How do you appreciate your employees?

We have heard it so many times – that people are the core of the business, and human capital is important but how often do the middle management and top management really show their appreciation to employees?

If you are reading this, and you are one of the management or in the Human Resource team, then maybe it is time for you to initiate! Employee Appreciation Day falls on the 3rd March annually but it is still not too late!

Here are some ways you can show your extra appreciation to your employees!

Provide Welfare

You can do this by providing massage services to employees who badly need to relax – whether is it for your blue collars who are doing your manual work or your white collars who are constantly hunched trying to coordinate your work for you.

Provide Food

You can’t really go wrong with food, as food commonly bonds colleagues and friends! Good food is awesome, but it will be even better when it is fully sponsored by the Company!

During this period, there should also not be any restrictions on lunch break! Lunch break should be if your employees wishes. It is ultimately a form of reward for all the hard work done.

You can also provide new coffee machines in the pantry, as an extra surprise to your employees! This give them the extra perk to perform better in their work anyway!

Hand written notes

This do not have to be presentable, and expensive cards to show your appreciation. Simple one or two sentences to show your appreciation will do. You can be surprised of what a few words can do!

Reorganize your office

If you have the luxury of time, you can request for your employees to give the walls a different shade of colour, and understand the request of a reorganization of office furniture.

You can even provide them a small budget to redecorate their office spaces, to feel energized!

Purchase a new computer!

This applies if you have huge budget or when your computer is old. Imagine your employee’s delight if you’re able to give them something new to allow them to be more productive at work!

You can also introduce systems to help encourage productivity and efficiency as well – to make work more meaningful and less administrative.

Be Interested

Employees would really feel appreciated if you are interested in their personal lives, apart from how they are like in the company. If bosses show interest in their families, instead of how much work have they performed – this would also reflect as an appreciation of employees.

This would be even better if you allow your employees a more flexible schedule if they are able to perform in their work. It would be one thing to share that you want them to have a work-life balance, and another if you really make it one of the priorities that has been stressed by the management.

Creating a learning culture

As the Chinese proverb states, "Learn till old, live till old", no matter how old one is, there is always more learning or studying left to do.

Corporate Executives are empathizing on the ability an employee is to adapt in the rapid development in the current workforce. Employees on the other hand, are continuously trying to learn and grow while being on a job. The opportunity for training and development has become one of the most popular benefits that candidates are looking at when looking for a job.

Research shows that as technology advances, approximately half of the jobs available in the market will be automated, thus emphasizing the importance of employee's learning to keep up with the advancement. 

Even though organizations understand the concept of encouraging constant learning, but it's often the execution part that is tedious. In order for companies to create an effective learning environment, one can consider taking these few steps below.

Skills VS Conduct

Skill is usually teachable to individuals be it online or offline and could be assessed later. This can be done by conducting lessons or workshops to teach employees with the skill required and conducting a test after to measure their level of understanding.

Whereas conduct which means how one should react when faced a situation, which is difficult to be taught as it everyone already have different approach when dealing with different situations. Instead of commanding your employees to behave in a certain manner, one can emphasis on the importance of why the behavior should be implemented.

It's about the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities (KSAs)

In order for learning to positively influence the culture, organizations should encourage employees to improve on their Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.

Different individuals take different duration to adapt to absorb the new skill that they are impart with, it will definitely take some time to put the skill to action. After employees managed to incorporate the skills they learnt, it will eventually become their habit to act in the way that was being taught.

Be encouraging

Managers should take lead and show others that they understand how the learning culture operates and why it is being implemented. Top executive should make sure that the objectives of learning are synced with the business goals and encourage employees not to be afraid when faced with failure as it would just be a part of learning and growing with the company.

Communicate

Each individual in the company should be reassured that the value of learning is not only beneficial to the organization but also to themselves as well.

By putting up posters or sending notices to employees might not be the best way to convey the message to them, HR department should actively engage employees to share about the philosophy about learning and encourage more opportunities to grow.

Customize your platforms

Currently there are many learning materials available that can be bought off-the-shelf to be used for in-house training. They might be good enough for a basic training but there is no such thing as one size fits all, in order to make sure that it is suitable for your organization, they can be customized to meet your company's needs.

