You may think your employees know that you care about them, but there’s a good chance a significant chunk of people who work for you are dealing with burnout. A survey from 2018 found almost four in 10 American workers are so sick of their jobs that they’re thinking of leaving. Those workers blame stalled careers and a seeming lack of appreciation from their managers. It’s dangerous to simply assume your employees know that you appreciate all they do. Here are three more tangible ways to show employees that you realize how hard they’re working.
A Well-Stocked Supply Closet
This may seem like a basic thing, but too many managers and owners decide that the best way to run a company is to give their workers as few supplies as possible. Don’t treat your employees like criminals every time they visit the supply closet. If they get more than one pen every three months is going to ruin your company financially, you should probably close up shop anyway and do something else.
Employee theft can happen, but people are more likely to steal money from you than to try and bankrupt you by taking too many Post-It notes. If supply theft concerns you, fight back by giving your workers what they need to do the job. Worry about a lot of missing inventory only if it happens. Instill company pride by handing out branded promotional items from a printing company like Mines Press. Branding isn’t just for your customers; it can also be an effective way of inspiring loyalty among the people who punch the clock every day.
Think of pens, paper, and other office supplies like a desk. You wouldn’t make employees do their work without a desk. They’d look ridiculous just standing in the middle of the office with no work surface. Don’t make them work without other essential items either. You may think you’re saving the company money, but you’re really just depressing morale.
A Night On The Town
You can talk about the importance of work-life balance all you want, but at some point, as a boss, you should put your money where your mouth is and actually give your employees some incentives to leave the office and go out on the town. Think about your area’s cultural offerings, then get some tickets to those offerings for the people putting in the work every single day.
For instance, if you’re anywhere near New York, you’ve got access to the best musicals in the country, if not the world. Handing out Dear Evan Hansen tickets as a quarterly bonus is sure to get people buzzing. That may sound expensive, but it’s not if you know where to look. There are sites that allow you to find relatively affordable Broadway tickets without paying a lot of fees. Besides, anyone can give their employees a gift card to a fast-food chain. You want to go above and beyond because you know that your employees are also going above and beyond.
Random Prize Drawings
We think of bonuses as a thing to give out on special occasions. A lot of employers give them out during December for the holidays. Still, others handed them out after a sweeping tax law passed Congress in late 2017.
It’s not a bad idea to pass down some tax savings to the people who work for you, but why limit yourself to certain times of the year? Workers enjoy pleasant surprises, so why not spend one day randomly drawing names of employees and giving them prizes? Think of rewards like movie gift cards, chocolate gift baskets, or just about anything else. The point is to show people that you don’t only appreciate what they do during the holidays, or right after a tax cut passes. You appreciate it all year long, including on random Tuesdays in April.
