How to make employees feel valued. 15 tips

Enhancing Employee Value: Tips for Employers

It’s pretty simple: employees who know their contributions are valued are happier and more motivated than those who feel ignored by management. A company culture where employees feel like they’re needed helps build team spirit and collaboration between departments. A positive work atmosphere makes the whole organization more efficient. Read this article to find out how to get that bonus from team gratitude.

• Valuing Employees in the Workplace (and Why it Matters)
• A culture of respect
• 15 Ways to Ensure All Your Employees Feel Valued and Appreciated at Work

Valuing Employees in the Workplace (and Why it Matters)

It’s clear that recognizing employees has a big impact on the key parts of a healthy organizational culture. Research by O.C. Tanner shows that recognition at work helps to boost employee engagement, boost productivity, and strengthen the company culture.

The opposite is true, though. When the boss doesn’t give the praise that’s deserved, it cuts the likelihood of employee engagement in the work process in half—that is, it drops to 42%. On the other hand, if you have a culture of respect and recognition in the workplace, you’re 18 times more likely to achieve excellent results.

As research shows, participants who aren’t deprived of recognition see significant improvements in many areas.

• They feel 2.3 times more connected,
• Leaders are seen as more effective 2.4 times,
• Overall employee happiness goes up twice,
• The number of new opportunities goes up 2.1 times,
• The success of innovations goes up 5.3 times.

If you praise and recognize your employees regularly, you’ll find they stay with you for about 3.5 years longer. They’ll be more loyal to you and your company. All of this leads to better company performance.

Unfortunately, recognition programs don’t always produce the desired results. A useless gift, lack of proper praise, and lack of personal attention can make anyone feel undervalued. This can happen either by mistake or on purpose. Sometimes it’s the employer’s fault for trying to make the employee feel less valuable to increase profits.

If a company wants to stay afloat and achieve new successes, it needs to establish a culture of respect and develop effective recognition programs.

A culture of respect

It’s not uncommon for employees to feel undervalued because of the company hierarchy. Ideally, all employees, no matter what their role, should understand how they contribute to the company and feel like their knowledge and skills are needed for the company to succeed.

Questions to Consider

Here are some questions to think about:

— Do all employees think they can help shape the company’s future?

— Do back-office employees have the same opportunity to share ideas as those on the “front line”?

— Does the sense of being indispensable depend on the employee’s position?

Listen to Your Employees

If your employees don’t feel like they belong, they might:

— Everyone wants to be treated equally and fairly,

— Everyone wants to be heard,

— Everyone wants to participate in events that are currently only available to a certain group of people,

— Everyone wants to get new opportunities that are on par with everyone else.

If employees feel valued, they’re more likely to put in the extra effort to help the company grow and come up with new ideas. Happy employees say they feel like they can trust management, that their opinions are valued, that feedback is useful, and that they feel cared for, generous, and like they’re doing their best for everyone’s benefit.

15 Ways to Ensure All Your Employees Feel Valued and Appreciated at Work

1. Get Employees from Different Parts of the Company on the Same Page

Not knowing what others do can make you feel detached from colleagues, especially when the company is growing. It’s good to share stories about people and their histories. It helps the team to see and understand their colleagues better. Look for similarities between people in different professions and try to bring them together for future tasks.

2. Try Out Some New Rewards

It’s always good to show your employees you appreciate them. Practical rewards and gifts are a great way to do this. While covering medical expenses or parking costs is helpful, more companies are discovering the power of unusual perks, such as “quiet hours” or bi-monthly massage subscriptions. To make sure these rewards are well-received, it’s important to get to know your team really well.

3. Create Opportunities for New Experiences

Keep an eye out for what your employees are interested in. If they’re curious about other departments or positions in your company, set up some opportunities for them to connect with them. This could be a tour or even just getting involved in a practical task for a specific department. These kinds of opportunities can really help your business by showing employees what other career paths are open to them within the company.

4. Improve the Work Environment

Our behavior and state of mind are heavily influenced by the environment where we spend eight hours a day, five days a week. The “broken windows theory” says that if you don’t fix a broken window in a building, all the windows will eventually be damaged. This theory can be easily applied to the emotional and interpersonal aspects of life. If you ignore minor negativity, it can have some pretty serious consequences. It’s worth thinking about whether the work environment reflects the attitude the employer has towards employees. How comfortable are they? Are there any tasks like replacing a broken light bulb or fixing the air conditioner that have been delayed for a long time? Maybe it’s time to talk about them.

