Thank your employees and power productivity
Posted on October 22, 2020 by Anthony Mortimer
There’s no denying that 2020 has been a tough year for employees and businesses, but there’s also a lot to celebrate this Christmas. Whether Dipesh in IT worked overtime to transition your business to a remote working model with lightning speed, or Sacha in HR spent hours lending an ear to her fellow colleagues, it’s likely your employees deserve some recognition this year – and it’s vital they understand just how much you appreciate their perseverance, dedication and loyalty. Here’s why…
Rewards and recognition drive meaning and purpose
Increasingly, studies have found that employees are concerned with finding greater meaning in their work – and after such a challenging year, this is more important now than ever before.[1] But helping your workforce to find this sense of purpose needn’t be difficult. In fact, with the right reward and recognition strategy, you can ensure your employees understand the positive impact of their contribution to the business, and show that as an employer, you value their dedication, skills and talents. In turn, this can encourage more focus, commitment and productivity.
70% of employees said they’d feel better about themselves and their efforts if their boss thanked them more regularly.[2]
But a key mistake many employers make when rewarding employees is the failure to provide detail, or to associate the reward with a specific achievement for each individual. For example, a business might want to celebrate a particularly good quarter, either by meeting targets or generating extra revenue, with a virtual team night. This is a great start, but the employer should take the time to recognise each member of the team for their unique contribution, noting how each employee’s distinctive skills and talents helped them to achieve such fantastic results.
Improve engagement and productivity with the right strategy
Beyond rewarding employees for good work, recognition can encompass a variety of methods that encourage the development of different skills and behaviours in your diverse workforce. This is what makes it such an effective engagement tool. Whether you want to motivate individual employees to achieve specific targets, or drive greater connection and collaboration among your workforce, with a strategic approach to employee recognition, you can improve engagement across your business.
Managers who regularly recognise the performance of their employees will likely improve engagement by roughly 60%.[3]
To do this, you’ll need to link your recognition strategy to the behaviours you’d like to promote in your workforce, and what you’d like these behaviours to achieve. There are a variety of ways to achieve this – from setting incremental goals in performance reviews with each employee, to running business-wide competitions which engage and activate the specific behaviours you’re looking to encourage.
The key here is to again ensure you get the details right. For example, a business might want to motivate their sales team to improve sales, but they may not specify the types of sales they’re looking for – such as prospective long-term or ‘big fish’ customers. To combat this, businesses should share the company’s long-term goals with the team before the initiative begins, and should consider offering a variety of small and big prizes that relate to the overall positive impact the achievement of this goal will have on the business.
Say thank you the right way with an M&S Gift Card
At M&S Corporate Gifts, we believe that one of the best ways to thank your workforce and power productivity across your business is to give your employees irresistible rewards. That’s why we offer Gift Cards, e-Gift Cards and e-Codes that give people the freedom to choose the most meaningful gift for them, from a huge range of products online, or at one of our stores across the UK. From our glamorous beauty gift shop, fabulous selection of clothing and footwear, to our cosy home range, and our wide choice of magical festive foods -there really is something for everyone at M&S.
[1] https://hbr.org/2018/11/9-out-of-10-people-are-willing-to-earn-less-money-to-do-more-meaningful-work