Employee Appreciation Ideas You Can Use Now
Your business or department is only as good as your team’s performance. You can’t do everything yourself. Therefore it’s in your best interest to coach your team and set them up for success. When they succeed, you succeed.
To improve success rates, you need to improve work performance and productivity. To improve productivity and performance, improve attitude. To improve attitude, showing appreciation can help.
To show you’re appreciation, you can take steps when opportunities surface. You can also create scheduled appreciation-related activities.
It’s a good idea to have a written plan of your appreciation standards to make sure you don’t forget about anyone. It wouldn’t look good if, for example, you gave out a gift card for someone that reached a milestone and missed doing it for another employee. When your procedures are documented, you simply go by the book, and everyone on your team is treated equally.
Another important point to consider is to be authentic. You don’t want to use these ideas just to boost productivity. When you care about the people that work for you, your business/company becomes a family, and your work life becomes more than just work. With this approach, you are providing products and services for your customers and contributing to your employees’ well-being.
You’ll also want to note that the ideas below may take a piece out of your operating cost. Still, they are legitimate tax deductions. Consult with your accountant to make sure you’ll taking the correct steps to get the deductions.
Let’s have a look at the employee appreciation ideas below.
Company Newsletter:
Have a weekly, daily, or monthly newsletter that focuses on achievement and people’s contribution. Recognize all acts that deserve recognition. At times when there is no one to acknowledge, you can focus on team efforts and accomplishments. When no recognition opportunities are available, you can include activities for team improvement.
The key to making a newsletter successful is to set standards and make sure you publish regularly. With the above ideas, you’ll always have content to focus on.
More Accomplishment Recognition:
You can acknowledge team members’ accomplishments as mentioned above in a newsletter, on a bulletin board, in a meeting, or in an email. Defining your recognition standards will help you stay on track, so you don’t miss anyone and treat everyone similarly.
Thanking Employees:
Saying thank you to someone is a simple way to show your appreciation. Other than thanks, when someone hands you something, take some time to thank the person for what they did, explain why you’re acknowledging their efforts.
For example:
John, I just wanted to thank you for staying behind an extra 20 minutes yesterday to make sure our shipment went out on time. I appreciate it. Because you took the extra time to ship out the product, our customer has their shipment when expected. Keep up the good work.
Treat Your Employees With Respect:
When you treat your employees with respect at all times, you are showing appreciation for their efforts even though nothing is said. Your actions are verifying your appreciation.
Even when disciplinary action is needed, you can still do it with respect. For example, you can explain the error, explain the error’s effects, and offer ways to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future. Using this approach, you have dealt with the situation while respecting your employee.
An Employee of The Month Program:
An employee of the month program can boost morale and productivity. With these types of programs, it’s important to set your standards and avoid showing favoritism. Base your selection upon criteria and let your team be aware of the standards.
Start a Suggestion Program:
A suggestion program takes work and planning. It’s no use having one if you’re not going to follow up. When you get a suggestion and don’t follow up, it sends a message that you don’t care. When you follow up with each suggestion, then you send a message that we are listening.
Allow Flexible Schedules:
If applicable, you can set up flexible work schedules. Allowing people to work hours where they are more productive may be to your advantage. Naturally, flexible work hours can’t be applied to every workplace. Still, if your workplace can run that way, it’s a win-win for everyone as long as they put the time in and complete all their work.
Another point to keep in mind is flexible work hours are a great way to improve employee retention.
Employee Points Programs:
Create a points program that employees can use to attain anything like company-branded merchandise, gift cards, paid time off, going home early, etc.
What you need to consider for this type of program is having a system where the points are valuable and attainable. If you give them five points for spending a few hours on a task and it takes 50 points for a company t-shirt, your program won’t work, and it doesn’t send a message that your program is to benefit employees.
Put Your Staff on Your Website:
You can include everyone on your company website, offering their photo and a quick bio. Let your employees know they have their information on the company’s website. They will feel part of the team, and this boosts their self-esteem. It also gives them a chance to opt-out if they want.
Gift Cards:
Presenting employees with a gift card is a good way to thank them and allow them to spend a little something on themselves. As with other points mentioned earlier, you’ll need to set a standard for receiving a gift card. A thank you note or a verbal thank you when recognizing the employee goes a long way. I would detail the act to promote this type of behavior throughout the company.
