Business leaders everywhere are using every tool at their disposal to try and keep employees motivated and engaged in the most testing of circumstances given the current lockdown. Employees are having to worry about the health of their loved ones, navigate some pretty sobering headlines, and also manage their working day amidst busy households. Keeping teams motivated has perhaps never been more challenging than it is during this lockdown.
Achievers has launched Appreciation Cards to allow managers or team members in any business to recognise their colleagues for free in a thoughtful way. It is a small thing to do, but it can make a big difference. Here’s why:
Recognition and Appreciation is Pivotal
There are numerous studies that illustrate how highly employees value appreciation, often pinpointing it as the leading driver of engagement. However, even in normal times (remember those!), managers are much less likely to understand this importance and, as a result, employees report that they are not recognised frequently and feel under appreciated.
A major barrier for some large enterprises is cost. Worries persist that given the financial incentives underpinning many reward schemes. In work with our clients, however, Achievers sees that the engagement boost from including financial reward in recognition programmes is small, if there is any at all. It is not the monetary value of recognition that makes a difference, it is the feeling of being appreciated it turns out.
And employees love it. Achievers sees typically above 80 per cent adoption of its recognition platform – sky high when compared to most enterprise technologies.
Open Invitation
Of course, not every company currently has an employee engagement platform in place that allows for recognition. As a result, we wanted to create an easy to use web portal that would allow anybody, anywhere to send a visually engaging appreciation card to colleagues for free.
From colleagues and vendors, to friends and neighbours, the new Appreciation Cards are designed to share joy and recognition, and to help reduce the feeling of social distance.
We know that recognition has the power to boost morale, improve connections, and lift spirits, so it is important that we all do as much as we possibly can
However You Do It, Do It More
It doesn’t always have to be an Appreciation Card such as the ones Achievers has built for open use. It can be less or more formal, but the key is to build this into part of your daily routine and you will see this behaviour reciprocated and become infectious, boosting morale across the organisation. Recognising a group of people helps build their solidarity and bond, recognising an individual helps build their esteem. Sixty per cent of workers want to be recognised more frequently than they currently are according to recent research conducted by Achievers.
Frequency can help make appreciation a habit and this is how you embed it to drive greater engagement, productivity and, ultimately, business results.
All businesses need to maximise their output at the current time as much as is possible given the extraordinary circumstances. We have never experienced anything like this before. The impact on our professional and personal lives of social distancing and lockdown is easy to underestimate. Showing empathy and appreciating one another’s contributions in the midst of this are a positive step we can all take to help get through to the brighter times ahead.
Are you ready to spread appreciation? Appreciate someone today by customising and sending an Appreciation Card.