Creating a Culture of Appreciation (HINT: It’s More Than a Recognition Program)

Employees who feel appreciated for their contributions are more likely to perform their best, help out their coworkers, reinforce organizational values, and stay with their organizations longer than employees who do not feel appreciated for their contributions. These positive employee behaviors translate into benefits for organizations including higher organizational performance, faster strategy execution, and cost savings due to retention. As a result, organizations often implement practices to increase feelings of appreciation among their employees. These practices range from implementing formal recognition programs to celebrating Employee Appreciation Day with celebrations and gifts.

A culture of appreciation is a culture in which recognition and gestures of appreciation are inherent in how people work with one another.

While these formal programs and events may help with appreciation, they often fall short of the returns organizations are hoping for. The technical and logistical components associated with formal recognition programs are often a barrier to driving appreciation in a consistent manner across organizations. Events such as Employee Appreciation Day, on the other hand, are often short-lived and their effects wear off quickly. Furthermore, the expenses associated with each of these recognition practices often outweigh the return organizations reap from gains in performance and retention.

Instead of (or at least in addition to) focusing on these formal programs or scheduled events, organizations should strive to create a culture of appreciation. A culture of appreciation is a culture in which recognition and gestures of appreciation are inherent in how people work with one another. These gestures of appreciation occur naturally (rather than through a recognition system) and are displayed by all employees (rather than being led by the Human Resources department).

Here is a Top 10 list of best practices that can help you create a culture of appreciation in your own organization. Keep in mind that these best practices should be driven by employees, especially managers, rather than being assigned to a person in Human Resources.

1. Aligned. Recognize what you want to reinforce. For example, don’t just recognize individual outputs if you hope to reinforce collaborative processes.

2. Personalized. One size doesn’t fit all. Get to know your employees’ motivators and preferences, then personalize your recognition to their needs. Recognizing someone in a manner that doesn’t align with their preferences can actually have a demotivating effect.  

3. Specific. Tie your appreciation back to a specific activity or behavior. This will have greater impact on the employee’s future performance than if you were to provide general recognition or feedback.

4. Sincere. Make sure you mean it. Don’t overuse it or provide the same level of appreciation regardless of the employee or their performance. If you do, it won’t have any impact. This should go without saying, but don't delegate appreciation to another person by having your administrative assistant, for example, write your thank you notes. 

5. Positive. Don’t mix criticism in with the appreciation. If you have constructive feedback, deliver it separately so not to confuse the employee or dilute the positive effect of the appreciation.

6. Immediate. Be timely and spontaneous otherwise the employee will not necessarily be able to connect the feeling of appreciation back to the behavior or task.

7. Appropriate. Make sure the amount and type of appreciation align with the task completed. The significance of the behavior should match the level of appreciation.

8. Collective. Make sure to recognize team performance too – unless you only want to reinforce individual activities.

9. Variety. Sending the same thank you note every time you want to show appreciation can become repetitive to the point of being ignored. Change it up to ensure it still has impact, but make sure to always keep individual motivators and preferences in mind.

10. Consistent. Be sure to recognize consistently – both over time and across all people. Appreciation can’t be a one and done and can’t focus only on one person or group of people.

The image to the right provides some examples of things employees and managers can do to show appreciation for one another. These range from less formal to more formal, and include both private and public displays of appreciation. Get to know what motivates your employees and personalize your appreciation approach to meet their needs.

I hope this post helps you create a culture of appreciation in your own organization. If you need additional support with employee appreciation, feel free to reach out!