Today marks National Employee Appreciation Day and at eduMe, we’re no strangers to the importance of making your people feel appreciated.
A primary way to show appreciation is to recognize your employees. The direct result of giving recognition is engaged, motivated people.
Employee recognition is not to be underestimated - it’s a low cost, high impact way for you to stand out as an employer and retain talent in a competitive market. Employees who don’t feel recognised are twice as likely to quit.
When your team feels (and is) valued for the work and effort that they have put in, it leads to a myriad of benefits - churn decreases, productivity increases, and employees are motivated to improve and sustain their good work.
Something we are ardent advocates for and users of is bonus.ly - an employee recognition platform that encourages your team to show their appreciation to their colleagues.
The premise is simple - every month, each eduMe employee is given 100 Points (worth £10) that they can award to anyone else in the company. You can give points for anything you think deserves recognition, but they are usually given as a ‘thank you’ for helping, or a ‘well done’ for achieving something.
These points can be redeemed on a huge variety of items - whether it’s donating to charity, various gift cards (for yourself or others), “cashing out”, or spending on more Points to hand out to your peers!
The reward is instant, and we’ve integrated it with Slack so everyone can see whenever Points are awarded. It’s been very successful in encouraging interaction between different departments, as well as highlighting some of the great day-to-day things our people regularly achieve.
We’ve been using Bonusly recognition platform for just over a year now, and the results speak for themselves…
Over 75% of employees receive recognition every month, and our most popular tags are #alwaysonit, #teamwork and #results! Last month alone, we gave 1095 bonusly points between us.
As a result of using bonus.ly, our team feels more engaged, included and informed. Giving and receiving recognition not only generates that warm, fuzzy feeling when you show appreciation or are shown appreciation by someone else.
It’s also led to an increase in transparency. Everyone in the company is more aware of the great things their colleagues are doing and any daily ‘wins’ they’ve achieved, professional or otherwise. It also helps shine a light on cross-departmental projects.
By tapping into peer-to-peer recognition with Bonusly, we’ve been able to create a recognition-rich culture.
However Bonus.ly is just one way that we show our appreciation to our employees. A few other things we always do are:
Make sure that new joiners get a signed welcome card from everybody, and their own swag welcome pack (currently posted to their home address!) 📝
A special gift in the post (typically edible) for anyone celebrating an anniversary, be that a work or birthday anniversary 🎂
Use Urban for our fortnightly massages and weekly yoga classes once restrictions are lifted and we’re back in the office 🧘
Provide all-in-one mental health support through Spill
Provide a monthly wellbeing budget through Juno, so each employee can look after their physical and mental wellbeing
Run a company-wide ‘cooking club’, which involves sending out an individual restaurant DIY kit to anybody who wants to take part. We then share our creations over Slack! 🍕
Provide WFH care packages for employees, and one-off surprises for special occasions like Valentine’s Day ❤️
Beyond recognition and gifts, we use eduMe’s Workforce Success platform internally, which allows us to show appreciation in a different way - by keeping employees engaged and on a continuous learning journey.
With eduMe, we are able to provide highly accessible and engaging opportunities for learning and development, which are surfaced at the appropriate time. This empowers our employees to perform at their best - delivering Workforce Success.
While awareness days like today are important, you should strive to make your people feel appreciated every day.
After all, it’s estimated we spend 9.4 years at work over a lifetime. So it’s vital those years are spent feeling purposeful, motivated and engaged - for the mutual benefit of both you and your people.