33 Unique Ways to Make Employees Feel Valued (2023)

As an entrepreneur, I have built a company around my employees, they are part of the team, so their health, well-being and happiness is important to me. My advice to management is to go the extra mile to keep finding new ways to make employees feel valued.

Make your business environment safe and inclusive for all. Make sure your employees feel comfortable raising their concerns with you. Always be open to feedback. Work hard to build strong relationships by communicating regularly. Create a safe environment for employees to connect.Team building activitiesThey are a good way to bring employees together. Finally, be supportive and understanding, offering solutions or simply being available to listen.

Jonathan Bass, CEO and owner of Whom Home

In our various online businesses,use many freelancersthrough platforms such as UpWork, TextBroker and Freelancer, mainly for content creation. Sometimes these great people do a lot of work for us over time and become full-time employees.

We can show our appreciation by sending them the best products to review. For example, they might photograph and review a 10-gallon aquarium and then maintain and use it themselves. They can also often go back and update the review with more thoughts on the durability and long-term use of the product. In our experience, they find the ability to maintain amazing products to be a nice perk and a reward for good work.

Daniel Morris, owner ofPetNPat

Cousins ​​​​​​Subs has a strong employee recognition strategy. In meetings with restaurant general managers, Alan Lundeen, senior director of talent management, calls them to be scouting detectives. So on Tuesdays Lundeen brings out a stack of greeting cards and each store manager is asked to take a few and give a card to someone they want to thank. Cousins ​​​​​​Subs also distribute birthday cards to employees, as well as wow cards, awarded for high performance or going above and beyond.

Kathryn Kazan, Public Relations Manager at Cousins​​Subs

Ask the team to fill out a quick survey, naming colleagues they are grateful for and writing a sentence about why. You can submit multiple responses. Just make sure everyone has a pair ofgratitudeletters each. Then have someone compile them into a PowerPoint deck for display. If you're on location, even better, print them out and place them in a high-traffic area, like on top of the printer.

It's important to value your employees, but it's also great to be the one to say thank you and make a colleague smile.

Samantha Roberts, Talent Associate at Global Health Strategies (New York office)

Offering employees a greeting, gift card, or free food/beverage is easy, but what employees really want is flexibility. During the pandemic, employers have gone in the opposite directioninvest in employee monitoring softwareto spy on your remote computers. This is also known as the perfect recipe for distrust and dissatisfaction.

Your employees will feel valued when they finally have a break to do their work when it suits them best. Employees must have the ability to work when they want and where they want, especially given virtual work platforms that canhelp teams stay connected, regardless of time or location. Trust your employees enough to let them manage their own lives and schedules. You'll be amazed at how appreciated they feel.

Peter Jackson, CEO da Bluescape

Employees want two things: to be valuable to their mission and to be heard. A manager's job is to recognize these things. I find writing little notes that I leave for my team acknowledging their good work or ideas can be helpful. But even better is when I stop and talk to them about the impact they're having or an idea they brought me and how I'd like to implement it.

This type of commitment may not seem like a traditional appreciation, but it helps to motivate and tell the employee that you are committed to them, which is a form of recognition andappreciation.

Priya Jindal, founder of Nextpat

It's your family you probably want to celebrate big and small victories. Whether it's your kids, husbands and wives, or friends you consider your family or support system, we make sure they feel appreciated and vital in one's great performance, too.

When celebrated alone, wins aren't fun, so we found this token of appreciation effective in relieving stress and allowing you to bond with your loved ones, even for one night. It is these people who continue to support and push them, especially in difficult times. After all, they are their rock, and what makes someone love someone or something more is when they learn to value and appreciate the people who are close to their heart.

Willie Greer, founder ofThe Product Analyst

People love food, so why not buy everyone donuts or pizza so they can get through the day with a happy tummy? You are not only buying food for them, but also strengthening and building relationships between your employees, giving them a sense of being appreciated.

Daniel Snow, CEO and founder ofthe snow agency

The concept of employee appreciation has been around for some time, but the pandemic has put a spotlight on the ideas that companies have chosen to execute.

One such idea was mobile food delivery.

