Employee Appreciation Ideas Your Staff Will Love

As we steamroller towards Christmas, you may be thinking of ways to show appreciation for your staff, particularly at the end of what has been a challenging year for many businesses.

Feeling appreciated is the top motivator for many employees to do great work. Giving your team proper recognition can create a more motivated workforce, helping you retain talent and increase employee engagement.

So what are some ways to show your employees appreciation? We’ve listed 15 ideas below for you to consider:

1. Plan to recognise your staff.

The first way to show how much you appreciate your staff is to create a viable plan for what you’re going to do and when you’ll be doing it.

You don’t have to implement all the suggestions but pick out a handful that you could manage to do well and that would carry sincere meaning for your staff. Some are easier to implement than others, but they all carry their own results. With these ideas, you could also consider creating a recognition program in the new year so that your team can consistently show appreciation.

2. Cheers from peers.

Make it easy for your staff to show appreciation for each other. Co-workers can recognise the “unseen” efforts that go into day-to-day activities. Give them a chance to call out the positive things people are doing so they come to your attention, as well as everyone else’s attention.

3. Ask your employees what they would like.

Survey your staff. Ask them what they’d like from you as far as how you show you appreciate them. You may be surprised at the results, and you can feel confident that you’re rewarding your team with something they will value. 

4. Encourage mentoring.

Mentoring is a wonderful two-way street. If done right, mentoring programs afford experience staff a place of importance and authority, and new staff a sense of caring and security.

When done correctly and is a cyclical program where the mentored someday become the mentors, it’s a way of showing your staff you trust and appreciate them.

5. Go very public with your appreciation.

Show you appreciate your staff by extending it beyond in-house recognition. Let your customers know through your website or via your social media channels. Take a photo, talk about how much you appreciate what your staff do, and how they earned this award.

6. Reward your staff based on individual interests.

You know what says “I appreciate you” well? Showing that appreciation in a manner that is unique to each person. Sure, a standard blanket reward works (and is necessary) in some situations, but if you want to show how much you appreciate an individual, the best way to do it is to find out what they really like, what they’re interests, or hobbies are or what they like the most.

7. Thank you notes are not dead.

An actual piece of paper thanking a staff member for their work can go a long way in a digital world. Whether it’s as simple as a quick post-it note or an actual card or a certificate, try cracking out the age-old practice of thank you notes.

8. Give employees real choice and real voice.

Appreciation isn’t just a game and reward system. It should be built into your culture. One way to do that is to give your employees real choices and actual voices.

Do your staff get to choose the projects they work on ever, or are they always assigned tasks? Do you listen to their ideas or concerns and act on them, or do you listen but forget about or dismiss what you’ve heard and continue on with business as usual?

Genuine appreciation is foundational. You can give a staff member a gift card on their birthday, but if they’ve come to you repeatedly with concerns and you’ve never made any real attempt to do anything about it, that gift card can seem empty.

9. Treats, just because.

Who doesn’t like a surprise treat that no one expected? Have a pizza lunch. Grab bagels or muffins and leave them in the staff room. Treat your staff, just because you appreciate them.

10. Choose creative rewards.

Food, time-off, a bonus, a promotion—these are all good but typical rewards. Be creative and think about how you can make your reward different enough that it stands out as a part of your culture. Some start-ups and businesses have portraits painted of staff members who have achieved a certain number of years, letting the staff have fun with how they are depicted. Others bring in caricaturists.

11. Personal Development rewards that are career-based.

A career-based reward is great for employees and will benefit your business as well. You can send employees to leadership training or let them choose an online class they would like to take. Even if it’s not directly related to their current job, you can show your employees you’re invested in them and their career. 

12. Encourage continuing education.

Whether you help pay for education events or are lenient with time off so that staff can attend education events, show you appreciate them so much that you want them to continue to grow in their career. And, as a staff member increases their qualifications, promote them. Few things are as frustrating as working hard to be the best possible only to have a boss who locks you into a dead-end job.

13. Create memorable small moments.

What words come out of your mouth? What do your actions say?

Again, moments of reward don’t make up for months of action and words that show very little appreciation. Do you have an employee who is going above and beyond to make sure the office functions? Are they cleaning up after other employees because someone needs to? Are they a kind of de facto manager because employees seem to come to them with questions?

When you have staff that are naturally desiring to do good work especially when it’s outside their job description, acknowledging that goes a long way.

Sometimes it’s as simple as calling a staff member into your office to say “I’ve noticed what you’re doing around here, and I appreciate it so much.” For some people, that’s enough, to know that someone has noticed.

14. Make it easy to volunteer and help.

You want people who are civic minded, who care about others, on your staff. So, when you have staff so inclined, make it easy for them to help others. Whether you help them start a food drive at the office, bring kids to work to learn about the business, or take a week off to build houses, encourage them. Show them you appreciate their concern about the world around you.

Bonus? You can talk about what your business and your staff are doing and let your customers know that doing business with you has a positive impact on the community.

If you have food trucks in your area, why not give them a call and have them regularly park near your business? Whether you help cover the cost for the meals in full or through reward coupons, it’s a fun perk that breaks up the usual brown paper bag lunch.

15. Last but not least: Say “thank you”!

When is the last time you simply said thank you?

Some owners take for granted that employees are there to do the work tasked to them, and think that because it is expected, there is no need for a thank you.

A thank you, whether the work is required or not, is such a simple way to show appreciation. You might not think it matters, but there is a noticeable attitude difference between a staff whose boss genuinely thanks them periodically compared to one where the staff never hears it. While not everyone needs a “thank you” to do a good job, many do. It won’t hurt those who don’t need to hear it, but it will mean much to those who do.

It’s easy to get caught up in the fun and obvious methods of staff appreciation, but the one method that you can start right now, that will register immediately, that will make a change in a person’s day…is to say thank you.

Employee appreciation shouldn’t be reserved for one day but should be integral to your company culture and be an all-around attitude that management adopts. Your employees are your most precious asset, yet some businesses show more care and concern to maintaining equipment than letting their staff know that they are valued and appreciated!