Anyone can complete a task at work, and the result is a salary. Nevertheless, hard work and passion often come from the affirmations your employees hear from their managers or their boss. Your employees do not just crave that paycheck, they also want verbal appreciation, encouragement and recognition. Engaged employees are much more productive.
Of course, a mere ‘good job’ or ‘thank you’ should be enough; but there are countless creative ways of showing respect and support for your employees. According to many experts and business owners, here are the best ways to appreciate your employees for the hard work and time they put into your business.
1. Let Employees Reward Each Other
It’s time you put power of recognition and rewarding in the hands of your employees. Using programs and apps like YouEarnedIt, you give employees the power to give each other kudos for excellent work done. In addition, your employees probably know each other better than you do, so allowing them to reward each other with gifts from places like Wear Saga, maybe just what a certain employee wants – not everyone wants a gift card or a cash bonus.
2. Send Snail Mail To A Deserving Employee
Ok, at least you can admit it now; it does feel good whenever you find a letter in your mailbox – not your email, but your physical mailbox – with your name on it – as long as it’s not a bill! So imagine if you got an envelope and you find a letter from your boss singing your praises. It takes absolutely no time to write an appreciative short note and all it costs is a stamp to make a big statement.
3. Offer A Platform
When you let individuals know you value what they bring into your office environment by asking them to share their methods, tips or story with others, it provides them with the validation they are doing something right. This will boost their self-esteem in the process. However, this doesn’t mean you should add a training function to their already overloaded workday, but it’s a way of sharing at an organizational or team event, in a newsletter or even an award ceremony.
4. Use Memes
Catch your employee off guard by creating a personalized, funny meme about them and emailing it out to everyone else. Choose an image and include a funny message that includes the recipient’s name and congrats for all the great work they have put in and score – for example, the score achieved using time sheets and other time tracking tools. This will require a little creativity on your part, but it is free, funny and it will always make an employee happy – try it!
5. Get A Motivation Mascot!
Provide your employees with a mascot. You can purchase a silly, cheap and large object, and make it the symbol for your employee of the week! Every first day of the week, place the mascot on a different employee’s desk or door to show that they have been chosen. At first, your staff may see this practice as cheesy, but within a few weeks, they will all be anxious to know where it will be every Monday.
Perhaps, consider having a bell, which is rung every Monday when you have the employee of the week. The employee can then ring, and within no time, the rest of the team will come running to see and hear what the employee has won. It’s important you celebrate your successes as a team.
Recognizing your employees’ input shouldn’t necessarily be about monetary rewards and paid bonuses. Sometimes, these smaller, creative things are more meaningful.