Our business has many young families who have had to adjust to being overnight teachers in addition to providing a fully productive workday. A way that we appreciateshowing our appreciation to employeesis to invite individuals or teams for mobile lunch deliveries to their homes. We also chose to send boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Dane Amyot, Managing DirectorbountiXP

Take an interest in their current reality. It's not about creating a happy hour activity for the group, but facilitating it in a cool virtual way. It's about knowing how your employees' personal lives are REALLY going, making it safe for them to open up. Ask about your family's fears and concerns. Find out how this job connects to her personal life and how that personal life has changed. See if you can make more of an impact on the things that really matter.

William Schumacher, CEO and founder offood survey

Employees feel valued if you interact with them in some way. Know something about them, their kids, dogs, couples names. Hobbies, passions and dreams if you can.

When your greatest asset, your employee, does a good job, look them in the eye and tell them so. No email, text message or call is as valuable as a personal acknowledgment.

Letting them know you value them enough to spend time with them, plus knowing their dog isn't feeling well, leaves your employees feeling like a million bucks. And you feel good too.

Laura Horton, founder ofhound101

Our primary way of making employees feel valued is not money, perks, time off or other extras. It's just giving people responsibility. Giving employees as much responsibility as possible increases engagement, helps them grow, and also speeds up the process of determining if they're a good fit in the long run. Of course, you should recognize your innate ability and experience level, but err on the side ofgiving more responsibilityinstead of less and you will be amazed at the results.

Rick Wallace, Founder ofgarbage city

From experience, I've found that the best way to make employees feel valued is to involve them in company decisions. It could be something as simple as choosing a new uniform or which brand of coffee to use at the office. When they feel they have a voice, they feel valued.

Ahmed Mir, founder of Sip Coffee House

This is a two step process.

Step 1: Catch someone doing something good (effort counts too). Be specific when describing the behavior. For example: “Yesterday, when talking to the customer, you really let him talk about what was important to him. That was incredible."

Step 2: Name 3 specific reasons why this behavior is important. For example: “That makes a big difference becausethe customer really felt that you care about him, it will make you more connected with our company (1). Besides, he'll like us so much that he mightrecommend us to customers(two). And finally, knowing that this is how you take care of our customers makes a huge difference to me personally, because I know I can fully trust you and focus on other areas of the business (3)”.

Many people find it easy to think of two reasons, but the third is what really makes the difference. It forces you to spend more time and energy on what the employee did right and makes you feel truly appreciated.

doctor Eyal Ronen, co-founder and director ofmeaning makers

In today's world of constantly expecting something of monetary value to reward a job well done, it would be nice to go a little old-fashioned. If you are working at the office, as a way of saying thank you, invite an employee to lunch. It also gives you time to explain how helpful they were and inspire them to continue to do so in the future.

If everyone is still working from home, set up a quick meeting and make the same points. However, you will need to submit a gift certificate to cover lunch. Or, if you're still working in the same city, some creative people I know have sent out a delivery service so they can still (virtually) have lunch with an employee. Really... how cool is that?

Alice Ray, founder ofKnow your chickens

It's rare for companies to do this, most of the time it's just the employee who remembers. As such, celebrating work anniversaries (especially milestones) is a great way for an employer to show genuine appreciation for the work an employee has done.

It doesn't have to be fancy either. A simple cupcake or thank-you note is fine, as long as the day is remembered and the employee is recognized as a valued part of the group.

Anna Nielsen, Director of Marketing for Our Good Living Formula

My best idea for employee appreciation is providing opportunities for career growth. From experience, I believe that most motivated employees prefer rewards in the form of additional knowledge. When you give employees new resources to expand their horizons, it opens up opportunities for them to take on projects even outside the scope of their regular roles.

Doing this has produced notable positive work results in my organization, employee interaction has also improved thus creating an improved work culture.

Employee appreciation at its best means giving employees a sense of purpose at work. At the end of the day, appreciation comes in many forms, and organizations shouldn't expect perks or bonuses alone to convey meaning. However, companies that strive to practice valuation consistently will be highlighted.

Manny Hernandez, founder and CEO of OMNI, INC

Every six weeks we hold half-day "Kick" meetings; representing Knowledge, Innovation, Collaboration and Kudos, to celebrate and recognize those who have gone the extra mile.

