Visit your local grocery store, and you may notice items missing from shelves. Like many industries, shipping and transportation are facing staffing shortages. Depending on your industry, you already know that employees are hard to come by. Staffing shortages nationwide are affecting the way we live and work, plus certain products and services and how readily we have access to them. So when you have great employees in place, you want to take every effort to hold onto them. Plus, in order to attract new talent to your company, you’ll need a great company culture that welcomes new workers and helps them thrive. Among many things, employee appreciation is an important ingredient to the recipe for employee retention.
Affordable ideas for employee appreciation
When it comes to celebrating your workers, your efforts don’t need to break the bank. In fact, very simple and affordable techniques go a long way to showing your employees you care. Any of the following are top ideas for showing employee appreciation:
- Say thank you. This could be by email, by phone, in person, or a written note. When an employee has worked hard and accomplished something, your words of thanks will go a long way to showing how much you appreciate their efforts.
- Provide treats. Once in a while, when it’s unexpected, bring in coffee and pastries for breakfast, or order a pizza for lunch. If an employee works from home, send an e-gift card for a cup of coffee or a treat. These small gestures can go far.
- Involve employees in special projects. Got an interesting new project coming up? Invite an employee to participate who wouldn’t normally be involved. You might be surprised how people rise to the occasion when they feel their skills are seen and appreciated.
- Celebrate accomplishments and milestones. Share them with the company in a newsletter or on the intranet. Big wins, projects successfully completed, births and marriages are all wonderful news worth celebrating!
- Allow for flexible scheduling. This helps your workers achieve better work/life balance and fit in personal commitments alongside work commitments. It also shows you trust them to get their work done, even if they’re not following traditional work hours.
- Highlight employees on social media. Have a Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn page? Most companies do! Featuring “meet the team” posts allows you to brag about a worker here and there—and public recognition creates good feelings that your workers matter to you.
Be aware of your risks
The prospect of losing valuable employees is risky, but employee appreciation can help. Anything that threatens to harm your bottom line is also risky. At Odell Studner, we have extensive knowledge of insurance and risk assessment and are here to help you. To learn more, contact us today!