How To Show Gratitude To Your Employees

If you have an amazing team at work, you need to practice gratitude.

Thankfulness is an important tradition that has to be adopted and cultivated by all workplaces. Appreciation not only drives a receiver’s satisfaction, but also provides its giver with happiness. It boosts one’s morale, increases productivity and improves relationships – definitely a win-win situation for employees and the management.

Doing regular acts of appreciation also creates a ripple effect amongst employees. If your company promotes a culture of appreciation, everyone will be perpetually grateful for even the littlest of things.

YOU CAN ALWAYS START WITH THE BASICS

Thank you. These are two words that you can type in a matter of seconds, but could make a long-lasting impact. Don’t use it sparingly.

A colleague gave you a solid? Send them an email and say thank you. Someone from the team submitted a crucial work on time? Leave a thank you note on their desk. A utility person helped fix the coffee machine? Personally thank them.

However, there is more to gratitude than a simple thank you – it can also be done in various creative ways.

GIFTS

Rewarding your employees for good work is also a great way to show your appreciation. Material gifts, food and gift certificates, concert and movie tickets and cash cards are great examples. Monetary bonuses and salary raise are also good examples, but these are more long-term, performance-based rewards.

TREATS

Compared to gifts, these are smaller prizes that can be shared by an entire team. One common example of this is food. You can treat your entire team for a fancy lunch or dinner, buy them coffee or have food delivered for employees to share. If your workplace allows, you can also set up a drinking night, where everyone can (responsibly!) drink wine or beer and have fun.

HONOR AND RECOGNITION

There are also employees who’d rather get a positive attention as a reward. This includes public praise during team meetings, getting mentioned in the bulletin board or company newsletter, receiving plaques or certificates, among others.

You can start by knowing which among these acts of appreciation are valued by your employees the most. You can mix them up or do all, depending on the circumstance. Expressing your gratitude to the entire team shouldn’t be just a Christmas or Thanksgiving tradition; it has to be done year-round. Big or small, as long as it’s genuine, it will definitely leave a mark on your team.