Jobhop Jobhop's blog : How To Show Appreciation For Your Employees

With so many people now interested in working from home, or working in a hybrid environment, how can you still show appreciation for your hardworking employees?

David Cooper from Forever Crystal offers some tips.

It's important to show appreciation for your employees when running a business.

When you do it helps to create a positive and productive company culture. In today's changing work environment, a survey from the UK government has found that 85% of respondents wanted a 'hybrid' approach including both home and office working. With this in mind, businesses will need to find ways they can bring employees together and reward their excellent work even when staff are working remotely.

Here, we'll go through some different ways that you can express appreciation for your staff while they are working from home entirely or partly. This will allow people to have the benefits of working from home — such as having time to cook nutritious meals, spend time with family and friends, and pursue hobbies — as well as being part of a vibrant company culture.

Provide the tools for remote connection

There are many tools that allow us to connect with each other remotely, and these can be extremely useful for maintaining a company identity and running virtual events. Video calls, games nights, quizzes and online escape room events are all extremely fun things to try to keep employees connected. You can also use these tools to turn meetings into more personal experiences and to run online conferences to improve your staff's skills.

If you are not sure which platforms will work for your business, ask your employees which ones they find most useful. With so many choices available now for online tools and platforms, you're sure to find one that suits your company. You can also keep an eye on new developments in technology so you'll be the first to jump into the latest tools.

Establish regular check-ins

When people are working remotely, it's more important than ever to maintain individual connections with them and make sure everyone is progressing well with their work. You can institute a timetable of in-person check-ins in the office, or video call one-on-ones between managers and their staff. These appointments are great opportunities to catch up with people and ask how they are finding their work.

This will not only make employees feel cared about — and therefore more motivated — but it will also ensure that they feel comfortable asking for more support or more challenging projects, depending on how their task load is going.

Rewards and incentives

Having the correct incentives to motivate and reward your staff is also extremely important. This helps to make people feel valued and encourages them to test themselves more at work. Try to formulate an incentives policy that is related to your business, such as offering discounts if you make products. You should also offer specific performance-related bonuses that will reward employees for particularly good work, hitting deadlines, or securing new business deals.

Having rewards for staff ensures that they know that their hard work is appreciated and noticed. It can also be combined with bonuses at the end of the year, and salary increases for dedicated staff.

Birthday and holidays

Remembering people's birthdays, and celebrating holidays with them, is another great way to create connection and positivity in your company. Sending gifts for these occasions is a lovely custom to introduce to your business that will add some excitement throughout the year. Your thoughtfulness will be sure to motivate your staff and encourage them to feel more connected to the company and each other.

You might also want to introduce sending gifts or company swag to employees on their work anniversary, as this is an important milestone to celebrate. Handwritten cards sent in the post are an excellent touch if you have time for this, as they are more personal. Whatever you choose, celebrating important moments with your employees can maintain an important connection and build loyalty.

Offer flexible workdays

One of the benefits of working from home is that it is easier to make work more flexible, and you should reflect that in how your business organises its work hours. So, if staff need to rearrange their day in order to do the school run or go to a doctor's appointment, it's helpful to allow them to make the time up at the end of the day or start earlier in the morning.

Establish communication between employees and managers to ensure that everyone has adequate breaks throughout the week or day, while still meeting their company goals. This way, you'll be able to offer more downtime and still keep your business on target. This will ensure that people are more energised and enthusiastic when they come back to work.

Whether you are a totally remote business, a hybrid one, or just interested in the possibility of changing from an in-office model to a virtual one, you'll likely find these tips helpful. Use this as a starting point and maintain the connection and community in your work environment as more and more people transition to remote and hybrid office arrangements.

Author Bio:

The Forever Crystal story began in 1994 when David Cooper met his Slovakian wife to be, who was studying in the UK. Before the harmonious separation in 1993 of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the country Czechoslovakia was renowned for its fine lead Crystal Glassware. After years spent in the environmental field and travelling extensively, Cooper realised there might be an opportunity to bring some of this wonderful contemporary glassware to the British market. In 2006 this vision became a reality. At first, the business was very much part-time, initially comprising of selling glassware at Country Fairs and Food Festivals. 15 years later, Forever Crystal's glassware is shipped widely across the UK and further afield.

The Forever Crystal mission: To provide great glassware to consumers and businesses, frequently personalised with a greeting, crest or logo, supported by a knowledgeable, friendly team who are always happy to help and give advice on the most suitable product, or the best message to engrave onto a piece of glassware.

For more information on Forever Crystal, visit: https://www.forevercrystal.co.uk/

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