Simple and Effortless Ways to Appreciate Your Employees

Providing regular training is a very effective and simple yet effortless ways to appreciate your employees.

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Most business owners, human resources and administration managers rarely bother about a very vital element of employer-employee relationship. And that’s employee appreciation. Fortunately, an increasing number of employers are now realizing the importance of appreciating employees.

And for good reasons, too.

Reasons to Appreciate Your Employees

Here’re three valid and strong reasons why you should appreciate your employees, regardless whether you own the business or are an HR or Admin manager.

Prevent Employee Attrition

Research amply proves that over 66 percent of employees are likely to quit their jobs unless there’s proper appreciation from the employer. High staff attrition rates play havoc with even the best HR policies that don’t include employee appreciation. 

Imminent Hiring Costs

Your business definitely incurs very high hiring costs, depending upon the industry it serves. You can lower or even wipe out these expenses by ensuring low attrition rates. Unless an employee feels appreciated, they’ll leave the job and look for better places to work.

Cost of Wrong Hire

Wrong hires are another major expense that certain companies incur. A bad hiring decision costs lot more than money to an employer. The best way to prevent a wrong hire is to appreciate existing employees and ensure they perform better. Appreciation also helps curb the above two problems. When you are hiring specifically mention that you will be providing training to selected employees. This will help find the right candidate and avoid the cost of wrong hiring.

Hence, the question arises, what are the top, simple and yet effortless ways to appreciate employees? Here are a few solutions.

Simple, Effortless Ways to Appreciate Employees

Most business owners wrongly believe that employee appreciation is all about doling some extra money to an excellent performer. I won’t dispute the fact that extra cash in the form of increments and incentives does work in some ways as an employee appreciation resource. But not always. 

Therefore, consider these simple and effortless ways to appreciate your employees.

Train Your Employees

Providing regular training is a very effective and simple yet effortless ways to appreciate your employees. It also enhances their existing skills leading to greater productivity that eventually translates as higher profits.

There’re several ways to train employees. A senior, highly experienced and skilled member of your workforce can conduct such training. Or you can outsource it from any leading provider in your industry. There’re also e-learning portals that offer specialized courses for specific professions.

Training employees means you’re investing on their future. This doesn’t allow their skills to go redundant. It also implies that you trust the employees and are appreciating their efforts. Understandably, training doesn’t come free or even cheap. Yet, it’s a worthwhile investment.

Club & Gym Memberships

Offer your employees a complimentary club or gym membership for excellent performance. Corporate memberships that allow a specific number of employees to use a club or gym come at a very reasonable cost. And a club of gym membership truly makes your employee feel special.

Here I would suggest you offer family membership for such employees. This helps them make the most of the incentive you’re offering. Generally, employees with families love to visit clubs and gyms with spouse and kids. It makes them feel better appreciated by the employer.

Additionally, the opportunity to get a complimentary club or gym membership also serves as an incentive to perform well. However, it’s important to provide the same club or gym benefits to all employees, regardless of their position or role at the organization. 

Use Your Social Media Accounts

Nowadays most businesses small and large have some presence on the social media. The most common social media platform, as everyone knows, is Facebook. Then we also have Instagram and Twitter. I’ll also count LinkedIn as a social media platform, though it serves an altogether different purpose.

Post a picture, a few words of appreciation and any other details about your employee on the Facebook page of your business. This works wonders. The employee you appreciate would definitely share that post on their own Facebook account. You can also Tweet a picture and achievement of some top performers through Twitter.

And if your business has a LinkedIn page, create a post about your employees that merit appreciation. When an employer posts an appreciation about a staffer on LinkedIn, it works wonders for their morale and boosts their popularity in the industry.

Delegate Employees to Attend Important Events

There’re lots of events including expos and seminars that are held within and outside the country. Attending them is very prestigious. Employees also get opportunities to network with their peers and increase their social and professional circle. And above all, it gives them that welcome break from routine. 

Obviously, there’re participant fees for all these events and costs on employee accommodation and other expenses. However, delegating your employees to attend such exhibitions, seminars, conferences and other industry events is an excellent yet effortless way to show appreciation. In fact, such employees can also train their counterparts at your business and provide vital insights about the industry that can help your company to grow.

Cash Incentives

Yes, cash incentives do matter a lot but are the most common way of appreciating an employee. It’s just a one-off appreciation. Often, high performers get all the cash incentives while others lag. This can lead to attrition. The same holds true for target-based incentives. While I’m not against cash incentives, there’re certain other ways to offer them.

You can create an employee welfare fund or corpus fund and deposit some cash. This can be given to employees facing any unforeseen financial distress as an assistance from the employer. Alternatively, you can provide as birthday or wedding anniversary gift to the employee. In such cases, ensure that everyone gets the same amount of money, regardless of their seniority and position. After all, it’s a gift and has nothing to do with work performance.

Conclusion

The above ways to appreciate your employees are simple and effortless but not without a small cost. However, such investment on employees definitely pays rich dividends in future. Your organization would definitely benefit a lot by appreciating employees in any of these five ways.