I was watching television awhile ago and heard DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg talk about the importance of honoring his studio’s employees. Katzenberg said in the interview:
“The thing that I have learned, and I only wish that I knew it 25 or 30 years ago, which is to honor and celebrate, recognize and reward your employees and their work- is a fantastic business strategy. If they love their work, they love coming to work, they will strive to do great work and you’ll succeed.”
Recognizing and honoring employees for their hard work makes them happy. When you have happy employees, they’ll be more engaged, and more excited about work. When they’re more engaged, they’ll be more productive. When they’re more productive, they’ll work harder, make you more money, and motivate those around them.
At a college job many years ago, I asked a departing, fellow employee who had worked there full time for many years why he was resigning. He told me one of the reasons was, “I do not feel appreciated.”
There are literally hundreds of ways that you can effectively recognize and honor employees, but here are a few. All of these ways cost little to no money at all. In fact, most of these are free, and incredibly simple.
- Greet employees by name every morning
- Include “thank yous” as an agenda item in a meeting
- Encourage employees to take courses online
- Profile employees in the company newsletter
- Reward employees with an extended lunch break
- Send an email to all team members recognizing an employee
- Ask employees what skills they want to learn, and then help them learn them
- Allow employees to be active participants in company decisions
- Take an employee out for lunch
- Have a pizza party, (this actually happened to here recently at our offices as a reward for our recent office relocation!)
Not all employee recognition is on a small scale; an entire career can be saluted. On a much larger note, Modern Trade Communications established the Metal Construction Hall of Fame three years ago. It honors and recognizes the giants in the metal construction industry, who have through innovation, devotion and excellence improved our daily lives. We announced the
2014 Hall of Fame honorees at METALCON in Denver in October. To learn more about the Metal Construction Hall of Fame, go to www.metalconstructionnews.com/contests.aspx.
Meanwhile, what do you do to recognize your employees? It’s so easy to do, and means so much to employees, that it makes no sense for you not to do it. What tips can you share with me? Let me know in the comments!