Promoting public recognition is not only an important part of keeping team members motivated, it also increases the feeling of being valued emotionally and socially.

It is very important that employees feel visible, recognized and secure in their place in the company. I would recommend this approach to any business leader who wants to empower their team while improving communication and mental well-being.

Carlene Jackson, CEOCloud9 Perspective

We all appreciate it when others take the time and effort to get to know us. When your company wants to show appreciation for a specific employee, engage team members to learn more about that person.

One of our employees was celebrating her 5th working anniversary. Our human resources department spoke with her colleagues and learned that she loves doing a variety of artistic projects with her seven-year-old daughter. Our gift was a pottery class for the two of us. He got emotional and then showed us pictures of mugs and mugs they created together.

Personalized recognition is a great way to make your employees feel truly valued and unique. This type of appreciation has a hugeimpact on motivationand loyalty of its employees.

Dorota Lysienia, community manager atLiveCareer

In addition to being a professional, each of your employees has a unique personality with passions, hobbies, interests, etc. The message is simple: for your employees to continue to grow professionally, make sure they fulfill themselves as personalities.

To do this, pay attention to employee preferences. For example, you can customize your corporate birthday or seasonal gifts. Is your accountant crazy about Italian cuisine? Gift them a cooking class certificate!

Be prepared to meet your employees halfway and they will exceed your expectations. For example, if your employee wants to learn French but can't fit it into their work schedule, allow them to change hours when they need to. Corporate parties and work teams are important, but their attention to employee personalities is priceless.

Olena Herasyncchuk, content manager atcloud printer

At the end of the year, we hold an impromptu internal team awards ceremony and give each team member a small gift in recognition of something amazing they've done. This could be anything from closing a deal, to showing kindness to a teammate when needed, to putting a smile on everyone's face by telling the best jokes!

It is our way of showing our employees that regardless of their role and mission, we recognize, support and are proud of them. The success of one is the success of all because we work as a team. It is important for us to shed light on each of our employees!

Sukhi Jutla, co-founder and COO ofMarketOrdens

A week is too short, a month is too long, but an exam every two weeks is perfect. The key is to have some sort of mascot, toy, or symbolic item that encapsulates the spirit of the team and what it stands for. You want it to be some kind of inside joke and therefore make the item even more prestigious and valuable. Top that with a gift card ($50) to the person's favorite store and restaurant and presto, you have a recipe for a wonderful team bonding and appreciation experience.

Bonus: the current winner can nominate the next one, making the process even more organic and popular.

Peter Bryla, community manager atCurriculumLab

The way I appreciate my employees is not always by giving them monetary incentives. I noticed that they are incredibly ecstatic when they receive unexpected gifts. I know it's great to think that someone went out of their way to buy you a gift. I keep a list of what they like. I don't announce when I release what I've prepared, it just happens, like a big surprise on a normal day.

Steve Johnso, owner of www.bootmoodfoot.com

One of my favorites is what I call the “Surprise Thank You”. Once or twice a month I choose someone who has done an exceptional job in some aspect of their job. I do it irregularly, so the employees never know when it's going to arrive. I then task the rest of the team with creating positive notes for the recipient and decorating their desk or tech truck while they have lunch or go out. I buy a surprise like flowers, balloons, or a pile of her favorite candies, etc.

It's a small and relatively inexpensive way to show appreciation, but it always makes the person feel good and builds team camaraderie and even feel good these days.

Laura Fuentes, Infinity Operator

At Wicklewood, we always have days off for the team. We recently hired a boat on the Thames and everyone took the day off to relax and socialize with each other. Between driving the boat, jumping in the water, and tying the boat to the docks, it was a really unique and fun team building exercise. It was a great opportunity for everyone to get to know each other in person and relax outside of the office.

Another unique angle we take at Wicklewood to show how much we appreciate our team is our “Quilt Days”. Each team member gets a quilt day once a quarter when they can call last minute and take the day off to relax at home with one of our cozy quilts from our latest line. It's a small gesture, but sometimes people just need a day off to recharge.

