There are many companies that do not practise employee appreciation, and this can be demoralising for their staff.
After all, it’s only human nature to want to receive a compliment when you think you’ve done a good job. Nowadays, most people want to know that their employers appreciate and recognise the work they are doing.
So, it’s important you show employee appreciation if you want your staff to continually do their best work and stick with your company. If you don’t, they may be tempted to start looking for other opportunities.
The problem with most managers, business owners, or supervisors is that they may not know the best way to show appreciation for the work being done by their subordinates.
So, in this article, we are going to look at some creative methods for employee recognition and how you can implement them.
Go above and beyond to support their career development
You can show that you value your employees by supporting them in reaching their goals and dreams. One very effective way you can do this is by supporting your staff’s career development.
For instance, you could provide your own training programmes to help employees learn about specific tasks or job processes so they’ll be able to do their work better. You could also support your staff’s career development by giving them the time and money to go back to school or by hosting training days so staff can progress in their jobs.
Supporting the education of your employees is a very good way of showing employee appreciation because it lets them know that you care about their educational development. It’s also a benefit for you because they’ll be able to transfer what they’ve learned to the tasks they perform at work.
For example, let’s take a look at how well HubSpot supports the career development of its employees.
HubSpot is a company that provides a marketing and sales platform for businesses. If you look through their careers page, you’ll see just how well they support their staff. One of the benefits they offer is the equivalent of $5000 a year for employees to spend on education. And this could be anything from workshops to online classes or even university programmes.
And that’s not all. The company also gives more learning opportunities to employees via their Learn@HubSpot online platform, FreeBooks programme, HubTalks, and more. With all of these perks, they’ve made it very evident that they care about the career advancement of their staff.
It’s a great example of how to show employee appreciation, and you could use this as a guide to do something similar for your business.
Make it clear that your HR department is there for them
A lot of businesses don’t have effective human resources (HR) departments because, instead of looking out for employees’ best interests, they put the company first. So, one way you can show employee appreciation and keep a happy workforce is by making it very clear that your HR department is there for them. You need to make it clear to your staff that they can go to HR for any reason at all, be it emotional or professional support.
Your human resources department is important because they’re there to listen to employee issues or complaints, take them seriously, and try to resolve them in a way that is good for your workers. This is why it’s important for you to hire qualified HR professionals, and provide robust training to ensure they’re effective.
When hiring people for your HR team, here are some qualities to look out for:
Communication skills
Knowing how to communicate with people is a very important criterion that you should look out for when trying to hire an HR professional. You need to hire someone that knows how to relate to others and encourage employees to feel comfortable enough to discuss whatever is bothering them in the workplace.
Understanding and compassion
There are certain aspects of an HR personnel’s job that require them to apply more understanding and compassion than they normally would. So, it’s important for you to hire people who not only have the educational qualifications but also possess the ability to handle certain situations with the right level of understanding.
Patience
Not every employee is the same. Some people are going to have more concerns than others and you need to keep that in mind when hiring people for your human resources department. You’ll also need to keep in mind that some things are going to go wrong, so you need people who are patient enough to deal with difficult situations or troublesome employees.
Confidentiality
The people in your HR department are going to have access to a lot of confidential information about different employees. This means you need to place emphasis on hiring people who will understand the importance of the sensitive and confidential employee data they will have access to.
Fairness
People on your HR team should not show favouritism towards specific employees. Your employees need to know that the human resources department is there for each and every one of them, regardless of their race, gender, age, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation. So, make sure you’re hiring non-judgemental workers that will treat each employee equally.
Multi-tasking skills
The job of someone in the human resources department isn’t always the easiest. Most times, they wear various hats that involve handling employee data, resolving team conflicts, approving leave requests, or hiring new personnel. So, you’ll want to keep an eye out for people who have shown experience in multi-tasking without sacrificing the quality of their work.
Conflict resolution
There is always the possibility of being tension in the workplace between employees. This is why you need to plan ahead for this by hiring people who have the ability to resolve conflicts in a way that doesn’t leave any party dissatisfied.
These are just some of the qualities that you should try to keep in mind when hiring people for your human resources team.
Image: Pexels
Send personalised gifts for special occasions
Many businesses will send generic gifts to employees for birthdays and Christmas celebrations, but something more personalised will make your staff feel more treasured. And it tells them that you’re always happy to take the time to really learn about your workers and what they’re interested in.
You can also make a customised employee birthday flyer and share it on social media to wish them a happy birthday and give them a useful gift in the office so employees feel more attached to the company.
It’s also one of the surprising tactics you can use to boost employee morale and engagement at your company. To know what kinds of gifts to get your employees and on what days, you can have HR send out a survey to ask people questions about their favourite snacks or drinks, wedding anniversary dates, pet birthdays, or other special dates you think will be relevant to your employees.
Make your employees’ lives easier with high-quality tools
Another creative way you can show employee appreciation and care about their happiness is by trying to make their working lives easier. And you can do this by providing all of the tools and resources they need.
These could include bulk scheduling tools for social media so they can post quickly and easily. There are many social media analytics and SaaS reporting tools that you can use to schedule, track, and monitor content on social media platforms. Some examples are SocialPilot, Hootsuite, or HubSpot.
You could also provide templates that make it easier for your workers to do the same task time and time again. For instance, if your marketing team constantly churns out blog posts for your audience, it could be worth downloading useful SEO templates they can use to do keyword research or create content briefs for the posts they will write.
Lastly, make sure you’re buying high-quality office equipment, like fast-running computers that help employees complete everything quickly. This will also show that you truly appreciate the work they are doing and can help in increasing employee productivity.
Trust them with flexible working policies
Now, more than ever, employees are interested in working flexibly, whether that’s by working different hours or in a different location other than the office. So, providing and encouraging flexibility in the workplace can show your workers that you trust and appreciate them. It can also improve your employees’ wellbeing, and increase your staff retention rate.
This means you should work with your human resources department to figure out the best flexible working schemes for your staff and ensure that they use them responsibly. For instance, if you’re going to implement remote working, you could decide to have a general timezone and working hours for all employees, or you could allow people to choose the hours that work best for them.
However, if you go with the latter, it could help your company to have a public worksheet that displays the working hours of all employees and their respective time zones. This helps people to know the time they can contact each employee for work-related activities and could help improve the work-life balance of your staff members.
In Summary
It’s important to remember that your employees are people just like you, and they deserve to be appreciated for the hard work they’re putting into making your business grow. In this article, we looked at five ways you can show employee appreciation. Here are some of the things we covered:
- Go above and beyond to support their career development
- Make it clear that the HR department is available for them
- Send personalised gifts for special occasions
- Make your employees’ lives easier with high-quality tools
- Trust them with flexible working policies
And, if you want additional tips, you can follow 6Q’s blog for more techniques on how to create a more positive company culture.
About the Author
Aaron Haynes is the CEO of Loganix, an SEO fulfilment partner that supports marketing agencies and professionals. The company specialises in helping businesses to improve their online visibility and ultimately make more sales. The Loganix blog has a lot more information and advice, so make sure you check it out if you found this article helpful.
