This fell on 4th March, and we posted a blog we did last year, to jog your minds about thinking about how you show your appreciation of the people who work for you. Is it just something you think of at Christmas when you either give them a bonus, or the same corporate gift that was sent to your customers? Perhaps it is that time you host the summer company barbeque and don the apron & chef’s hat to cook & serve for everyone? Do you ever do something spontaneous, for a member of staff, a team, or for everyone?
Out of sight is Out of mind?
The last eighteen months to two years have been hard, depending on the industry you are in, it is quite possible you had to look for ways for some members of your staff to work remotely, are they all even back now, or are you still working with some staff remote? Have you even considered this as an option going forward? When you have your staff in the same building, it is easily possible to have a random chat in the corridor, ask how they are getting on, congratulate them on a personal event or a success at work that you have heard of.
But when you don’t see a member of staff because they are working from home – there is little to jog your busy mind. It can be lonely working from home, only the radio for company, they lose the banter and camaraderie of the workplace, perhaps only getting calls when they have done something wrong, or a deadline has moved forward. So easy for their morale to drop, their mental health deteriorate, have that feeling perhaps wrongly they are under-valued by you, out of sight and out of mind – forgotten.
Planned Spontaneity?
One of the most important ideas behind employee appreciation is that it does not come over as being rehearsed, pre-planned and almost you are going through the motions because that is what the manual says you should do. This is not the world of the large planned thank you, it is a more personal thing, though that doesn’t mean to say you can’t make positive comments there, more that this is more a one-to-one idea than mentioning in front of a crowd.
Maybe you are not a people-person, very good at running a company but shy and reserved. You need to think of ways of showing appreciation to your employees, but in a way that looks like you really mean it, you engage with them, show that you are impressed with what they as a person, as a team or a workforce have done. Something that may catch them by surprise at first, but it is as the idea sinks in, they feel they have impressed you and you have acknowledged it.
You need to be free-thinking in what you do, maybe as you see a report about a team and some who has excelled but works remotely make a note to ring them sometime and personally congratulate them. If there is a social event just after a team have beaten a target, can you support it in some way – pay for a minibus or put some money behind the bar. If someone in your workforce impresses you with what they have achieved, what can be lost by telling them how impressed you are, and if you are they will know, they will read it in your voice, your expression, and your body – you may even make their day.