Take time for feedback

Feedback might be deemed as tedious, but it not only determines the effect of training held, it also provides information of how you can keep the management up-to-date. In the long run, such feedback would allow you to be able to measure the amount of impact of different aspects of the business on top of just the knowledge and performance.

Experiment with what you have

If the turn up rate of a certain workshop is not what you expected, review to check if the topics are relevant or take a different approach.

If the approach of doing the workshop offsite is not showing results, try doing an in-house workshop. Let your employees choose a way that fits them best.

Organizations need to deduce on the most effective way to convey the new knowledge. There must always be a balance to learning as well, do not flood all the workshops at once, take your time and enjoy the journey while trying to change the culture.

Building a Successful Company Culture

Empathy, a common word but also often a skill that companies might not practice. Employers should be aware of own's and employee's feelings, needs and concerns. Research has shown that being empathetic helps boost morale, reduces misunderstandings and disputes while building a long-lasting relationship all together. 

To practice empathy in a workplace, one has to take note of the following points.

Be attentive

It's human nature that we usually forget to consider how others are feeling, which is usually the reason why misunderstandings and disputes happens creating a stressful working environment. One needs to take time aside to understand each other's feelings before passing comments about any issue.

Always be mindful about how the other party is conveying the message, which include their facial expression, gestures or any other factors verbally and non-verbally and revert in a supportive manner.

Lend a listening ear

Listening is one of the key factor to a successful business. Listening to others helps redirecting one's personal goal into those of the team, which would help company's career advancement leading to a successful company.

Staying on the same track

Studies shows that empathy is the most essential factor when comparing to job performance.

Getting to know your employees better helps the company work towards the common goal, resulting in a more efficient working culture.

Even though profit plays a big part for a business but working in a profit oriented company would mean that its success is driven by the expenses of its employees, which will lower their morale and productivity, making them emotionless and always in great pressure.

Employees plays an important role in any successful business, engaging in a more empathetic approach would help boost the productivity to create a more conducive working environment leading the business to success.  

Bored of Work – Finding New Excitement

After a few years on the job and that you thought that you have mastered the skills required and that you are doing the same old work every day... Sometimes, the itchiness in you just tell you to move on and find more challenges, something that’s more “exciting” and “better”.

Sit down and really think – you achieve a level of trust with your bosses and colleagues and maintain certain flexibility at work – in terms of schedule and project timeline with colleagues. Imagine stepping into a new environment and having to build relationship and understand the culture and working styles all over again… well, some call that challenges. However, I thought challenges and excitement can be found elsewhere.

PARTICIPATE IN VOLUNTARY WORKS

Here you are, with neighborhood or surroundings with people who are the less fortunate. Don’t let our free time run wild. Use this time to return to the society. Look out for the causes that you feel you can relateand that you do not seek favors in return. Be sure to attend voluntary works with heart to help others or expect nothing in return.

You will get to meet more people, and feel the warmth of the society and people who are going around with you. While you may find slight unhappiness and boredom at work, see the faces of the people you are helping, they will let you forget about unhappiness and you will be looking forward to seeing them for each cause or project you’re supporting.

GO FOR VACATIONS

You have your annual leave to consume yearly. I’m not telling you to use your annual leave all on vacations, but one or two vacations will be sufficient. Go for one that you leave your work behind totally – emails and business calls out of reach. Leave your work to your deputy in-charge or even your covering colleague. Have the trust and confidence that they’ll be following up with your work closely.

Honestly, there will never a “good” time to go for vacations. Every boss will tell you that they need you to be around. I’m sure your boss said that because you have been the person he/she has been relying on but when you start your break, they will respect your absence from work. Come on, he knows it – he yearns for the break too!

DO SOME SMALL SIDELINE

Start a new mini project out of office time. May not be the challenging and big money making project but it’s okay… do a really small one. For instance, picking up a small sale business like selling things off Carousell or assisting wedding photography. Things that are totally unrelated to your office-hour job.

Look, your current job is giving you a stable income and peaceful environment to pick up new skills (with more income)