Employee appreciation can take a variety of forms.
Maybe it’s doughnuts in the break room or a team outing. In some organizations, performance evaluations may be the only time employee success is recognized. As a leader, you hope employees appreciate the praise and you likely enjoy those positive moments of lauding their efforts and bringing your team together.
It’s not a hot take to claim that showing appreciation to your staff is a plus, but do you know exactly how these positive moments benefit the organization?
Perception of employee recognition creates reality
Gallup and Workhuman conducted a study of the employee recognition experiences of 7,500 U.S. employees. Only 26% of the employees strongly agreed they receive similar amounts of recognition as other team members performing at similar levels.
The downstream effect of this perception can be powerful. If an employee feels their best work won’t be recognized, they’ll be less likely to deliver at a high level.
Conversely, positive feedback like public or private displays of employee appreciation not only recognize excellence in the performance, but also communicate the standard for future excellence.
Employee appreciation can strengthen team relationships
Employee appreciation isn’t just a top-down phenomenon. Environments fostering collaboration and teamwork not only create organizational success; they provide a new venue for employee appreciation: the recognition of one’s peers. These expressions of appreciation between colleagues can be a powerful way to strengthen the bonds within groups.
As team relationships grow stronger, teamwork flourishes. Offering and receiving feedback is easier, embracing new and more innovative ideas is less risky, and championing the success of the organization and employees will become the norm.
We recognize the importance of strong, healthy teams at Paycom. By empowering teams and their leaders to build strong bonds with regular meetings, outings or friendly inter-office competitions, our employee engagement and culture benefits from the support team members can offer each other.
Employee appreciation empowers managers to drive success
According to Psychometrics, when asked what their leaders could do to lift engagement, 58% of respondents said, “Give recognition.” Unfortunately, this same study found that only 14% of organizations provided managers with the tools and resources needed for recognizing their employees’ efforts.
If a manager or leader can’t adequately point out their employees’ high-quality work, it may be difficult for employees to understand what’s expected in the future.
When leaders have the resources and latitude to identify and reward excellence, these leaders can encourage future success and shape the trajectory of the organization. One way Paycom does this is by holding events for annual celebrations like Customer Service Week and National Payroll Week to recognize the efforts and successes of our employees.
And appreciation isn’t a one-way street — it flows between everyone we interact with. At Paycom, leaders are encouraged to appreciate employees, but so are co-workers, director supervisors and every other member of our organization. None of our success is possible without each other’s help. After all, appreciation is a part of our culture because it’s reciprocal, not top-down.
Employee appreciation can be so much more than an Employee-of-the-Month plaque. When used effectively, employee appreciation is a powerful tool for boosting engagement, enhancing collaboration and charting a companywide course for success.
Are you looking for a culture that recognizes your excellence and wants to help you continue to grow? Then you should apply to Paycom today!