Rosie Axford, co-founder and chief marketing officer ofwicklewood

We use a reward system in our company to show our appreciation for every achievement of our employees. In this system, each employee would receive points for each completed task. Points differ depending on the size of the task or project. By accumulating these points, employees can use them to redeem rewards such as free company products, gift cards, a day off, a paid vacation trip or paid vacation.

Oliver Baker, co-founder ofIntelligent

Each team member can state the tasks he likes and upon completion he would collect the point values ​​corresponding to the tasks. For anything from extended vacations and work-from-home days to company-paid continuing education, these points can be redeemed by team employees on a workplace bonus site. It's one thing to value workers in a way that makes sense to you, but the gamification tool we used allowed people to be valued in the way that mattered most to each worker.

David Meltzer, CEO do East Insurance Group

Due to the implementation of the new WFH scheme, the company is saving a lot and we plan to reward our employeesgiving a raisefor those employees who deserve it. We plan to have him conduct a performance review of each employee by the end of the year and those that would be selected would be compensated from the resources allocated to this plan.

Aaron, founder of TestPrepGenie.com

About 25% of the team worked at headquarters in New York and the other 75% worked remotely, making them feel left out of company events. Every time the company brought employees onsite (happy hour, dinner, cruise), they compensated the remote employees with a Snappy gift. Snappy costs about $7/month per employee and lets you choose from dozens of items related to the theme: Cinco de Mayo, LGBTG, Birthdays.

The remote team waited for Snappy's email notifying them that they could chooseyour gift All employees received the same email for other milestones: project success, birthdays, anniversaries.

I've spoken with several employees who have moved to other companies and they tell me that what they miss most are the Snappy gifts that made them feel like they were an important part of the team. Plus, those gifts — insulated coffee mugs, weighted blankets, essential oil diffusers — still remind them of the good old days at that company. By the way, this company gets five out of five stars in Glassdoor reviews, so it must be working.

Laura Handrick, professional human resources associate atchoice of therapy

My favorite method for this was to create a sort of "shopping giveaway" where employees could win tickets for completing their tasks to enter a sweepstakes. Each month a few people would go on a "shopping spree" and be given an amount of spending money, so we'd take them to thelocal mall and let them spend the money in a short period of time.

The rules were flexible, but they had to buy 1 item for themselves, 1 small item for equipment, and the rest was up to them. Once that was done, we took them back to the office to share their little item with the office so that everyone felt like they had "got something".

Andrew Cunningham, fundador do DailyPest

Most of the guys that work for me are loyal, hardworking, hardworking people. They are the definition of what you are looking for when hiring. However, when it comes to money, they don't always make the right financial decisions.

We created the "We Care Program" as a way to show that we support and value what they do for our business. We sent out an email to all of our employees and told them that when they find themselves in a difficult financial situation, they should contact us and let us know what is going on. This not only gives us the opportunity to train and help them, but also the opportunity to show them that we care.

Myles Daniel, dono dasell my house fast

Showing appreciation to employees is a very important part of a company's culture. The best thing you can do to show your appreciation, especially considering what a crazy year we've had, is without a doubt a warm virtual get-together for your best employee and their remote family and friends, filled with love and laughter. .

What we at Offsyte have done include sending a private virtual ramen and sake tasting class to people we are truly grateful for, with the ramen and sake kit delivered to them and their remote family prior to the live class. . We also help many other companies plan these types of events, such as Google, Apple, Dropbox, Netflix, etc. There are many virtual delivery events on Offsyte that are perfect for this occasion, such as blind wine tastings, mixology classes, boba tea workshops. , and more.

Emma Guo, co-founder and CEO ofOffsite

This year, the company I work for is planning an annual virtual office party. The company announced that it will be handing out lavish gift cards, gadgets and other prizes as a way of saying thank you to employees who stuck with it during the crisis. We are also about to invite a celebrity to our virtual party and our employer announced that they would be offering all expenses paid trips to Europe in 2022. With that, I think it's a kind gesture from our company to appreciate us.

James Bullard, Founder ofI'm a couple

One of my favorite ways to show gratitude to employees is with a #you-awesome Slack channel. In this channel, any team member can praise or congratulate any other team member.

For example, recently our sales manager posted a note about a successful sale by one of our sales reps, and a member of the marketing team thanked a member of the operations team. The reason this channel is so effective for employee appreciation is that it's peer-to-peer, which means it tends to provide recognition and appreciation for the kinds of contributions that may not be on managers' radar. After the praise builds, everyone else piles in with emojis toencourage the team member.

