29 Oct Employee Appreciation
Recognizing Your Employees' Hard Work
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With fun activities throughout the week, special lunches, surprise visits from management, and some healthy competition, Lift Power has designed Employee Appreciation week completely around the everyday employee experience. We want it to be something everyone can enjoy, and with a diverse employee population including regular 8:00 -5:00 office personnel as well as remote service technicians, this is not always an easy task.
Here’s some tips for planning an employee appreciation experience everyone can enjoy:
Go Digital
One of the best things about modern technology is the ability to reach anyone, anywhere, at any time. Plan activities that people can join via a live feed or run trivia games that can be completed via email. This way, everyone has the opportunity to participate whether they are in the office or working remotely!
Timing is Everything
Do your employees spend a lot of time out on the road? Try scheduling activities before they head out for their daily duties! Plan lunchtime activities if most of your employees take their lunch breaks around the office. If you have a designated break period, schedule smaller games or provide fun snacks! If you’re not sure what would work best for your employees, just ask them. Even if you don’t get answers from everyone, you should be able to get a sample population to provide you with the best time of day to plan employee appreciation activities.
Get Management Buy In
If you have remote employees like us, be sure to send a supervisor or two to visit your remote employees. Take them to lunch all together to build the comradery. Thank them for their efforts and let them know they are just as valuable as the employees that management gets to see every day. Even around the office, be sure to get management buy in. When managers participate in employee appreciation activities, employees get to really see first hand that their leaders are all in and care. Employees like to feel involved with their leadership. Employee appreciation is a great opportunity to steward that.
Over Communicate
This may annoy some of your employees, but what’s even more annoying is not knowing what’s going in. Make sure everyone is aware of the happenings for employee appreciation by sending reminder emails and posting flyers about upcoming events. When the activities get kicked off, share pictures on social media or via email. If someone opted not to participate in one event, seeing pictures may encourage them to get involved in the next!
Return On Investment
Stick around longer
Take less time off
Are more focused
Are more driven and efficient
Have better professional relationships
Offer up more new ideas
The increased output of employees who feel that what they do is valued at a company far outweighs the time it takes to plan and implement a few appreciation activities.
At the end of the day, though, employee appreciation goes far beyond a single week. Employees know their work is valued by the way they are treated on a day to day basis. It’s important to step back and assess employee wellbeing at a company periodically. Are employees excited to come to work each day? Are they offering up new ideas or volunteering for tasks? How many sick days do they take on average? Does the company have a predominantly positive or negative atmosphere? Taking an in depth look at some of these questions can illuminate if it’s time to put more effort into employee appreciation.
As with most things, it starts at the top. With buy in from upper management, employee appreciation will come naturally. It doesn’t have to take a ton of time or money. Employee appreciation can be as simple as a “good job” email or a hand shake and a good morning to let your employees know you see them. Take time to eat in the break room with the ranks. Participate in company initiatives and community outreaches. Have an open-door policy. Your employees will thank you by giving you their best work and their loyalty, and the whole company and the community at large will be the better for it.
