A Culture of Appreciation Develops Engaged and Loyal Employees

Do you look forward to going to work?  Do you feel valued and appreciated by your employees or employer?  If you work by yourself, do you feel seen by others?  If you answered, “no” to any of the above, you’re not alone.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 64 percent of Americans who leave their jobs say they do so because they don’t feel appreciated. Gallup reports that almost 70 percent of people in the United States say they receive no praise or recognition in the workplace.

We all want to know that we are valued and appreciated.

When you actively appreciate and take an interest in the qualities, characteristics, and work of the people around you, you develop a culture where people love to work, are fully engaged, and where your customers and clients enjoy doing business with you.

Here’s how:

 1.    Recognize the benefit of appreciating and acknowledging individuals

Research confirms that individuals who receive regular recognition and praise increase their individual productivity, increase engagement among colleagues, are more likely to stay with the organization, and receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers.  Appreciating others can make a difference to your bottom line.

2.    Gain an awareness for appreciation

If you’re not in the habit of appreciating people openly, begin by watching for behaviors, attitudes, and work that add value to you or the company.

 3.    Develop a commitment to appreciate

Make a commitment to express your appreciation.  If this is a new habit, it might feel awkward or uncomfortable at first, but the reward and benefit of establishing the habit of appreciating others will pay huge dividends in the long-term.

4.    Acknowledge specifics

The most meaningful appreciations are specific.  What exactly are you appreciating?  Details increase the impact and let the recipient know clearly what you are appreciating.  Others may guess correctly how you feel or what you think about them, but they won’t know for sure unless you tell them.  You strengthen the message by including specific impacts that the actions or qualities have on you or your organization.

5.    Clarify roles, responsibilities and mission

It’s important for employees to understand their roles and responsibilities.  Gaining clarity of organizational and personal goals helps employees know how to meet or exceed expectations.  Acknowledge individuals for meeting or exceeding expectations.  Recognize, too, the contributions other team members make to project outcomes.  Employees enjoy hearing how their contribution made a difference to the organization’s goals and its success.  Employees are more likely to feel included and empowered when they are given an understanding of the organization’s mission both present and future and how they can best advance it.

 6.    Follow through on commitments

Following through on commitments builds trust.  It also communicates that the other person is important.  Reinforce your organization’s values through how you treat each other.  Let your employees know that you have their best interest at heart.  We tend to support those who treat us well, believe in us, and take an interest in us.

 7.    Encourage openness

Recognize that other people have ideas and perspectives that might be useful to hear.  When you seek and listen to others’ opinions and feedback, you are communicating that you value their ideas and insights.

 8.    Take the time to appreciate

We choose where to allocate our attention and energy.  Meaningful appreciations don’t take a lot of time.  Words of appreciation typically can be spoken in less than 30 seconds.  However, the value and positive impact of hearing words of appreciation can be huge and long-lasting.

 9.    Appreciation reinforces positive behavior

What you appreciate gets reinforced.  By offering an appreciation you are indirectly communicating what behavior you’d like to continue to see in the future.  When you appreciate you also are giving validation to the recipient of your message.  Others’ confidence in our abilities helps us to see those qualities in ourselves and gives us the strength to take risks and grow.

 10. Evaluate the effectiveness

Prior to starting your new focus on appreciation in the workplace, you might take stock of your employees’ productivity, your sales and profit, and employee turnover. It would be interesting to re-evaluate six months later.  I’d be curious what the difference will be.

What would you add to this list?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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