Employee recognition is crucial as you want your employees to feel valued and special. However, in today's economic climate, it's important to find ways to recognize your employees without breaking the bank. There are many ways you can make sure to show that your employees know thier performance and work are valued, from using promotional gifts to giving simple thank-you letters. For about $5, here are five ways to let your employees know that you really do care.
Hand Out Gift Cards
Though some might consider gift cards to be thoughtless gifts, if you're distributing them around the holidays and special occasions, you can use them to send a small thank-you message to the employees you want to recognize. If for no other reason than to say "thank you" for staying late in the office or for completing extra work, you should always keep a stack of $5 gift cards to hand out as a thank-you or promotional gift. Low-amount gift cards, such as to local eateries or shops, offer the perfect way to get your message across and express to your employees that you're thinking about them.
Write a Letter
One of the most personalized ways to say "thank you," which doesn't cost anything at all, is a hand-written letter of appreciation. With a little time and effort you can write a personalized thank-you letter of appreciation or card, and express your gratitude for everything your employee does on a daily basis. This can especially be a helpful way to say thanks if he or she has done something out of the ordinary, such as working overtime hours or taking on extra responsibilities for no extra pay.
Nominate Employees
As an alternative to offering a promotional gift, you can also find ways to give special recognition to your employees – even within the community. You can send nominations in for local awards, for example, if you know that you have employees that volunteer or spend their time dedicated to helping others in the community. There may also be local business awards or professional awards. Nominating an employee is not only good PR for your company, but the employee who receives the nomination or award can update their resume with the honor as well.
Recognize Employees Internally
Yet another way to say "thank you" for free, instead of spending money on a promotional gift, is to recognize an employee company-wide. Many times, the best way to recognize an employee internally is to send a company-wide email message with a positive note about the employee. Alternatively, you could also feature him or her in a special section on your website. Recognizing your employees company-wide can either be a spur-of-the-moment idea or you can make it a regular, once-a-month event where you take the opportunity to recognize and publicly say "thank you" to a certain employee.
Special Outings
One low-cost way to say "thank you" to one or more employees is to take them on special outings. These are often impromptu outings where you decide to treat the whole office to a morning of coffee and doughnuts, for example. With something as low-cost as doughnuts or baked goods, the total cost per-person is not going to break the company bank. These special ideas and outings make your employees feel appreciated.
Overall, these are just a few of the low-cost ways you can say "thank you" and recognize employees without investing in a large or costly promotional gift. If you take the time to reward your employees for both the large and small things, it goes a long way!
