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11 Ways To Make Employees Feel Valued

If employee turnover is high and engagement is low, read on as we share 11 unique ways you can make your employees feel appreciated.
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Published 1 Sep 2022
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Updated 26 Feb 2024
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6min read

Did you know that companies that effectively acknowledge good work and take initiatives to make employees feel valued are 21% more profitable than those who don’t?

When you focus on employee appreciation, it’s a knock-on effect that results in greater business success. A team of employees who feel valued at work will be more engaged, produce their best work and be more loyal.

By encouraging a culture of recognition, you’ll be on your way to making employees feel valued in no time.

If your employee turnover is high and employee satisfaction is low, read on as we share 11 unique ways you can make your employees feel appreciated.

1. Provide learning and development opportunities

Learning and professional development is an essential part of creating a high-performing team. Today’s ever-changing nature of business requires employees to be up to date with trends so that new challenges can be tackled head-on.

By providing opportunities for learning and development in your team, you’re giving them the power to succeed in their role. It helps encourage employees to stay relevant, motivated and engaged with their work whilst providing new opportunities to test and innovate.

The learning and development opportunities are endless – seminars, conferences, online training, and workshops, just to name a few. It can also give your team a competitive advantage, leading to higher customer satisfaction, lower costs and faster growth!

Who doesn’t want a dream team of high-performing, educated employees?

2. Acknowledge milestones and special events in your team

We spend on average one-third of our lives at work, so it’s important not to let special events pass you by. With employees becoming less loyal to companies than previous generations, employee recognition is important, even for smaller milestones.

By celebrating birthdays, promotions and work anniversaries, you’ll improve team morale whilst making your team member feel valued in the process.

Did a team member go above and beyond in their recent project? Show public employee recognition during company events or in a company-wide announcement to really show that your business is serious about valuing employees’ hard work.

A study conducted by Harvard revealed that most people who changed jobs did so within the first year. They also found there was a spike in resignations in the lead-up to an employee’s work anniversary, regardless of how many years they were at the company.

These findings are proof that if you want to keep good employees around, you need to keep them engaged, especially in the lead-up to their work anniversaries.Make Your Employees Feel Valued - Characters from The Office dancing around

3. Show employee appreciation with food or snacks

Small gestures like providing your team with lunch or bringing in doughnuts are a great way to show employee appreciation. Let them know that you appreciate all of their hard work. After all, this is your time to say thanks.

By adding a social aspect when showing employee appreciation, you’ll also improve team morale. Plus, who doesn’t love a sweet treat?Man eating pretzel

4. Use OKRs to set goals and hold quarterly events for reaching them

Objectives and key results (OKRs) are a framework that can be used for defining and tracking goals and their outcomes within a business. OKRs are proven to increase productivity, align your teams and provide more insight for everyone in your business.

By establishing OKRs, your team will know exactly what they’re working towards and how their work contributes to the overall business goals. It’s an empowering way to see your team’s progress, which ultimately makes them feel valued.

If your team meets their OKRs at the end of each quarter, why not hold a celebration for your hard workers during one of the team meetings? By holding a quarterly celebration, your team will stay motivated and committed to reaching their OKRs.

An engaged, hardworking team that’s motivated to meet goals – now, that’s the dream!The Offie characters dancing - Make Your Employees Feel Valued

5. Take your team out for coffee or lunch

By taking your team out for coffee or lunch, you can show them how appreciative you are of the work they’re doing. Small gestures like this really make your team feel valued and boost job satisfaction.

Getting outside in the fresh air also has many positive health benefits, and who doesn’t want that?Man dancing in the elevator to go get coffee - Make Your Employees Feel Valued

6. Encourage positive feedback

By creating a culture where feedback is valued by management, you’ll be able to create a work environment where everyone feels comfortable.

It’s important to embed feedback into your company culture and actively encourage employee feedback as it can help everyone be better leaders and create a more inclusive culture.

By opening up the lines of communication in your workplace, you’ll be able to take on suggestions and implement them into your business. It’s also a great way to learn what employees want.

You can encourage feedback by:

  • Creating surveys and sending them out fortnightly
  • Creating a feedback and suggestions box for the office
  • Asking for feedback in 1-1 meetings

7. Encourage peer-to-peer recognition

At Employment Hero, we’re huge advocates of peer-to-peer recognition. It can motivate your team to achieve their best and encourage them to go above and beyond the expectations of their role by helping others. It can also boost employee engagement, improve job satisfaction and benefit your team’s wellbeing.

Peer-to-peer recognition is something that is easily done and can be totally free! Small actions such as publicly acknowledging someone for a great job in your communication channel, leaving a nice post-it note message on their desk, having a team notice board or using Employment Hero’s Peer to Peer Recognition features are all great options.

Wondering how peer-to-peer recognition plays a part in employee recognition programs? Check out our blog here.

8. Offer wellness benefits

The Australian Government is encouraging workplaces to invest in their employee’s well-being because there are so many great benefits that follow.

By investing in the health and wellbeing of your employees, you can:

At Employment Hero, we provide wellness benefits that empower our team to live healthy life. Weekly personal training sessions, yoga, daily breakfast, discounted gym memberships, corporate health insurance plans and access to our employee benefits program are all available at Employment Hero.

Want to work for us? View our open positions here.

9. Encourage work-life balance

It’s no surprise that working long hours in the office can have a negative impact on your health. But, did you know that after working 39 hours a week, your mental health begins to decline?

Working long hours causes fatigue and can impact the quality of your work well into the next day. Long hours mean small errors begin appearing and productivity begins to decline.

This territory is where your employees begin to explore new opportunities as they’re looking to regain balance in their life. So, how can you encourage a better work/life balance?

Simply tell your team to leave on time and mean it. If there’s too much workload, make it a priority to hire more staff.

If you have one person in your team juggling the role of what should be done by two people, they’re going to be stressed, disengaged and looking for other roles where they don’t feel undervalued.

As an example, Microsoft trialled a 4-day work week in Japan. The result? A huge 40% increase in productivity. Employees were paid for the full working week and time was saved by limiting meetings to 30-minutes and encouraging remote communication.

10. Offer rewards for a job well done

One of the most common ways to make your employees feel valued is to present them with a gift. This can be in the form of a monetary bonus or benefit that is useful to them such as movie tickets, gift cards or Hero Points.

If your team hits targets or finishes a complex project, a bonus or gift is a great way to make your team feel valued and acknowledged. It also plants the thought that gestures like this regularly happen, therefore motivating them to always work harder.Phoebe and Rachael from friends clapping - Make Your Employees Feel Valued

11. Improve job satisfaction with a career growth plan

Did you know that of Australia’s Top 100 best workplaces, 90% create individual professional development and progression plans for employees, regardless of their career stage?

When employees have a career growth plan within their company, they feel motivated to reach their goals. It lets your team know that you place importance on their growth and that you’re invested in their career.

This is one of the top ways to make your employees feel valued. It will also result in a dramatic increase in employee engagement.

According to Deloitte’s Talent 2020 series, 37% of employees cited their top reason for changing roles was due to a lack of career growth and progression. By mapping out a career plan for your employees, they’ll be more engaged with their work and take ownership of their roles.

Learn more about making employees feel valued at work

There you have it. 11 different ways you can make your employees feel valued. So, go on! Start adding value.

For more ways to assist with learning in the workplace and to find out what motivates your employees, download our free whitepaper below.

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The Ultimate Employee Engagement Guide

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