4 Ways to Show Your Employees That You Care

Many employers wonder: why is employee recognition important? Today we are looking at the best ways to show employees how much your firm appreciates them. Employee recognition leads to stronger brand loyalty, higher work performance, and lower turnover. 

 

What makes people enjoy working at a company? Employees need:

• A sense of purpose that aligns with the company’s mission, values, and ethos
• A pleasant work environment and fun perks
• Fair compensation

If your company manages to obtain all these things: you are winning. You are both increasing employee retention and making recruitment a breeze. Word gets out quickly when people know that you are an excellent company to work for. 

 

But this ignites an age-old debate: what is the best way to motivate employees and show them that you care? Whether your team is working in the office or remotely, agile leaders should consider new strategies to support your workforce.

 

4 Ways to Show Your Employees That You Care

Here are five ideas about how to effectively reward your workforce:

 

Positive Feedback

Okay – this is obvious, right? But it’s an important start and one that many managers often overlook. People enjoy getting positive feedback and are often motivated by the approval of others.

 

Whether we want to admit it or not, human beings are motivated by feedback from their peers and increased social status. Positive feedback could be as simple as winning an ’employee of the month’ style contest that managers highlight in weekly emails or Zoom calls.

A Reward System

As nice as praise and positivity can be, it’s not enough for employees to feel completely appreciated. Money, perks, and rewards all speak volumes. Often, employees are much more partial to these rewards rather than praise. Employee recognition programs that have physical perks make a huge difference in building employee satisfaction. These rewards could be cash bonuses, gift cards, raffles, or other physical perks on top of this. 

 

Experiences

Not all employees are into physical perks. Many people love having real-life experiences that go beyond simple cash bonuses. This could include extra paid time off (PTO) or team events. Experiential praise could be anything from fun experiences such as boating, outdoor activities, or sports games to a team happy hour! Ask your employees what kinds of experiences they prefer. 

 

Perhaps your work environment doesn’t look the same as it used to. In this post-COVID-19 world, entire companies have decided to move their operations to being either entirely virtual or semi-distributed. Our goal should be to increase employee satisfaction while we optimize productivity for the company. 

 

Consider perks that reward performance while still maintaining social distancing. While 2020 might not be the best time to take the team to an all-inclusive spa, you could combine positive feedback with perks such as cash, Amazon gift cards, or whatever else your employees would enjoy. 

 

Virtual Rewards

Given that you are probably facing a ‘business life’ that is in-and-out of quarantine, you need ways to celebrate employees while working remotely. Remotely managing your workforce is challenging, particularly while your team is getting used to it, so here are some tips on how to celebrate their achievements even if you aren’t in the office:

 

• Giving them their choice of a subscription service. This could be anything from a meal delivery service to a prescription service to cover their healthcare needs. These are perks that can actively increase the quality of a person’s life. 
• Give them their choice of a reward using an online platform such as Netflix, Amazon, or Adobe. Let people choose their gift instead of forcing generic rewards on people. Employees feel appreciated when they can pick their destiny. 

 

Whether you’re working in the office or remotely, it’s more important than ever to celebrate your employees and their achievements. Organize something small, like a video call on their birthday, or something large scale, like a team outing. But remember to always show your appreciation to foster a healthy workplace. 

 

Do you have questions about your organization’s operations during this unprecedented time? We’re here to help!