3 Ways To Appreciate Your Team

There are many ways you can appreciate your employees and I would like to share 3 of them with you.

1. Say Thank You More Often

This may seem obvious and yet many employees have shared with their employers and others they wished they would hear more thank you's more often.

Companies can feel their employees are paid for doing their  job. Saying a genuine thank you and recognizing an employee for doing their job shows your appreciation.

I have always felt I was saying thank you often enough.   Sometimes you realize you are not actually doing this. Being aware and making changes to say thank you more often makes a difference.  Today with most of the team working from home these thank you's are more important than ever.

2. Listen & Recognize Your Employees

Your employees see the business and their daily tasks differently than the way employers see them. Ask your employees what they think. Ask them what they recommend to improve and make things better.  Ask what they need and how they are doing.

Listen to them. Acknowledge their ideas and input. Employers may not always agree, however, seeing the employees' perspectives and blending it with the employer's perspective creates very positive results.

At our weekly Team discussions, we say thank you to employees for specific things accomplished from the previous week. These include recent certifications, targets reached and client experiences. We also recognize milestones with awards for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and 25 years of service.

3. Provide A Fun and Creative Environment

We spend a significant amount at our office and home offices.  Are these areas confined with and no room for any leisure activities?  Where do employees have lunch and where do they take a break?  Most spend the entire day sitting at their desk.

We introduced Lunchtime Wednesdays to play online trivia games to help create a fun environment and provide camaraderie with the team. There are many department and smaller online meetings and touch points to continue the creativeness we had in the building.

On Friday afternoons, the entire team is online to share how their week went, give kudos and share light topics to help everyone ease into the weekend.  Sharing ideas in this way helps to keep a fun and creative team together.

As long as there is balance with work, leisure and creativity, adapting to this type of environment works very well. The AlphaKORians' have  have embraced and supported this virtual environment.

What are you doing to appreciate your employees?

(Originally published on 06.03.20)