Employees make a significant contribution to your business growth. However, often, they work silently in the background and go unnoticed. But not appreciating their effort and work is a big mistake because it can cause dissatisfaction, dissent, and even a job change. Some business owners may think that a pat on the back, a gift card, or other symbolic tokens of gratitude is enough to appreciate their employees, but it isn’t. You need to do more than these to keep your employees happy and show how sincere you are in appreciating what they’re doing for your organization. 

Putting on your creative hat and finding some innovative ways to appreciate your employees can bring you rich rewards in the long run. Not sure how to do it? We share seven employee appreciation tips below, which will show you how to do it right.

  1. The gift of food: Good food is something that unites everyone. You can dig into your petty cash and organize a tasty and healthy treat for your employees as a token of appreciation. For example, if your employees have an insatiable sweet tooth or are health nuts, you can put together some of their favorite treats in a snack pack or food pack as a delectable and simple employee appreciation gift.

  2. Leverage corporate gamification: Corporate gamification of appreciation is another fun way to show how much you appreciate the work of your employees. Even though it may appear difficult, it’s not. For example, you can ask your employees to claim a task from a task pool. For every task they complete, the employees will get reward points, which they can redeem through a corporate rewards portal. Such a portal can offer various options for redeeming these reward points, starting from work-from-home days, vacations, a subsidized ticket to a professional workshop, and access to a discounted course to scholarships for continuing education.

  3. Encourage fitness: A fit workforce will take lesser leave days and be energized to work hard, thus boosting your organization’s overall productivity. To show your appreciation, you can offer your employees a fitness incentive. Offering a workout pass to your company gym or free gym membership at a partner outlet could help your employees adopt healthy habits, which will improve their overall wellness and let them make better contributions at work. You’ll just need a few early adopters to set the fitness ball rolling.

  4. Go social: Since humans are social beings, they love being appreciated in public. You can use your company’s social media accounts to recognize your employees on their special days, such as on work anniversaries, special achievements, birthdays, etc. You can even share some good or significant news, like highlighting how an employee has contributed to your company or brought a tough project to completion on time. You may even share fun facts about them that their current colleagues may not know. Writing a glowing LinkedIn recommendation for your star employee is another good way to show your appreciation.

  5. Arrange a surprise party: Such a party is an excellent way to appreciate the deserving employees and motivate them to do better while creating positive memories. Whether your team has sealed a major deal, appeased a difficult client, or had a seamless product line launch, a surprise party can show the team members how much you appreciate their contributions. Celebrating their big and small wins with a surprise party and sudden acknowledgement will make them feel proud and happy for sure.

  6. Give them some time off: When deadlines call or work for piles up, your employees often put in extra effort and sacrifice their sleep, rest, or personal time to get the job done on time. To appreciate these loyal overachievers, you can give them some time off to relax and have fun. For instance, you may reward them with a rest day to spend quality time with family, offer them a discounted spa session at a partner outlet, give tickets to their favourite movie star’s film, or offer free meal vouchers at their preferred restaurant.

  7. Set an employee recognition program: Recognising and appreciating your employees’ work shouldn’t be a one-off thing. Instead, it should be a regular affair to keep your workforce motivated and focused. You can set up a formal program to recognise and appreciate your employees’ contributions throughout the year. You may even encourage employees to suggest meaningful staff appreciation ideas. Encouraging employees and managers to appreciate their co-workers is another vital step. You can establish easy ways for employees and managers to send employee appreciation messages. For instance, you could employ a technology platform to set up a system for sending short messages, kudos, emojis, etc., easily.

Go ahead and use these ideas to appreciate your employees, which will certainly boost employee productivity, engagement, morale, and retention.

How do you show appreciation to your employees? Have you ever invested a portion of your time and focus thinking about how to show your team you truly appreciate them?
Share your comments below.

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