6 Ways to Show Appreciation For Your Employees

In a fast, forward-thinking work environment, it can often be difficult to pause, reflect and show appreciation for your employees and all of their past accomplishments.  It’s a practice to start or continue doing now, so you can avoid future problems with culture and engagement down the road such as low productivity, resentment and ultimately higher turnover.

Here are six effective ways to show appreciation to your employees:

Plan a team-building outing

What better way to show your employees you value them beyond the work they produce than planning an interactive team-building outing. Team-building activities are shown to boost creativity, improve communication and increase team collaboration. Give your employees a genuine and positive opportunity to get to know their coworkers better, and a nice needed break from office life, to de-stress and express themselves. Outings and activities we recommend are lunch and learns, volunteering for a local charity, a cooking class, karaoke night or a mystery dinner. Make sure to consider inclusive outings that the entire team can enjoy and experience together.

Connect rewards to your company

A rewards or loyalty program gives employees a great incentive to work more efficiently and achieve more. It’s something employees care about, 69% of employees say they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized. The rewards should be worthwhile and not solely monetary based, so employees will be encouraged to work diligently to obtain them.

Using software to implement rewards is an easy way to get started and track progress. A platform like Achievers, helps your company recognize employee success, give praise, listen to your workforce and align teams to company values and goals.

Offer extra perks or benefits

In a competitive hiring landscape, it’s essential to offer benefits and perks to attract and retain the best talent. Is your company doing enough? A High salary is not enough incentive to keeps your employees motivated, loyal and happy.

80% of workers would keep a job with benefits, rather than take one that offered more pay and no benefits according to the American Institute of CPA.

Extra perks like flexible hours or the ability to work from home, help give employees the work-life balance they crave. Other options include bonuses, free weekly lunches, profit sharing, childcare or additional time off work. Perks and benefits beyond the industry standards show that your company wants to offer the best employee experience possible which will lead to high engagement and dedication.

Highlight milestones personally and professionally

Your employees are individuals, and they should be recognized as such. It’s easy to show appreciation to a team or a group of people, but it’s important to highlight an employee’s milestones both personally and professionally to connect with them genuinely.

A subscription service like Chocolate Soup makes it easy to recognize your employees on those occasions that matter most to them. Personalized gift boxes are delivered to your employee on their birthday, work anniversary, birth or adoption of a child or another important milestone.

Encourage their feedback

You might be wondering how encouraging feedback, is showing appreciation. However, it’s essential to know if you’re supporting and challenging your staff in the correct ways, or if you’re blocking them from reaching success.

Giving your employees a voice to provide the helpful feedback you need to improve, fosters a culture of trust and open and honest communication. Encouraging employees to express their opinions, shows that you respect, value and appreciate their thoughts which creates a stronger connection to the company, product and team.

You might be missing a significant opportunity to decrease turnover, increase engagement and improve morale by not collaborating and communicating with your team.

Of course, don’t forget to act on the feedback you receive from your employees!

Invest in their development

Employee development—the practice of investing in your employee to improve or elevate existing skills, knowledge and abilities is a great way to show you care about the individual and what they bring to the company. It helps retention as offering career training and development would keep 86% of millennials from leaving their current position.

It’s not only a smart business move (better-educated and skilled employees) but, it will also help your employees take ownership of their job path, and professional development. Some examples include sending employees to conferences, courses or training, or coaching, all of which will increase employee engagement and their loyalty.

In short, the more your company demonstrates that you care about the individual and the team, the more that they will care about the work they produce, and the company, which is why showing appreciation in multiple ways is essential to maintaining a healthy company culture, high engagement levels and a happier workforce.