{"id":7031,"date":"2018-11-21T10:43:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T18:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/?p=7031"},"modified":"2024-04-15T08:52:54","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T15:52:54","slug":"employee-appreciation-guidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/employee-appreciation-guidelines\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Guidelines for Employee Appreciation All Year Long"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Thanksgiving on the immediate horizon, it\u2019s a simple matter to express employee appreciation and gratitude. However, thankfulness in the workplace is the gift that keeps giving as long as you keep giving it. Expressing appreciation is not only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emergenetics.com\/blog\/workplace-appreciation-gratitude\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fantastic<\/a> for employee engagement, motivation and retention, it also <a href=\"https:\/\/greatergood.berkeley.edu\/pdfs\/GratitudePDFs\/6Emmons-BlessingsBurdens.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">improves<\/a> a range of mental health and overall well-being outcomes for the expresser.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/pro-church-media-441073-unsplash.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6975 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/pro-church-media-441073-unsplash-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The word THANKFUL spelled out in glitter letters surrounded by autumn decorations on a wooden surface.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1589\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/pro-church-media-441073-unsplash-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/pro-church-media-441073-unsplash-600x372.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/pro-church-media-441073-unsplash-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/pro-church-media-441073-unsplash-768x477.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/pro-church-media-441073-unsplash-1024x636.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since adults spend a great deal of their waking hours at the workplace, it\u2019s imperative to overall well-being that employees feel happy while at work. Appreciation is one of the most effective ways to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplematters.in\/article\/employee-relations\/appreciate-your-employees-every-day-17642\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">facilitate<\/a> these positive emotions as humans have a natural desire for validation. But, why is this?<\/p>\n<h3>Psychology Behind Employee Appreciation<\/h3>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/us\/blog\/prefrontal-nudity\/201211\/the-grateful-brain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Psychology Today<\/a>, appreciation and gratitude directly impact the hypothalamus, which controls basic bodily functions like eating and sleeping, and dopamine, the \u201creward neurotransmitter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGratitude can have such a powerful impact on your life because it engages your brain in a virtuous cycle,\u201d study author Alex Korb writes.<\/p>\n<p>Consequently, when you practice employee appreciation, it creates a \u201cpay it forward\u201d workplace mentality that pays off to make your organization more successful.<\/p>\n<p>Adam Grant\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.umkc.edu\/facultyombuds\/documents\/grant_gino_jpsp_2010.pdf\">research<\/a> on gratitude found that a simple visit from a manager in a fundraising call center to explain the value of the callers\u2019 work and thanking them for it resulted in a 50 percent increase in the number of calls made. Grant concluded that the boost was not a reflection of an increase in feelings of self-efficacy but a sense the company socially valued the callers.<\/p>\n<p>The benefits of employee appreciation go far beyond relationship building between leaders and employees but also employees and the entire organization. More than 80 percent of employees <a href=\"https:\/\/www.glassdoor.com\/employers\/blog\/employers-to-retain-half-of-their-employees-longer-if-bosses-showed-more-appreciation-glassdoor-survey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">say<\/a> that employee appreciation motivates them to work harder. Consequently, when gratitude is an ongoing organizational practice, productivity and engagement continues to increase and becomes cyclical throughout the organization.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some basic guidelines to incorporating employee appreciation into your company culture.<\/p>\n<h3>3 Guidelines to Employee Appreciation<\/h3>\n<p><strong>1. Be Sincere<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When expressing gratitude and employee appreciation, make sure it\u2019s meaningful and sincere. Empty words negate the entire purpose of showing gratitude. When you truly feel grateful and show it, it signals that you respect the recipient, allowing them to lower their guard and develop trust.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Be Specific<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is related to sincerity. However, even genuine feedback can be vague. Make sure you are complimenting specific actions and behaviors rather than ambiguous personality traits. Studies <a href=\"http:\/\/99u.com\/articles\/19442\/the-key-to-great-feedback-praise-the-process-not-the-person\">show<\/a> that praise for high ability leaves recipients vulnerable to self-doubt, because we have little control over our natural ability to handle situations. However, emphasizing actions, which are controllable, over abilities helps develop sustainable confidence, making employees more competent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Be Humble<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When expressing employee appreciation, make sure to let your team know how they have helped you grow as a leader and what you have learned from them. This empowers employee contributions, adding to the cycle of workplace gratitude and positivity.<\/p>\n<p>Thanksgiving comes at an opportune time as we are heading into the holiday season and approaching the end of the year when we review the past year and set goals for the next. Consequently, it is the perfect time to start making gratitude a daily practice rather than a day on the calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Thanksgiving on the immediate horizon, it\u2019s a simple matter to express employee appreciation and gratitude. However, thankfulness in the workplace is the gift that keeps&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[4001,120,119],"tags":[849,851,177,1901,68,85,1177,1897,1933,1931],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Guidelines for Employee Appreciation All Year Long - KnowledgeCity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Employee appreciation is not only good for employee engagement, motivation and retention, it also improves a range of mental health outcomes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/employee-appreciation-guidelines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Guidelines for Employee Appreciation All Year Long - 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