Who doesn’t like appreciation? Be it a family member, your friend, office colleague or an employee. Everyone likes to be appreciated. They like to be noticed and value, both in private and professional life. Appreciation at the workplace is an important aspect. It improves productivity. When employees know their hard work is appreciated and recognized, they feel that their work is valued. And this motivates them to maintain and improve their great performance which helps in job Satisfaction and happiness at the workplace. It can also help to create a strong bond between the employee and employer which ultimately leads to employee retention in the organization. Therefore, a happy and satisfied employee remains in the organization for a lengthy period of time. Appreciation also works the other way around since it also helps the other employees to get motivated and do better. Certain ways in which we can show appreciation at workplace are-
Star performer of the month
Appreciating your employees doesn’t take much effort. However, you still need a well-written message to make them feel good about their work. We can make use of the term “Star Performer of the month” highlighting the employees’ performance on the office board with his/her picture and few words of appreciation.
Go Social
Show you appreciate your staff by extending it beyond just in-house recognition. Make use of social media platforms to appreciate the employee by uploading his/her picture along with the incredible work they’ve done. Also, you can post it on your company website.
Staff Appreciation Holiday
Giving a Staff appreciation holiday will work wonders. Who said we just have to stick to the holidays which are already on the calendar? Why not create a surprise holiday of our own? This would really help a lot.
Financial Rewards
Employees are definitely motivated by financial rewards. A well-paid employee stays longer and also feels valued. Offer rewards in cash, some gift cards a bonus maybe.
Celebrate Birthdays
Celebrating the birthday of your staff members is a great idea. You can cater a meal or also bring a cake so that everyone can take part. Also, since birthdays are for gifts, you can also plan to gift something to the person. You can also give a day off or a half day.
Half days and more breaks for employees
Sometimes employees just need a small break or day off. Therefore, giving half day or even all Saturday Sunday’s off will definitely help to have a massive impact on company culture and appreciation.
Create Videos to show Appreciation
You can also create a video to show appreciation for his/her work. Videos definitely make a delightful gift. You can ask all the employees to make a short video congratulating and speaking a few words of appreciation for the person and at the end compile the video into one and send it.
Offer Work from home opportunity
Working from home eliminates the need for a commute to work that can be stressful to your employees. Time savings such as this also enables staff to get extra health benefits such as additional sleep, spending more time with family exercising and so on. In a week we can dedicate one day to work from home. Maybe call it “Work from home Wednesdays”. Every Wednesday is a work from home day.
Plan a team retreat
Appreciate your entire organization with an annual team retreat. A regular full-team retreat will make each and every employee feel like a valued member of your organization. Also, it can be a team building event as well.
A Trophy
You can make use of a fun trophy or a soft toy which you can pass around in the office. You can give it to an employee who has performed well who has exemplified one of your organizational values and let them keep it on their desk for a week. Also be sure that the peers know why they received it. During the next team meeting or the following month, let that employee follow a similar procedure and hand it off to the next person who deserves the award. This is a great way to build a culture of recognition by keeping it top of mind for everyone in the organization.
Therefore, appreciation makes a big difference and it seems to be fruitful for organizational development. Knowing you’re doing a great job is one thing. Hearing others say it out loud adds a different meaning.
