While so many managers wish they could raise wages for their employees, it’s not always feasible. It’s rarely affordable, and it’s almost never in your control. But there are ways to show your employees how much you value them in ways within your control, and your budget. Why does it matter, after all? Satisfied employees who feel valued stay with their companies longer, are more productive, and contribute more to the bottom line. Here are some tips to help:
1. Organize Team Recognition
One of the easiest and most affordable ways to show your employees how much you appreciate them is to recognize big moments and milestones in their lives. The good and the bad experiences can feel lonely and isolating sometimes when people endure them alone. Birthdays, new babies, deaths, and even bouts of illness can shake people to their cores, in good and bad ways. They deserve to be recognized.
It’s important to show your employee that you care about their personal lives. Their personal lives will impact their professional ones. So, create a culture in your workplace that recognizes those moments. Bring in cake and a company gift for birthdays, send get well soon gifts when employees are out sick, and send flowers or care packages if an employee loses a loved one. These acknowledgments can make employees feel like they’re part of something that matters.
2. Celebrate Successes
In addition to recognizing big moments that occur outside of the workplace, you also want to celebrate moments inside the office. It can feel disheartening for employees to trudge through their work day after day only to feel like their work doesn’t matter. A lack of recognition for hard work, especially when it leads to big successes, can lead to burnout and resentment. Ultimately, your employees might leave for somewhere that will recognize their work.
It costs very little to celebrate successes in the workplace. You can hold a meeting and showcase your employee’s talents. You might send a company-wide email telling the success story. You could even have your staff member share the story of how they achieved success or met a goal. This approach can have the double positive effect of both celebrating the employee and helping others become successful as well.
3. Provide Guidance and Mentorship for Failures
Of course, your employees will not always win. Sometimes they will lose, and they might lose big. It’s in those moments that it’s perhaps most important to step in and offer guidance. Success and failure both tend to naturally repeat themselves exponentially. The more failures you have, the more failures you continue to have. This reality is likely due to the negative energy that follows failures.
You can turn this energy around as a manager by creating a teachable moment. Help your employee see that failure is just an opportunity to learn what not to do. Spend time working with them on making better decisions moving forward, understanding what went wrong, and how to fix it. Also, be sure to clarify that it’s not the end of the world. Everyone makes mistakes, even you. Take these steps and your employee is likely to feel valued and excited to move forward.
4. Offer Flexible Work Schedules
If the global pandemic highlighted any issue in the workplace it was the reality that people want flexibility. Indeed, they need it. And the companies that have allowed for more flexibility — in hours, remote work, and more — have seen higher employee satisfaction and retention. Gone are 10-hour work days with no overtime, weekend work that goes unacknowledged, and being stuck at a desk five days a week without justification.
In many cases, businesses have come to realize that employees can do much of their work from home. Indeed, many employees are more productive when they can manage their own schedules, work at their own pace, and find better work-life balance. As an owner or supervisor, do what you can to facilitate this flexibility and freedom, and you’ll likely see your employees much happier and more committed to the company.
5. Help Guide Their Career Paths
Finally, and most importantly, the number one reason employees leave a workplace is lack of opportunity for growth and development. You might think it’s pay, and while employees should definitely be earning a fair and competitive wage, after a certain dollar amount, it’s really about growth. People want to learn, make progress, and feel like they’re advancing in their careers and in life.
If you want to show your employees how much you appreciate them, show them how they can grow with the company. Offer training courses, mentorships, and pathways to promotions. Sit down with your team members regularly and discuss their goals. From there, help them decide which pathways to choose in the company. You can highlight their successes and show them the potential you see in them. With clear goals in mind, they’re more likely to feel valued.
There are so many affordable ways to show your employees how much you appreciate them that go well beyond raises. Give your employees a chance to shine at work and create an environment that feels like a safe and supportive place to grow. With these small actions, you can build a team of thriving staff members excited to contribute to your company’s mission, vision, and values.
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