Michael Alexis, CEO dateam work

Showing appreciation to employees would be through a health and wellness theme, maintaining a corporate greenhouse. Employees would pick a vegetable, herb or fruit they liked and plant it in the greenhouse with the associated name. The contents of the greenhouse would be fed by staff supported by volunteers trained in horticulture. The webinars would teach how each type of plant is grown and cared for.

This information would align with a corporate message of general wellness and programs that reinforce the importance of making good health decisions. Employees participated in the greenhouse harvest, receiving a care basket with a card and recipe suggestions for its contents. The card read 'From our greenhouse to your table'. We care about our people, our environment and our health!

Jenn Drakes, founder ofICANNWORLD INC.

The Covid-19 lockdown hit, and suddenly everyone at our performance marketing company had to work from home. This was a situation that no one had really prepared for, and it raised all sorts of questions about proper work spaces and equipment.

Our team makes a profit spending on travel and wellness, but we quickly changed that to allow them to spend the money onhome Officeteam on site. So they used company funds for all kinds of chairs, tables, and laptop stands to get ready to work comfortably from home.

We've also sent boxes of healthy snacks, fresh fruit from a local farm, and tasty takeout food, just to keep your spirits up during the pandemic and help the local food economy.

Mario Cacciottolo, brand manager fromblexr

Send a thank you letter to the employee's home, but do not address it to the employee. Target to [NAME]'s family. Detail employee contributions. Describe the difference your work has made in your life, the lives of your clients, and the lives of your co-workers. Speak directly to the family, like this: “I am sending this letter to tell you what an amazing job your mother has done and to thank you for sharing it with us…”.

Be detail-oriented and celebrate that employee. This gesture costs nothing and will be truly special. Remember, effective appreciation is not a gift, it's about making people feel noticed and valued.

Joe Mull, M.Ed, CSP, speaker, author, and engagement consultant

One of the best ways to really show gratitude to your employees is to provide them with a fun work environment. By providing a fun work environment, employees look forward to going to work instead of just clocking in and can't wait to clock out.

There are actions you can start taking TODAY to encourage employee fun and appreciation in your workplace and create an open, creative and collaborative environment.

A great way to implement more fun and appreciation is to designate someone in the company (or on your team) as an official Fun Ambassador.

This person would be responsible for championing your "fun script" or establishing a "fun cultural template" on an ongoing basis. This role should be for someone who is positive, optimistic, and admired by others.

Whether you want to implement things like monthly workgroups, an employee recognition system, or a staff hiring process, your Fun Ambassador will make it all happen for your company.

Rebecca Binnendyk, CFO (Chief Fun Officer) and fundadora deFun Outta Life Mentoring and Coaching

I show gratitude to my 9 employees* by setting up a table every now and then with a "Take What You Need" sign.

The table has Advils for when they have a headache, Kit Kat bars if they need a break, printed Starbucks barcodes for free coffee, a calendar to schedule a day when they can take their pets to the office and earplugs. for when they need something. do not disturb the time. This is my simple way of showing you that I hear your needs and that your hard work is always appreciated.

Valentina López, co-founder ofhappiness without

When I found out that one of our employees is working overtime to meet targets, I was shocked. First, I investigated why this person takes so long to complete certain tasks. I thought its working efficiency is very good, but the task itself was unpredictable. Finally, he reached the goal and it was huge for us. To thank him for his efforts, we gave him a week off with pay.

We make gift cards or giveaways, but sometimes just giving someone time is more important than anything else! That time was well spent with friends and family. He was very happy.

Adam Rowles, CEO daInbound Marketing Agency

Managers must monitor the development of each employee. It is up to the manager to challenge each employee with a constant pace of growth that ispushing them to learnbut not at the speed of being overwhelmed.

In addition, executives must ensure that there is a visible opportunity for growth within the company. An employee should always have a viable position to aspire to. This will motivate them to work harder and provide a visible path to success within the company.

Finally, build core values ​​into your company culture that support team members and have their best interests in mind, as well as encourage open communication and feedback.