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Do you know how to show employee appreciation?

Studies tell us that the number one reason people quit their jobs is because they don't feel valued, appreciated, or recognized.

So how do you address the desire by most employees to feel needed, noticed, and known?
"There's no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.” - President Reagan

As a leader, your role is not to take credit for the work. It's to acknowledge people who do.

4 Ways to Practice Employee Appreciation


There are so many things you can do as a leader to practice employee appreciation. Here are four of them.

  1. Be timely. Show appreciation right away. Don't save it up for the Christmas party - acknowledge people when you see them doing something good.
  2. Be spontaneous. If you're walking down the hallway and you notice a nurse being nice to a family member, point it out to them!
  3. Be specific. Saying "everybody did a good job" doesn't count. Instead, say something like, "the way everybody got together and organized that test drive-through in 24 hours was amazing.” Now that's a compliment!
  4. Gear it towards the individual. Acknowledge each employee differently.

Get to Know Your Employees


Get to know your employees by being curious about them.

When you get to know your employees, you can show appreciation for them in ways that will resonate with them.

On page 3 of our Uplift Charter, there is a “my list” form. We recommend giving this out to every new hire because it asks questions like "what are your favorite sports?"

Answers to simple questions like these help you get to know each employee on a more personal level.

When you get to know employees, you can show appreciation towards them by honoring them with something that matters to them, which is a great way to inspire the best in every employee.

For example, if you know that one employee loves baseball, you can acknowledge them for something they’ve done by giving them a baseball cap or jersey. If they're bowlers, give them bowling ball polish or bowling ball passes. Give them something that they can use.

We need to appreciate the uniqueness of every individual.

Writing thank-you notes has always been a great way to appreciate your people. What I recommend you do is mail it to their home, so when they're opening their mail and their bills, there'll be that little gift from an angel, from you.

Always remember the Greatest Management Principle: What gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.

To summarize what you should take away from this article about employee appreciation, remember these six things:

1. There's no limit to what people can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.
2. The reason people leave jobs is because they don't feel appreciated.
3. Practice the four attributes to notice and appreciate.
4. Get to know your employees.
5. Send thank you cards to people's homes
6. The Greatest Management Principle: "what gets recognized and rewarded gets repeated.”

Download the Operation Uplift Team Organization Charter Today


To empower you in your focus to appreciate, nurture, and support your caregiver heroes, download a copy of Custom Learning’s Operation Uplift Team Organization Charter.

The charter includes an assessment tool and dozens of best practices to improve morale, attitude, and self-care. It also addresses COVID fatigue and retention and includes a reference library of our
Caregiver Heroes videos, TED talks, recommended reading, and more.

Now let’s go spread kindness care everywhere. For more information on this topic, please visit our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/Customlearningsue.

Everyone’s a Caregiver: Providing Education for Healthcare Workers


Everyone's Caregiver provides education to healthcare workers to better improve their patient's overall experience. We understand the time constraints in today's workplace and have customized microlearning videos to help you gain the necessary skills to be a better, more positive healthcare worker. Contact us today to see how we can help, or click here to learn more.

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