The 5 Best Ways to Appreciate Your Employees

Everyone loves to feel appreciated and recognized, especially your employees. Showing appreciation and recognition has become an important part of workplace culture.

If you let people know you appreciate and recognize their efforts, they will feel more energized and motivated. As well, when feeling appreciated, people will strive harder and do better at their job.

The feeling of being appreciated at work is satisfying and uplifting, improving your morale and fosterin a collaborative and innovative environment.

If you wish to create such an environment in your company, here are some of the best ways to show your employees how much you appreciate them.

1. Encourage growth and development

It’s your responsibility as a good employer to provide your staff with professional growth and development opportunities. The whole point of employee development is to build a talent pool that supports your company’s mission. And that can only be done by motivating and encouraging employees, creating both long and short-term goals, being accessible to all employees, and so on.

Just a couple of work seminars don’t count as employee development, you need to create a program that focuses merely on employee growth and development.

By having these kinds of opportunities, your employees will feel motivated, empowered, and more equipped to do their job. Not to mention that this way, you will also gain loyal employees and a strong employee-employer relationship.

2. Create a trusting environment

If you want to get your employees’ trust, you’ll need to do something more yourself and that implies being on their side, being consistent, and even silent when need be. Being a leader means having the ability to inspire and motivate. When you achieve this, your employees will trust you to lead them.

You know how trust goes both ways, well you’ll also need to show them that you trust them. Trusting your employees means giving them the opportunity to do their work, supporting them, being transparent with them, sharing your ideas and letting them share theirs, and even implementing said ideas.

Creating a trusting environment takes time, so patience is another thing you’ll need to learn. Once you create this kind of workplace environment, that trust you give your employees will be in a way your appreciation as well.

3. Say thank you in different ways

Appreciation and validation can be shown in many different ways, but none of them is as powerful as saying thank you. When an employee completes a job and you take the time to thank them -this is when they thrive knowing their contributions have meaning.

The best thing about saying thank you is that it can be done in tons of different ways. For example, you can thank them by giving them free lunches, giving them special parking places, sending them cards or thank you gift baskets, creating an employee wall of fame, and many different ways.

Being creative with ways to say thank you makes you a cool employer. You don’t have to give expensive gifts to make your employees feel appreciated, all you have to do is say thank you often and in different ways!

4. Listen to your employees

Nothing makes us feel more appreciated and valued than being heard by our employers. Employers who take the time to listen to you and who allow you to share your views and opinions are the employers who care about their staff.

If you aim to be that kind of employer and to make your employees feel valued and appreciated, you need to make time for employee feedback. Not only is it the best way to quickly resolve all kinds of problems, but it’s also a way to gain your employee’s trust.

To be a good listener you need to really listen to them without any distractions and interruptions, you need to ask relevant questions and offer well-thought-out solutions.

5. Utilize social media to appreciate employees

Living in a world where social media platforms are one of the unavoidable means of communication means also having the chance to praise and recognize your employees there, too.

Share on your organization’s social media how much you appreciate your employees and how much you genuinely value them. This is a great way to boost employee morale and it’s also a cost-effective way to build an employer brand.

Recognized employees will share their achievements on their social media and will become brand ambassadors who represent your company. Before sharing appreciation online, make sure your employees are comfortable with such a thing.

There really are many different ways to show your employees how much you value and appreciate them. If you honestly want to create a company where employees are loyal, dedicated, and ready to work hard, you need to be the kind of employer who appreciates their employees and who isn’t afraid to show that appreciation.

Build a company where everyone feels valued, appreciated, and recognized and you won’t have to worry about anything!

About Author

Jasmine Anderson is a Sydney-based lifestyle blogger and a toddler mom. She loves to spend quality time with her family, go thrifting, and spend just a little bit too much time on the internet. You can also find out more about Jasmine on Twitter.