For example:
Tina, you did a really good thing the other day when you noticed the stairwell had a water leak. You blocked it off with caution tape and emailed maintenance. You then followed up until the issue was resolved. We appreciate your dedication to ensuring the safety of your team members. Here’s a token of our appreciation.
Treat of The Week:
You can bring in something once a week for your staff to enjoy during breaks. You’ll want to make sure there is enough for everyone. Ensure the ingredients in the food are labeled in case someone has allergies. You may want to bring a variety so that the treats appeal to most of your staff. You could bring cakes, cookies, pies, baked goods, coffee, tea, etc., the ideas are endless. You could also take surveys to find out what people want, allowing you to bring in desirable items.
Employee Appreciation Gift Bags:
Appreciation gift bags are something you can come up with to show your team your appreciation for their work. Gift bags give you a lot of room for creativity; you can make them simple with company products or higher-end gifts if you like. You can pass out gift bags monthly, quarterly, yearly, or on special occasions.
Desk/Work Upgrades:
You can give your employees a budget to upgrade the tools they need at work. It may be a keyboard, monitor headsets, and other items they can use for their job. This allows your employees to feel they can use tools that a personalized to their taste.
Company Activities:
Company activities are a good way to show appreciation. Activities allow the team to participate in exercises that could be fun and allow people to get to know one another outside work.
Such activities could be going bowling, having a karaoke night, going to a sports event, holding a barbeque, getting a food truck, etc. It may be a good idea to hold a vote for the event or offer choices.
For example:
A night out at the movies could include three movies to choose from. That way, everyone has a choice as to which movie they want to see, and after the movie, the team could go out for a quick bite to eat.
Staff Lunches:
You can have staff lunches either bring food in or if it makes sense to take the team out. Allow the team to be themselves and not worry about work; it’s a time to enjoy themselves and get to know co-workers.
Career-Based Rewards:
Career-based rewards can be training courses that can help employees better themselves and improve their careers. This could be a win-win situation because your company benefits when your employees improve their skills. The training may include weekend trips to the location, online courses, etc.
There are many more ideas you can come up with and customize them to your business and staff. In addition to the above ideas in the resources sections below, you’ll find a collection of articles I found and feel are worth sharing with you. Have a look for more ideas.
A Selection of Pages Related to Employee Appreciation Ideas
35 Simple & Affordable Employee Appreciation Ideas
33 Thoughtful Employee Recognition & Appreciation Ideas for 2018
Employee Recognition Gifts
Below, you’ll find a collection of web pages that offer employee gifts. Each has a unique collection to look at. Surely, you’ll be able to find something that appeals to you and allows you to show your appreciation to your employees.
Take your time to browse the pages below for the best gift ideas.
Employee recognition gifts and custom awards | Baudville.com – Baudville
Award-Worthy Employee Recognition Gifts at Discount Bulk Prices
Employee Appreciation Event Ideas
Creating an event is a great way to show your employees your appreciation for their hard work.
The pages below offer a lot of ideas you can use to create an event, your employees will remember. Getting ideas from these pages may get the creativity flowing.
I would recommend that you keep the event about your employees and not about the company. This event is all about them, let’s keep it that way. Even though you can talk about work, make it their event.
5 Ways To Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day
35 Simple & Affordable Employee Appreciation Ideas
11 Creative Ways to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day
Small Things You Can Do to Show Employee Appreciation
Maybe you don’t want to create an employee appreciation event or want to purchase gifts to show your appreciation. Instead, you can do a lot of small things to show your employees that you appreciate them.
In the articles to follow, you’ll find hundreds of ideas that are small and easy to implement.
Have a look and see what sparks your interest.
The good thing about small appreciation ideas is that you don’t have to wait for every quarter to show your appreciation. You can implement ideas weekly or monthly and keep the appreciation showing year-round.
16 Clever Ways to Show Employee Appreciation
Top 10 Ways to Show Your Appreciation to Employees
Resources
Below, you’ll find various resources related to employee appreciation, such as books, news, videos, courses, and more. Have a look at what these resources have to offer.
Books
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News
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