Making Employee Appreciation A Habit, Not Just a Holiday
Earlier this month, our February email featured our horse, Odessa, with her stall door decorated for Valentine’s Day—I have to say, I thought she looked rather stunning! The holiday gets a lot of hype, and no matter your take on it, all the hoopla surrounding it is hard to miss. I decided to Google some of the stats surrounding it, and would you believe, “according to the latest statistics on Valentine's Day spending from the National Retail Federation, US consumers spent a total of $25.9 billion on celebrating the occasion in 2023. This was 8.4% more than the $23.9 billion registered in 2022.” And I’m sure that number will be even more for 2024.
What I do love about Valentine’s Day is the opportunity to make people feel special. Being in the recruiting industry for as long as I have, the calls continue to increase each year for those looking for a safe confidant to vent to. Workloads are constantly increasing with rising demands and changes based on reporting metrics. These venting sessions are not an effort to have less work—they are more about feeling valued and appreciated.
Valentine’s Day is also a great reminder that you don’t need a holiday to make your employees feel special while also staying within budget! What are some things you did this year? Here are a few ideas to try year-round to make sure your employees know how valuable they are to your team:
Handwritten cards or notes. Words of affirmation and appreciation go a long way!
Open communication. Time spent on hearing what associates need from you is important. Consider adding bi-weekly or monthly informal 1-1 employee-led meetings to check in.
Inboxes can get bogged down with everything that comes in throughout the day. Make an effort to condense your number of outgoing emails and questions to your team so that their inboxes don’t get even more overwhelmed.
Each year, we hear more about work/life balance. How are ways you can give back time to your associates? Something as simple as giving them back an hour in their day by canceling a meeting every so often goes a long way.
Team building does not have to cost. A great way to have your employees spend some time together is to coordinate a team-chosen volunteer activity.
Our picture featured this month was captured while we were decorating the barn stalls. Honestly, I thought the horses would love it because they are always curious about what is going on, but the goats thought it was all about them! Several of them wanted their turn to wear the heart, and Aspen was the lucky winner of getting to wear it the longest.
Peoplezest looks forward to continuing to do what we love and working with you through executive placements, strategizing services, career counseling, and resume needs.