a HUGE dividend. On top of forward-thinking compensation plans and benefit packages, small things – like genuinely expressing EMPLOYEE APPRECIATION – have a lot to do with employee retention. And remember: the cost of replacing an employee is significant.

Research by SHRM suggests that replacement costs can be as high as 50%-60% with overall costs ranging anywhere from 90%-200%. Example: If an employee makes $60,000 per year then it costs an average of $30,000 - $45,000 just to replace that employee and roughly $54,000 - $120,000 in overall losses to the company.

The problem?

According to a Gallup and Workhuman report:

· 81% of leaders don’t consider recognition a strategic priority for their company

· 73% of senior leaders say their organization doesn’t train managers or other leaders in employee recognition· The majority of leaders—approximately two-thirds—haven’t allocated a budget to recognition

The solution!

Be INTENTIONAL and STRATEGIC in your employee appreciation strategies.

Your upside?

· It’s the right thing to do and it feels great!

· Retention, Retention, Retention

· Word of Mouth and Digital Scoring of your company’s caring culture

We know that everyone wants to feel appreciated for the work they do. But according to research from Gallup, only one in three U.S. employees say they’ve received recognition for doing good work in the past week.

Employee Appreciation Stats:

Gallup reports that when employees feel recognized, they’re:

• 5x more likely to feel connected to their organization

• 4x more likely to be engaged

• 3x more likely to feel a strong sense of loyalty to their organization

• 5x more likely to see themselves at your organization long-term

• 4x more likely to recommend your organization to others

• 73% less likely to feel regularly burned out

• 56% less likely to be keeping an eye open for job opportunities elsewhere

• 44% more likely to thrive in both your organization and their life outside of work

Creating a culture of appreciation and recognition connects a team to the company’s culture, keeps them engaged, and reduces turnover. All of these benefits will ultimately positively impact the company’s bottom line.

So how do you go about actually showing this appreciation to your team? Below are ten ideas for demonstrating appreciation to employees.

Let’s look at 10 ways to express appreciation to your valued employees.

10 Ideas for Showing Employee Appreciation:

1. Get to Know Your Employees Personally

One of the most important factors of appreciation is its authenticity. Gallup shows that the most impactful recognition is authentic and personalized.

That’s because everyone is different, and different employees have different recognition needs. For example, one employee might seek public recognition, while others might find it embarrassing and prefer a quick email, note or other small gesture of appreciation.

Demonstrating this individualized attention to your employees helps them feel valued as individuals, as well as appreciated for their contributions.

If you’re a C-level executive or in a similar leadership position and don’t have the capability to get to know every single employee, it’s also a good idea to train your managers to recognize and appreciate their employees. Challenge them to give personalized attention to their team members.

2. Provide Both Recognition And Appreciation

It’s important to distinguish between employee recognition and appreciation and provide both to your team. While similar, recognition and appreciation have the following differences:

• Recognition: Gratitude and positive feedback provided due to employees’ accomplishments or performance.

• Appreciation: Acknowledgement of employees’ inherent worth as colleagues and human beings.

In other words, recognition rewards accomplishments, whereas appreciation acknowledges who people are.

Recognizing employees can often take the form of financial rewards…but note data suggests that 55% of employee engagement is a result of non-financial recognition, such as verbal acknowledgment or appreciation.

3. Create a Culture of Recognition

To maximize the effectiveness of recognition and appreciation, it’s important to embed it into your organizational culture. Simply making it a checklist won’t produce lasting results and won’t feel authentic or genuine.

At Express Employment Professionals, we took several actions in this space:

• Align goals, values, employee appreciation with the business strategy

• Recognize outstanding performers at quarterly staff meetings

• Recognize/reward employees for their solid performance through company-wide

policies and a culture of caring (e.g., free gift during their Birthday month; free on-site

childcare; free on-site library; free on-site workout facilities)

• Customarily recognize individuals across your entire organization; feature a ‘star’

contributor on digital assets like web, blog or SM; display a ‘poster’ in the corporate

lobby of your ‘star of the month/year’

Make sure your workplace culture is one that promotes recognition and can maximize its benefits to your organization and employees alike.

4. Routinely Demonstrate Appreciation in Small Ways

Appreciation doesn’t have to be a grand gesture. Something as simple as a handwritten thank you note can make a big difference, especially because it’s so unexpected.

Research shows these simple gestures can have tremendous impacts on your employees, despite not being tied to a cash incentive.

