Three ways to show employees you value them

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day. It aims to make kindness the norm and encourage people to treat people with kindness and empathy.

While the main idea is that people are kinder in their personal lives – and on social media – it is also important that empathy is focused on in the workplace.

Employees spend a whopping third of their lives at work – and they also deal with a huge amount of stress during their working hours – so this is a place where a little bit of kindness can go a long way.

Ultimately happy employees are more productive, which is good for business.

Of course, it is very easy to say ‘be kinder to your employees and colleagues’, but what precisely should leaders and managers do to make their employees happier not just today, but always.

Say thank you more and celebrate small wins

Companies can sometimes get stuck in the idea that because they pay their workers that they should just get on with their work without complaint.

However, this is all wrong. A lot of jobs come with boring, burdensome admin tasks. For instance, the editorial team at UNLEASH doesn’t just write content, we also have to do admin tasks like sending and replying to emails, and sourcing and cropping images. 

These tasks are not why we became journalists, but it is just part of the job. However, it is also appreciated when our manager thanks us for working so hard.

UNLEASH recently spoke to Logan Mallory, VP of marketing at Motivosity. Mallory spoke a lot about how important gratitude – and a simple thank you – can be for employee engagement and experience. It really helps to make them feel appreciated for their work – and this couldn’t be more important in the ‘Great Resignation’ where employees expect more from the world of work than a paycheck.

Mallory’s recent OpEd for UNLEASH discusses how Apple’s hit TV show Ted Lasso has a lot of lessons for leaders, including around empathy and connection, but also importantly about cheering for the underdog and celebrating their wins.

This is also something we do in the editorial team at UNLEASH, and more broadly across the business. Every time someone scores a huge interview, or a piece does well on social media, we all celebrate on Microsoft Teams with gifs and emojis.

Coincidentally, this also helps us to feel connected with each other’s work – which can be hard to do with a remote and distributed team – which is ultimately good for business.

Give it a try – it is really easy to do, and it creates a good working environment where everyone feels energetic and motivated to do their best work. As a bonus, it is also free.

Encourage peer-to-peer recognition

Of course, it is very important that leaders ensure they are saying thank you and celebrating the wins of all workers – they want to be accused of favoring one employee or department over another.

In this context, another way of building empathy and kindness at work is to focus on peer-to-peer recognition. We mentioned people doing this within teams, but it is also important that this happens across departments.

Few teams and employees work in siloes, they are fully aware of what other teams are working on and struggling with.

Employees can start congratulating those outside of their teams, or they can offer to help out with something someone has been struggling with.

Rather than relying on informal approaches, employers can leverage employee experience technology to help here. Examples include Culture Cloud, Workvivo, and Assembly.

These help to provide emotional connections at work. All three vendors mentioned create a social forum for employees to share their wins, which makes it very easy for other colleagues to celebrate their successes.

Send gifts and organize social activities

While verbal recognition and celebration is powerful, actions speak louder than words. Sometimes companies need to spend money on gifts to reward employees for their hard work – whether that is individuals, whole teams or the entire company.

Like many companies, here at UNLEASH, we all receive a gift on completing our first year at the company; this recognizes the hard work that has been put in throughout the year, and makes employees feel part of something bigger than just their team.

HR tech like Snappy and Alyce can make it simple and seamless for companies, particularly if they have teams spread across the world.

Employers can also recognize reward hard work with social activities or giving everyone a day off to reset after a busy period.

While this costs money, actions like this may be what keeps your employees not only motivated, but also stops them looking for other jobs, particularly with the talent market the way it is now.

You don’t want to lose your talent simply because you didn’t say thank you or didn’t bother to organize a trip to the pub on a Friday night. Now is the time to step up and show your employees you care about them as people.