5 Fun Staff Appreciation Ideas

A couple of recent surveys showed that half of the respondents would stay longer in their current workplace if their efforts were recognised more by their employers.  The respondents stated that those who do not feel recognised would not put in more effort than their job descriptions require. Although many workplaces do have recognition schemes in place to honour their staff, many feel that these schemes are dull, insincere, or not worth the effort required. Avoid this situation and give your employees some genuine recognition and reward them suitably.

Here are a few ideas to kickstart some meaningful ways to appreciate your staff:

1. Birthdays

Not everyone wants to celebrate their birthday. In fact, they would prefer others didn't know they are getting a year older. Many other team members do enjoy these yearly celebrations. As such, it can be a great way to bring the staff together and celebrate with a cake or some healthy treats. Some employers even give employees the day off on their birthday, though this might be a step too far for some. Celebrating a birthday is personal and shows that an employer is thinking about their employees.

2. Peer-to-Peer Recognition

There are plenty of ideas on how to motivate employees without monetary rewards and this is a good one. Coworkers have the ability to pick up on some of the good things that a manager may miss out on. Some of these can be little details that may not appear to make a huge impact on the business, but nevertheless make a difference for those on the front lines of the company. Give employees a chance to shout out the positive things that they see, that make their lives better. These office morale boosts could have otherwise slipped under the radar and make people feel recognised.

3. Prize Tokens

This can be a fun way of earning employee rewards. When someone is doing something well at work, not necessarily something huge, but something that is done well can be rewarded with a token. Employees can save these tokens and trade for a tangible prize. These prizes can be anything, but try and gauge what your employees like. It could be movie tickets, dinners out - there are a ton of different ways to reward employees. One interesting way is entering them in an independent prize draw, such as those that support a charity, and have houses and cars for top prizes. The more tickets they win, then the higher the odds to win a luxury house will be.

4. Employee Opinions

One of the problems with many employee rewards is that the fun game, or the prizes, or the scheme just does not interest anyone. In that case, the lack of motivation will lead to no desire to work harder or to participate. To avoid this situation, simply ask your employees what they would like, what fun activities they know of and would work well, or what activity/prize would motivate them. Often they will reply 'money' in jest, but as mentioned before, there are plenty of different ways to reward employees that don't cost much (if anything) that everyone can agree on.

5. Thank You

One very simple thing that is very easily overlooked is telling someone 'thank you' for a job well done. This can be a very powerful way of recognising someone's effort - and it doesn't cost a thing. This method can be incorporated straight away and takes no extra planning or organising to implement.

Summary

The basic fact is that the more employees feel appreciated, then the harder they will work and the less staff turnover your business will suffer.

People are a business' greatest asset, and well-looked-after happy people will make the business perform better and the workplace will become a nicer place to be.