If you are trying to motivate your addictions staff, there is no better way than showing them the love through employee appreciation.   It sounds trite on the surface but it works, and it works well.   A recent study by online career site Glassdoor revealed that more than 80% of employees say they’re motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation for their work, compared to less than 40% who are motivated to work harder for bosses who are demanding or who fear losing their jobs.  So, this is about paying employees more money as “appreciation”, right?  It can be, but that’s not really the point.

“There is a wide variety of ways to show employee appreciation that can go far towards keeping employees satisfied, engaged and retained,” said Allyson Willoughby, Glassdoor’s senior vice president of people and general counsel. “Even inexpensive forms of appreciation, like thank you cards and treats, or offering flexibility like telecommuting, show employees you value them.”

No-Cost Employee Appreciation

There are plenty of forms of no-cost appreciation that employees love.  These include:

• Recognition at a team meeting , company outing, or newsletter
• Being involved in decision making and being asked for their opinions
• Being given career growth opportunities

Employee Appreciation Tips

Some important things to remember when giving out employee appreciation and recognition:

• Be timely.  Catch people doing great things and let them know as they’re doing them or as soon as possible.  Don’t “make a note of it” and let them know 3 weeks later.
• Put it in perspective.  Let the employee know how their great work is contributing to the achievement of the goals of the organization or how it embodies the mission.  This is important.
• Make it meaningful.  The employee recognition should be authentic and should not come from any sort of automated system.  People shouldn’t “expect” to be recognized for doing something.  There is also the human factor that is important here, with a supervisor or manager becoming involved with their employees and letting them know that something they have done has made a difference.
• Appropriate.  The employee recognition or appreciation should be appropriate in volume and scale to the effort or results that is being recognized.  Busting through a deadline is a great accomplishment but it doesn’t warrant a ticker tape parade.  Don’t go overboard.
• Perceived Value.  Consider that some of your employees place value on certain things over others.  A single mother of 3 children may go nuts over the gift of some free theme park tickets as a thank you while someone else wouldn’t be caught dead at that place.  Someone else may be a die-hard fisherman.  Other times, those no-cost gifts are all that are needed to get the point of thanks and appreciation across and make a difference.

There are many ways to show employee appreciation to your addictions staff.  Sometimes all that is needed is your imagination.  There are plenty of employee appreciation ideas to be found online as well.  As long as you continue to put forth the effort, they will continue to bring you success in employee motivation and in building a positive, productive workforce as you demonstrate your gratitude to your employees.