Employee Appreciation Day
06 Mar 2020
It's the little things that matter most!
For the want of a nail, the kingdom was lost. The old proverb is true and is a great analogy of how sometimes it’s the simple things that matter most! This is never more true than in the workplace.
Employees’ expectations have changed massively over the year and in a highly competitive marketplace, employers are doing everything to attract talent. However, it’s what they’re doing to retain that talent that really matters. Survey after survey shows that employers aren’t necessarily prioritising the same things as their employees. In a recent survey by Benchmark.co.uk, “candidate experience” came third on the list of things employers care about while the “employer brand” came first. Conversely on the list of things employees care about, “candidate experience” came first while the “employer brand” trailed in at sixth. It’s clear that priorities can be quite different and in order to both attract and retain staff, employers need to be far more in tune with what their workforce wants. As recruiters, we constantly have talented professionals citing a lack of recognition as one of the top reasons for leaving a company. So what can employers do?
In a world where “wellness programmes” are top of the list for any HR department, it’s important to note that wellness and candidate experience all need to be embedded into the very fabric of the culture of the organisation. Employers are aware that they need to do or introduce a variety of things to make employees feel valued and appreciated. Obviously, salaries and benefits do play a large part but so does recognising employee achievements and hard work.
Providing training opportunities, professional development programmes and soliciting employee feedback on a regular basis are also important but on a day to day basis, what resonates most are the little things. Being friendly to everyone in the organisation, recognising birthdays, showing appreciation of extra work being put in on special projects, acknowledging the work that goes on in the background, or having pizza delivered to say “thank you” all go a long way to creating a positive working environment.
Appreciating your employees shouldn’t be just one day – it should be every day. #EmployeeAppreciationDay