5. Stay in Touch with Remote Workers

With all that’s been going on, remote work is more popular than ever. I’d say any company has employees who work from home at least some of the time. It doesn’t matter if they come to the office or not. It’s important to recognize their efforts and maintain good relationships with them just like you would with anyone in the office. It’s a great idea to encourage collaboration, as tools like Zoom and Skype make it easier than ever to work face-to-face even when you’re in different locations.

6. Think about the Team’s Characteristics

Your organization will have a mix of people with different backgrounds and experiences. So what works for one employee might be useless for another. The benefits packages should vary depending on age, religion, and character, so employees can get the most out of them. Knowing your employees well will help you tailor the social package to their needs. This means that productivity will improve without spending a lot of money.

7. Revise the work schedule

If you can, let people have extended weekends. And encourage work-life balance. A study by the UK Office for National Statistics found that half of the UK workforce is willing to give up part of their income in exchange for three-day weekends. Research shows that people who work four days a week are happier at work and less stressed.

8. Encourage Peer Recognition

It’s just as important to recognize each other on the team as it is to get recognition from management. Regular feedback and collaboration not only boost productivity and performance, but they also help to strengthen relationships and bring everyone together. Think about setting up a service where employees can give each other positive feedback, congratulations, and praise.

9. Promote Genuine Transparency

It can be tough to be honest with an employee about their work performance. Leaders need to develop emotional intelligence so they can respond directly without offending the employee. Moreover, these honest conversations might be tough at first, but they show that you value your employees and trust them enough to be open with them. If you’re impartial, your employees will be too, and they’ll give you feedback that’ll help the business improve.

10. Get your teams involved in organizational goals.

A team that’s dedicated to the company will have one or more common goals. So, it’s important for managers to think about how to link the company’s goals with each employee’s goals. To make teams feel like they’re part of something, get them involved in goal-setting processes, plan discussions, and link corporate goals with the personal motivation of employees, including financial incentives that employees will strive for. Open conversations with the team, where they feel involved and can contribute to achieving corporate results, also help. It’s important to keep the team up to date with the goals and to explain them in detail. This helps to avoid any confusion and to keep everyone focused and motivated.

11. Get the Team Together

It’s easy to forget that casual get-togethers can be a great way to boost employee productivity. Don’t forget to plan some team-building social events. This is especially helpful for remote workers who rarely get to meet their colleagues in person. These events help to strengthen relationships within the team.

12. Financially Support Career Goals

It’s a great idea to invest in your employees’ professional development. It shows them that you believe in their potential and want to continue working together. If employees know they’re getting the tools they need to climb the career ladder, they’ll find more meaning in their work. Plus, when management puts career growth first, they can find candidates for managerial roles within the company, saving on hiring from external sources. If you’re willing to fund courses and cover university tuition fees, it shows employees that you see them as individuals with personal dreams and career goals.

13. Make sure to give positive feedback

One way to boost job satisfaction and build a solid company culture is to regularly recognize employees for their achievements and results. Unfortunately, people tend to focus more on what they don’t do well than what they do well, so it’s important to break this habit. Sometimes the smallest things, like a thank-you note, can brighten someone’s day. Rewarding good ideas with small gifts can encourage more of this kind of behaviour and show what your company values.

14. Make Gratitude and Recognition Part of the Internal Brand

When employees are happy at work, they’re more likely to tell their friends and family about it. If you want to build a solid foundation for a brand where employee encouragement is an integral part, you’ve got to implement traditions in this area and make sure there are regular opportunities for recognition and rewards.

15. Celebrate Corporate Anniversaries

It’s a great way to show your employees you value them when you take time to congratulate them on their work anniversaries. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been working together—congratulate the employee in front of the whole company. This shows you appreciate their loyalty and how important they are, which helps to reduce turnover.

By putting these strategies into practice, companies can create a culture of respect and recognition, which will lead to happier, more loyal employees and a more successful business overall.