NICE JOB!
You’re an appreciation machine.
If you're anything like us, one note of appreciation can open the floodgates and make you think of a bunch of people you want to acknowledge. Feel free to keep the appreciation train rolling and send another one—we’ll stick with you for the full ride. After all, there are eight more epic designs you haven’t sent yet.
Send another note
TRANSFORM YOUR COMPANY
Great workplaces have a
culture of employee appreciation.
Understanding the relationship between appreciation and recognition.
Employee appreciation and recognition might feel similar, but they actually come to life in different ways, and for a variety of celebration occasions.
Let’s walk through the key differentiators:
Employee appreciation and team-building.
Employee appreciation should be part of your daily or weekly routine—it should feel easy, low-stress, and personal. And, it can often require little to no expense because appreciation can simply start with an authentic, verbal “thank you.” It’s a great way to show others that you see their hard work and value their efforts. It can come to life through public shout outs on Slack or live at your company all-hands, written in a personalized note or email, or even as team-building activities for appreciating groups.
Here are a few ways that you can foster a culture of year-round employee appreciation at your company:
Appreciation feels good. Saying or hearing a simple “thank you” can improve happiness, well-being, relationships, motivation—even sleep and physical health. Prioritizing appreciation at work not only benefits individual employees, it can also transform your company and business.
3x
Employees who receive recognition aligned to their needs and expectations are 3X more likely to feel loyal to their organization.
4x
Employees who receive recognition aligned to their needs and expectations are 4X more likely to be engaged.
$16M
Savings in employee turnover costs for a 10,000-person company with a culture of recognition.
To be truly impactful, employee appreciation must be cultural. Celebrating “Employee Appreciation Day”, sending the occasional appreciation card—these acts are great, but they won’t set your workplace apart. Instead, the focus should be on building an always-on culture of appreciation, supported by process, technology, and cultural norms.
appreciation v.s. recognition
What’s the difference between employee appreciation and employee recognition?
Employee appreciation and employee recognition are often used interchangeably but there are key differences to note as you think about building your own culture of appreciation.
Employee appreciation.
Employee appreciation is about expressing gratitude and acknowledgement. Your people are doing small things worthy of praise all the time—things a central leadership team may not always see.
Employee recognition.
Employee recognition is about marking an employee’s milestones, achievements, and contributions at work—often with a reward.
At Blueboard, we view employee appreciation and employee recognition as equally important parts in building a standout company culture. You can learn more about our approach to employee appreciation and recognition here.
transform your culture
How to build a culture of employee appreciation.
The great thing about building a culture of employee appreciation? You can start small by embedding simple, low-cost actions into your existing company norms. From making employee appreciation a part of your manager training, to encouraging public shoutouts on Slack or live at your company all-hands, to using team-building activities as group appreciation, focus on easy-to-maintain, equitable, evergreen touch points.
Here’s how to foster a culture of year-round employee appreciation at your company:
Building a culture of employee appreciation and recognition might be your north star, but it’s helpful to get specific with your goals for workplace appreciation and recognition.
Maybe you need to combat employee disconnection in a hybrid work environment. Maybe you’re hoping to reinforce company values and build culture in the wake of layoffs. Maybe it’s about reducing the impact of silos and sharing wins across your organization to boost morale. Clarifying your goals will help you zoom in on the most impactful employee appreciation and recognition activities for your organization.
An ideal employee recognition program is multi-dimensional, with programs that support day-to-day appreciation, informal recognition, and formal recognition. But you don’t have to try to get there immediately. Building a culture of appreciation really comes down to one key idea: consistency.
So, start with efforts that are easy to implement and maintain. Do you have a weekly company all-hands? Consider adding an open “shout-outs” section where anyone can submit shout outs to be highlighted. Do you have people managers? Consider holding them accountable to delivering appreciation notes to each of their direct reports every month. Start with one or two efforts, evaluate the success of those efforts, and build accordingly. You’ve got this!
If you’re going to invest time, energy, and funds into employee appreciation, it’s important to track the impact of your efforts. If your goal is to nurture employee connection, for example, make sure that:
You are tracking employee connection in some way (you could track this via employee engagement survey, for example),
You have an employee connection benchmark before you roll out an appreciation program,
You have an employee connection benchmark before you roll out an appreciation program,
Consider tracking supporting metrics such as program usage or engagement. If people aren’t participating in your program, it may not be the program itself that’s missing the mark, but communication around the program.
appreciation inspo
Need some employee appreciation inspo?
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Celebrate wins, big and small.
As employees live your company values at work, give them a shout out. If they’re leading by example on the team, celebrate their initiative. When they achieve results towards a major goal or OKR, toast their success.
Sponsor a team gathering.
Treat your team to a virtual or in-person activity based on their shared interests and passions. If you have a competitive team, you could host a trivia or board game night. Or, if you have a super collaborative group of employees, have them try their hand at a scavenger hunt, escape room or cooking class.
Bring self-care to the home office.
In a world where our lives are dominated by digital communications, a snail-mail care package can be a delightful way to improve employee wellbeing.
Before Blueboard, employee recognition was more ad hoc, and wasn’t consistent across the company. Some managers would send gift cards, give PTO time, or share years-of-service awards, but aside from that, not much was done to appreciate employees. Now, when I onboard a round of new hires, they ask about Blueboard. People on their teams are excited, have already shared the program and said, ‘Wait until you experience Blueboard.'
EXPERIENCES over STUFF
Build a culture of appreciation and
recognition with Blueboard.
Blueboard is an employee rewards and recognition company focused on experiences over stuff. We partner with our clients to build recognition programs that employees love and that get results. These programs are centered on experiential employee rewards, incentives, and gifts—think skydiving, dining through Michelin stars, learning to blow glass, or chasing the Northern Lights.
What does it feel like to get recognized with a Blueboard reward? Check out the video below.
Learn more about our approach here
FEATURED RESOURCES
Dig even deeper with some of our favorite employee appreciation resources:
Blog
National Employee Appreciation Day: 8 fresh ideas for celebrating your team
While we’re all for Employee Appreciation Day, everyday, you don’t want to miss out on this year’s EAD. Get fresh ideas to celebrate your people.
Read on the blog
Blog
The 3 types of employee recognition and how to use ‘em
Discover the 3 types of employee recognition and get an actionable blueprint to help you build your organization’s most effective recognition program.
Read on the blog
Blog
5 employee appreciation languages in the workplace
Employee appreciation is critical, but not every employee receives appreciation in the same way: The 5 workplace appreciation languages can help.
Read on the blog
Resources
Get inspired with a few of our favorite recognition resources:
Blog
National Employee Appreciation Day: 8 fresh ideas for celebrating your team
While we’re all for Employee Appreciation Day, everyday, you don’t want to miss out on this year’s EAD. Get fresh ideas to celebrate your people.
Read on the blog
Inspiration Hub
The 3 types of employee recognition and how to use ‘em
Discover the 3 types of employee recognition and get an actionable blueprint to help you build your organization’s most effective recognition program.
Read on the blog
eBook
5 employee appreciation languages in the workplace
Employee appreciation is critical, but not every employee receives appreciation in the same way: The 5 workplace appreciation languages can help.
Read on the blog
Looking for the best way to reward, recognize and incentivize your top people?
Connect with our team for a personalized demo of our recognition and rewards platform and see our hand-curated experience menus.
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