7 Ways to Express Gratitude to Your Employees (and Why You Should)

It’s the month of Thanksgiving, when we take time to show gratitude for family, friends, and…employees, just for doing their jobs? Read on.

It’s a beautiful crisp morning when the plumbing crew trudges into the office, coffee steaming in their gloved hands. They already have a full day scheduled, but several calls about burst pipes have come in as well. It’ll be a long, cold day, but at least there’s coffee.

Later that morning, the owner of the little downtown bookstore arrives to find the place empty of customers, but her two employees are busily discarding outdated notices on the community bulletin board and reorganizing the shelf with the staff recommendations.

That afternoon, the sales team of a software company awaits a response to their latest pitch. They expect it before the day ends, and they’re feeling cautiously optimistic. They worked hard and never dropped the ball. If the prospect accepts, they’ll have made their biggest sale by far. But then the call comes, and it’s not what they were hoping to hear.

Each of these situations involves employees doing the work their leaders would expect of them, along with the ordinary ups and downs of that work. There’s nothing noteworthy about working in cold temperatures, taking initiative to tidy up when business is slow, or failing to land a deal despite one’s solid efforts. But work doesn’t have to be extraordinary to merit appreciation or recognition. These gestures aren’t just for big wins; they inspire the ordinary good work needed to run a successful organization.

The Benefits of Expressing Gratitude to Employees

Showing gratitude to employees for simply doing the job you expect them to do tells them that you notice their day-to-day efforts and that they, as people, matter to you. At a biological level, it triggers dopamine release, leading to desirable results. Employees feel good about the job they did and feel motivated to succeed again. Research from Gallup backs this up. Employees who receive authentic recognition are more engaged and less likely to leave, saving you good employees and reducing hiring time and costs.

How to Express Gratitude

Gratitude isn’t difficult to express, but it does take some thought and concerted effort in order for it to feel honest and natural. Here are a few tips:

1. Pay attention to the work your employees are doing. The big and the small. Your appreciation will feel more authentic and motivational if it’s tied to specific actions and accomplishments.
2. Don’t wait. In-the-moment appreciation or callouts will be more impactful than waiting until a monthly check-in or team meeting.
3. Say nice things about the work your employees do that you’d like them to repeat. Keep the praise simple and appropriate to the accomplishment.
4. Acknowledge extra effort and more difficult circumstances, even when they weren’t groundbreaking. Your employees are well aware of when their work is uncomfortable, taxing, or tedious. Sharing that you noticed communicates that you care.
5. Pass along appreciation for employees that you hear from others. Ask managers to do the same for their reports.
6. Set up a system for employees to share gratitude for one another’s work. There are a number of apps for this, but you can also make time in team meetings for employees to appreciate one another and pat each other on the back.
7. Call out what employees did right, especially when their work doesn’t result in the desired outcome. Bad outcomes can be incredibly demotivating. While there might be lessons to learn for next time, appreciation is what employees need in that moment.

Creating a Culture of Gratitude

If you’d like to put any or all of these tips into practice but aren’t sure where to start or how to gauge your employees’ satisfaction, GTM’s Cultural Review service might be the solution. Our HR experts will confidentially interview your employees and provide feedback on your organization’s strengths, opportunities for improvement, and recommendations for continued future success. This non-biased third-party survey will yield more in-depth feedback on what your company is doing well and where improvement is needed.

Fill out the brief form below for more information.