Keep a stack of thank you notes handy and whenever you hear of anyone on your team who has achieved a milestone, completed a project or perhaps just shown true effort–write them a quick note. The few minutes spent on this task will garner an incredible amount of goodwill.

Alternatively, a voucher for a culinary experience at a great restaurant or tickets to a sporting contest/performing arts event will help say ‘I NOTICED’ from a great manager.

5. Facilitate Social Interactions

A great way to show appreciation is by facilitating social interactions among employees.

Intentional, well-planned interactions are some of the strongest indicators of positive employee experience in an organization.

We found that employees crave human interaction in work, whether in-person or virtual.

Interpersonal connections with managers and peers can improve employees’ sense of shared identity and help them feel valued.

At Express Employment Professionals, we took several actions in this space:

• Create, implement picnics (holiday parties with employee’s family)

• Create, implement small performing arts acts during holidays

• Create, implement an annual bar-b-q cook off for employees

• Create, implement a chili cooking contest for employees

• Create, implement a book signing event when a dignitary is in town

• Plan, execute a FINANCIAL PLANNING workshop for employees; invite a CFP to be a keynote lecturer .

6. Give and Receive Balanced Feedback

Praise is important, and a key component of appreciation. However, the most authentic appreciation also acknowledges areas for improvement. If you aren’t proactively helping your employees grow and improve as professionals, your employees might feel that they aren’t truly valued members of your organization.

Worse, if you aren’t providing constructive feedback as well as praise, your employee might be making mistakes without knowing it. This will ultimately need to be addressed, and the longer you wait, the more difficult the feedback will be to hear.

In addition to giving feedback, however, it’s vital to be able to receive feedback openly.

While it might not be comfortable at first for you or the employee, get deliberate about requesting feedback on your leadership. Be specific. Let employees know that you value their input on a project or that you want to make sure you’re supporting them in ways that are meaningful.

Demonstrating a little vulnerability will humanize the employee-manager relationship and create a meaningful connection between leaders and employees.

7. Empower Employees to Share Their Accomplishments

People like to be recognized for what they’re proud of.

If an employee completes a project that they worked hard on and they’re proud of the result, neglecting to acknowledge this accomplishment will likely result in discouragement.

Empower a small team or associate to help your employees share their accomplishments. Some questions include:

• What projects have you been working on recently?

• Is there anything you’ve accomplished that you’re proud of?

• Is there something you’re working on that you’re excited about?

• What are some of your toughest challenges and how are you handling them?

• How are you impacting lives through our products/services?

These conversations can take place at any point, in any location and via any format.

8. Invest in Your Employees

While verbal acknowledgement is key to morale and motivation, it’s also important to acknowledge that financial incentives can be excellent sources of motivation as well.

Consider developing a program focused on recognizing employees for professional achievements, such as work anniversaries (one year, five year, ten year, etc.) and promotions.

You might consider tying a monetary award to such milestones or perhaps offering additional time off. Pair this with a note from the CEO, lunch with the CEO and employees will look forward to achieving these milestones, increasing both retention and productivity.

One of the most strategic ways to show employee appreciation is by offering a competitive benefits package. While compensation is undoubtedly important, having a well-rounded benefit package can both attract and retain great colleagues.

Consider increasing a 401(k) match, adding infertility benefits, or increasing the amount of time off for new parents. Review your benefit offerings each year and make changes to support the growing needs of your workforce.

Actively communicating and celebrating these changes demonstrates a commitment to the well-being of your workforce.

9. Involve Leadership

While it’s always nice to receive praise from those with whom you work closely, receiving words of appreciation from those outside your immediate orbit have a huge impact.

Gallup reveals that employees list the following sources as the most impactful when it comes to recognition:

• 28%: An employee’s direct manager or supervisor

• 24%: A high-level leader, executive, or CEO

• 12%: An employee’s manager’s manager

• 10%: A customer or client

• 9%: Peers and colleagues

If you’re a leader who sees employee appreciation as a retention tool, start by engaging in the practice yourself and getting deliberate about showing appreciation to your own direct reports.

Keep in mind that managers also benefit as recipients of appreciation and are arguably the least likely to get it.

10. Use Technology

Use technology (easy, swift, affordable and impactful) to express praise on those deserving recognition and words of appreciation. Consider the following paths to place eyeballs (internal and external constituents) on the accomplishment/achievements of your rock stars.

• Website (public) feature

• Website (internal; intranet) feature

• Blob mention

• Podcast mention

• E-Newsletter mention

• Company-wide email

• Board of Directors email

• Community/Association/Trade mention

• Company-wide text (to smart phones)

• Company-wide video message (to smart phones)