There’s a big value in valuing employees. Happier employees have a direct impact on productivity, processes, and profits. Organizations with a solid employee experience strategy tend to use employee activities, initiatives, and incentives to improve employee engagement.
Such management style engenders a working environment where employees are inclined to stay put and grow with the company. This is opposed to seeking new opportunities based on dissatisfaction, lack of appreciation, and insufficient company culture. From employee engagement activities to simple communication and transparency to the simplicities of company culture – valuing employees doesn’t have to be a chore. As experts in delivering employee engagement solutions that work, BeeLiked has considered the top 13 ways to make your employees feel valued.
1. Be Transparent
Transparency in the workplace is key to creating a positive culture and strengthening employee engagement and loyalty. It builds trust and leaves employees feeling like they’re working for an organization where their opinion is valued.
When employees believe leadership is not upfront with them, morale can suffer, and productivity can drop. Including transparency as a cultural pillar helps employees feel they’re a part of the organization’s mission. They’re invested in their goals and ideas and are inspired to be creative in their approach to achieving desired objectives.
What’s the best way to bring the full value of transparency to the workplace? Keep reading!
2. Open Communication
When asked, employees say one of the most important workplace issues that positively affect them is when they experience open and two-way communication. When open communication is fostered in the workplace, there is a greater sense of community and commitment to working towards common goals.
Here’s what good communication looks like:
- It’s clear and is done often
- It’s focused and tailored to be a dialogue, not a monologue
- It involves a lot of listening, open-mindedness, and respect
Employees will make assumptions about how you view their efforts if you’re not communicating well. Unfortunately, saying nothing is just as likely to translate in their minds as “they don’t like me” as it does “good job!”
You know communication is good when employees know what they’re doing and why it’s important.
3. Spend Time with Your Employees
They say the best gift you can give a child is your time. The same can be said of your employees. Some employees gain great satisfaction from a simple “thank you.” But people tend to feel most valued when time is spent with leadership outside the typical work routine. For example, once-a-month birthday celebrations, Taco Tuesdays, or other casual events give employees the chance to be themselves and see their leaders in a different light.
Sitting down together for in-depth conversations about their job, career goals, or personal interests also has the effect of employees feeling you see them as a person, not merely a worker.
4. Encourage Effort
It usually takes a lot of time and effort to reach an organizational goal. Become your employees’ biggest fans and applaud their efforts along the way. Rewards are rightfully earned with accomplishments, but when an employee’s efforts are acknowledged in their own right—before results are seen—they feel valued and become more engaged.
5. Care About Your Employees
Employee happiness should be a top priority. Purpose-driven companies go above and beyond the usual benefits packages and ping-pong tables by adopting initiatives that show they care for an employee’s entire life.
Letting employees know you care about who they are as a person isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also good for business. When employees feel motivated from the inside out, they’re driven to be the best they can be. Positive outcomes include higher engagement, increased job satisfaction, and elevated self-worth.
Mentorship is another terrific way to show you care. Pairing new hires with more seasoned employees gives newbies a support system from day one and tells them you value what they’re bringing to the table.
6. Give Recognition
Until recently, people tended to equate job satisfaction with how a person feels about completed tasks. But research shows recognition is a top driver of employee engagement, and most people who quit their jobs give “lack of recognition” as their reason for leaving.
7. Get Creative with Employee Benefits
Raises, bonuses, and employee health care are nice, but building morale through fun and exciting experiences are non-traditional benefits employees say they value. Once-a-month long weekends, a surprise day off, mystery trips, educational field trips, and training and development summits are just some of the perks companies are using to show employees they’re valued.
How to make employees feel valued can differ from one organization to the next, but an approach most successful companies share is the adoption of gamification. Gamification can be rewarding if you’re looking for new and exciting ways to show employee appreciation.
It is a great creative way to play your way to better employee engagement. It can help employees reach goals and objectives while giving them recognition, status, and rewards as they improve their skills and increase their accomplishments.
If you hear the word “gamification” and envision people mindlessly interacting with an app, you’re in for a surprise. Gamification may have a “game” in it, and it may be fun, but it’s also business and goal-oriented. A digital reward system is superior to other approaches in many ways:
- Everyone can play with the click of a button, even remote workers.
- It’s much more cost-effective when compared to physical rewards.
- The rewards displayed are long-lasting.
- It provides instant feedback.
BeeLiked’s gamification platform is designed to incentivize employees by offering them rewards for job performance. Games like Spin the Wheel have been successfully used by clients to motivate and reward sales teams. Other interactive promotions can be used to engage, motivate and educate employees, attract quality talent, and optimize workflows.
8. Modernise the Workplace
Employees must have the tools they need to do their job. The latest technologies, digital workspaces, and childcare centers are all valued by employees. Simple things like good lighting, comfortable fixtures, and a new coat of paint also show people you want to make their workspace pleasant.
9. Encourage Peer on Peer Appreciation
Create a culture of belonging and encourage employees to help each other become more creative, flexible, and collaborative. Provide ways for employees to give each other praise and recognition. It helps you see efforts you may have overlooked and can foster better working relationships. Peer-on-peer recognition also enriches company culture and improves engagement. If you have remote team members, a robust virtual recognition infrastructure keeps employees connected to each other regardless of where they are.
10. Challenge Them
Find a way to balance mundane but necessary tasks with challenging assignments. No one loves spending their day on repetitive tasks that are sometimes below their skill level. Assigning challenging tasks shows an employee you value and have faith in their ability to make meaningful contributions.
11. Create a Strong Value Culture
Everyone defines a strong value culture differently, but it’s important to create a work environment where:
- Employees share in shaping processes.
- Dependence on “that’s the way it’s always been done” is relinquished.
- Streamlined, employee-identified solutions are embraced.
Your employees are your company’s ambassadors. Listen to their suggestions and thoughts on how processes can be reimagined and redefined, and be open to revising current practices. Finally, cultivate diversity on every level. Every chance you get, show your employees how much each one of them matters as an individual.
12. Be Positive
Enthusiastic leaders make for enthusiastic employees who create an environment of goodwill and become role models for their peers. Building a positive company culture is integral to doing business and affects nearly every aspect of your organization. Companies with strong, positive cultures that help employees feel and perform their best are often found on “Best Place to Work” lists. Positivity is also known to boost employee wellness and has been linked to numerous health benefits.
13. Allow Employees to Make Decisions
Autonomy in the workplace allows employees to shape their environment so they can perform their best work. Based on trust and respect, autonomy does not replace guidance. Autonomy shows employees you’re confident in their ability to set goals and develop processes to achieve them.
Want a surefire way to make an employee feel valued? Hand them the reins to a project close to their heart and expertise. Even better is to greenlight a project based on an employee’s idea. It empowers an employee to grow and succeed, and other employees will be inspired by seeing their peers’ dreams rewarded.
Appreciating Your Employees: It’s All Good
Showing employees you notice, appreciate, and value what they bring to your organization doesn’t have to cost a lot or consume a lot of time. A culture of appreciation makes for strong employee relationships and has a huge positive impact on the workplace.
BeeLiked offers customizable gamification solutions that help you demonstrate to employees how much you value their contributions while improving productivity and retention.
About BeeLiked
BeeLiked is an expert in working with employers to help incentivize and reward their employees and customers. Through gamification techniques and employee engagement software, BeeLiked can be part of your story in improving your management style.
