Why is employee appreciation important in high-performance environments?

 

Introduction 

Appreciating another human being for their efforts or qualities is not something new. We are social beings, and we love it when we are recognized, be it in our personal or professional lives. The need to be noticed, appreciated, and thanked is an innate quality of mankind. We love being recognized by our parents, partners, friends and siblings. And, as a team member by the team captain! 

Appreciation is about making another person feel valued.  

In your organizational setup, too, the same rule applies. Your employees may not put it in so many words. Still, irrespective of their seniority, they would always look forward to an act of appreciation from their peers, seniors, and owners. A good encouraging word, a pat on the back, and a simple ‘thank you’ can indeed do wonders. And, in a high-performance environment like a startup, this is even more essential. Every small or big act of acknowledgment becomes a way of celebrating what the employee means to the organization.  

 

What are high-performance environments? 

High-performance environments are workplaces where employees are expected to have high levels of engagement with their job profiles and roles. Even in their day-to-day work, employees need to exhibit higher levels of energy, passion and collaborate with other departments to achieve organizational goals.  

Basically, there’s a lot to do, for example, in a startup environment where full-fledged teams are not yet on board, and employees need to fulfill multiple roles with tighter deadlines. The pressure-intense environment can be taxing, and even if there is a lot of scope and flexibility to be creative and innovate, many a time, it can become a rough patch.  

Besides all the other facilities that the company might offer in such a high-performance environment, it is vital that employees are made to feel valued by their employers. You need to keep the momentum going; that the passion and enthusiasm levels are always upbeat. How can that be achieved? Perks, higher pay packages, office food, goodies, etc., can, to a certain extent address the issue but to a more significant level, the solution lies in being appreciative. 

 

Psychological effects of workplace appreciation 

A study by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania had divided a group of university fund-raisers into two groups. One group was asked to follow the conventional process of calling up people for alumni donations. The other group was first given a motivational introduction by the director herself, where she expressed her feeling of gratitude for the work being done by the fund-raisers. Within a week, the employees from the second group were doing 50% more calls than the first group.  

Psychologists explain this phenomenon in this way – when one is appreciated, the dopamine in our brains or the reward neurotransmitters are most impacted. As a result, the brain is motivated or gets a boost to perform more of the actions that one was appreciated for. The overall impact is that the person experiences happy emotions and feelings, can sleep & eat better, their stress levels are reduced, is more relaxed and cheerful, with higher self-esteem and optimism. “We are in this together mentality” is developed, which is critical for organizational success. 

 

The importance of employee appreciation in high-performing environments 

• Employee appreciation helps enhance employee morale at the workplace

That is the beauty of this gesture – it has a ripple effect. It creates happy people, and that happiness is infectious. Appreciated people, in turn, show their appreciation for others – thereby affecting the organizational environment and culture.  

 

• Appreciating your employees helps improve productivity.

When employees know that their efforts will be recognized, they’ll put in a higher degree of effort to complete their tasks. They will happily go the extra mile, especially in a high-performance environment where there are last-minute requirements and most employees are hard-pressed on time. When you put in efforts to make your employees feel valued, you empower them to work better and smarter. It keeps them high on motivation to give their best performance.  

 

• Employee appreciation is perhaps one of the best ways to strengthen loyalty and trust. 

Employee engagement skyrockets, and you’ll find people doing their work with more dedication, even in the absence of supervision. 

•  Employee appreciation boosts wellness and employee health.

With positivity around, gratitude exercises are known for being prosocial. It helps create a congenial working environment and an upbeat work culture that most startups need to survive and sustain in a competitive marketplace. 

 

Giving appreciation 

Should appreciation be an annual event like incentives, rewards & recognition, increments, etc.? Certainly not!  

Make appreciation a daily event. It is ideal to find ways to appreciate your people for even small tasks each day. It will keep them going; fueling their morale and energy.  

It doesn’t hurt you or your team to show gratitude for their initiative and passion. All it takes is a ‘thank you’ – two simple words that are powerful enough to transition the entire environment. Many owners, however, feel that why should they keep thanking people when they are already paying their salaries for the work.  

By appreciating, you are addressing a very natural instinct of human nature. Even if the monetary rewards are high in a startup, understand that the demands of the work environment emotionally, physically, and mentally tax your employees. It can get frustrating in an appreciation-less climate. This eventually hurts their performance, where they stop themselves from being completely engaged with work, finding excuses, and being defensive about their work quality. 

Acknowledging their work and efforts and expressing your gratitude in words can make a huge difference. It gives them the boost to be honest, improve, acknowledge and address their mistakes. “Appreciation can make a day, even change a life.” The quote is so true and relatable.  

 

Let’s make appreciation a part of everyday work.
 

An employee comes to the office on time every day, be it rain, hail or sun. Appreciate it. Let the person know that his efforts have been noticed. It will push him to keep doing it consistently and take pride in it. This is a very simple example. 

Similarly, when employees come prepared for a meeting and complete a project before or on time, expressing gratefulness is the best way to bring a positive outlook to the workplace. For a startup where pressures are usually higher than others, such an outlook lays the foundation for a vibrant and happy organizational culture. It also helps make the employer-employee relationship stronger. There are underlying elements of trust, loyalty, and motivation woven in. The result is motivated and productive employees.  

To sum up, appreciating an employee doesn’t cost much – money or time. It is simply an approach, an attitude that owners, managers, and team leaders can instill in their workplace.