Ever hear about employee appreciation? Actually, if you go to HR conferences or read leadership books and articles you can’t help but hear about employee appreciation. A few weeks ago I came across a meme/quote on social media that said:
A person who feels appreciated will always do more than is expected.
I love this idea. I have learned that absolutes are never… er, usually not always, absolute, so I wouldn’t say they will “always do more than is expected,” but there is power in appreciating people. Or, more importantly, there is power when someone actually feels appreciated.
Snowfly is in the employee appreciation business. We know you and your team have work to do. Whether that is fielding calls, building software, pleasing customers, delivering product, managing teams, or whatever. There is a lot of logistics involved in getting your work done. It can be easy to slip into a mode where the work you do, and those logistics, consumes every communication and effort. That can be okay… you get your work done and keep leadership and customers happy, right?
Along the way, though, the humans you work with to get this work done might not feel like what they do matters (as much as it really does). It’s easy to feel unappreciated and unseen. We’re talking about some basic human needs here. Work get done? Yes. People feeling some kind of fulfillment or satisfaction because of their role? Maybe not.
What does employee appreciation look like? When you recognize a job well done, or a great effort, you help your people feel appreciated. When you reward certain behaviors, activities, or results, you help your people feel appreciated. When you bring up a job well done in a meeting, or email, or newsletter, or some other communication, you help your people involved in that job feel appreciated. You are simply communicating that you recognize what they have done, or are doing, and that it matters. It’s easy to not see the bigger picture when you are focused on a specific cog, so that recognition, either in private or in your teams, can help give a bigger perspective.
People want to know their work matters. They want to know you recognize and value their work. This helps them feel appreciated.
Snowfly has tools and systems to help you help your team feel appreciated. We go beyond a normal employee incentive program and deliver a more holistic and complete solution that doesn’t fizzle out in a few months. Snowfly solutions, which is a healthy mix of technology and program design, ensure years-long programs that don’t lose appeal. Employees appreciate these tools and programs, and they get to a point where they thrive on the recognition and validation they get.
Gift cards are great. Other prizes and rewards are great. But they are not a whole employee incentives or recognition program. These employee appreciation, incentives, recognition, and rewards programs fail because too often people think technology is the solution. In reality, industries, businesses, even teams are so unique that the program design is what’s most important. Yes, you should have automation, yes, you should have recognition and some way to earn incentives, but if you have all that and design your employee appreciation program poorly, you are just planning for a failure.
Want to learn more? We love talking about this stuff… let’s get on a call and talk about your needs. We’ll even show you our technology solutions and maybe share how and why we are helping tens of thousands of employees in diverse industries and companies around the globe.
