Do Your Workers Feel Appreciated?
As the New Year rolls
on, many employees start to the look at
their jobs and wonder about changing them;
how can you be sure if your employees are
feeling appreciated by you, and help prevent
them wanting to leave for pastures new?
A recent survey by
performance improvement company Maritz found
that almost a third of workers (30%) claim
never to be thanked for their contributions
at work. This is worrying when the results
also show that 90% of workers say that
simply being thanked has a positive effect
on their morale; while 38% of workers say
being thanked improves their productivity.
Elizabeth Houldsworth,
Associate Professor, Henley Management
College comments: “We all know that saying
please and thank you is an act of common
courtesy, however the importance of 'thank
you' in the workplace is often overlooked,
but it is a means of achieving the goals of
staff retention AND also high performance.
Established academic research tells us that
along with achieving a work-life balance,
the most important variables for employee
commitment are: communication & rewards and
recognition”.
“The workplace is
changing and people want more than just a
pay cheque. British workers want to be
appreciated for their efforts, to feel they
are making a difference and to have an
adequate work/life balance. Managers and
bosses need to take note of this now and put
time, effort and money into making their
staff feel wanted. Our experience shows
that their business will quickly reap the
benefits through increased productivity and
decreased recruitment costs,” states Nick
Bender, Managing Director of Maritz.
Respondents were asked
what they would find most and least
motivational when asked to ‘go the extra
mile’ at work. The results indicate that
managers should think carefully how they
‘sell’ an extra task to employees as the
majority, 28%, said that putting in extra
time and effort because it was important to
the business was least motivational to
them. Engagement is key - a quarter said
they would be most motivated if they were
likely to enjoy the task.
For more information on motivating employees
visit our article Motivation in the
Workplace.
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