Showing appreciation for your employees is a nice thing to do. Of course, you’re running a business, so “nice” isn’t necessarily a prime motivator for most activities. But there are also plenty of essential business reasons to show appreciation as well.
Your ability to show your employees that you value their contribution has potential bottom-line impacts. It helps develop your corporate culture, and it provides numerous measurable financial benefits as well. For instance, it allows you to lower turnover and increase productivity. Showing appreciation also burnishes your employer brand and cements relationships with your workers.
But what’s the best way to get these benefits? How do you effectively show appreciation, without busting your budget? Here are five steps you can take to express how much you value your employees:
Create an Incentive Program
Compensation lies at the heart of your relationship with your employees. They work, you pay. Any appreciation has to start on that front since it’s the basic building block of worker/management interaction.
For that reason, an incentive program becomes a useful tool in expressing appreciation. It may not seem like the most heartfelt way to show you value an employee, but financial rewards will provide a measurable benefit for your best workers. These systems have the bonus of encouraging strong performance, helping to boost productivity in the process.
Offer Additional Vacation Days
Not all appreciation has to take the form of cash. Relying too heavily on monetary compensation can lead down a dangerous road, turning all your communications with your employees into financial discussions. Finding other ways to motivate your staff gives you more flexibility and additional levers to pull. And, of course, having other options besides cash makes it easier to maintain a reasonable budget.
So, what other things would your employee’s value? Vacation days, for one thing. By rewarding good performance with some extra days off, you show you care, and you allow your best employees a chance to refresh and recharge. It helps you avoid burnout and maintain long-term productivity.
Praise Them Publicly
Everyone has an ego. When they do a good job, people like to strut a little, shine a little in public. For the right employee, this fact provides an excellent way to recognize strong performance.
When someone does a good job, take a moment to praise them publicly. Announce the office, underlining their strong showing.
Or take the process beyond the confines of the office by recognizing them on social media. This way, you don’t just praise good performance in front of coworkers, you make your appreciation visible to the world. This has the added benefit of boosting your employer brand.
Throw a Party
Appreciation doesn’t only happen on an individual level. You also want to express your general feeling of esteem for your workers as a group. You can do this by celebrating their accomplishments collectively. In other words, you can throw a party.
This doesn’t have to be a fancy affair (though those are nice too). Even a small get together in the break room provides an opportunity to show your appreciation. Or take everyone out for an occasional happy hour to show how much you value their hard work.
Everyday Respect
Companies often make the mistake of turning appreciation into an occasional reward. However, it should represent an everyday occurrence.
Make showing appreciation part of your corporate culture to treat employees with respect on a day-to-day basis. Keep communications, constructive, and professional. At the same time, elicit feedback from your employees. By building a strong back-and-forth, you create a general atmosphere of appreciation that your team can feel continuously.
Connect with Qualified Staffing for Your Staffing Needs
Of course, it gets easier to show appreciation when you have a fantastic team in place. Working with a strong recruiting firm, like Qualified Staffing, lets you find the kind of workers who earn your respect and admiration on an everyday basis.
Contact Qualified Staffing today to learn how they can upgrade your team today.