Grateful Workplaces and Engaged Employees
Grateful Workplaces and Engaged Employees
All leaders need to ask themselves why happy and engaged employees are worth their weight in gold. If you’re a business owner, look around your company. If you’re in a leadership role within a corporation, look around your department. Are you using a critical eye to evaluate what’s going on behind the scenes with your employees? If not, you’re missing an opportunity to use your relationship skills and develop those deeper, meaningful conversations that matter to them and the organization.
The Value of Appreciation
It’s amazing to see how showing appreciation and expressing gratitude with two little words like “thank you” and “well done” can affect people. In a report conducted by TINYpulse, 30,000 people were queried to uncover what makes for an engaged, happy workplace. The findings revealed that 70% of people rated their workplace as fun due to the appreciation and subsequent recognition they received, from leadership and peers, and not because of perks such as ping pong tables and free beer Fridays.
Showing gratitude gives employees the support and recognition they want and the encouragement to go above and beyond. In essence, appreciation and gratitude inspire people and motivates them to be engaged and interested.
They Tell One Person, Who Tells Two People…
Developing a cadre of brand ambassadors is a great idea for any company looking to extend their brand externally and reinforce it internally. When employees feel appreciated and included, they are more likely to get involved, go beyond the call of duty, show a greater aptitude for collaboration, and to spread the word of their great feelings about the organization and the work they do that contributes to positive outcomes. It’s important to have communications that run up, down and sideways along the chain. This practice helps reinforce a workplace where open communications are part of the culture and practiced by everyone.
When employees are not feeling appreciated nor included, feelings of disinterest in their employer may develop and can lead them to speak in negative tones publicly and with that can easily spread to any customers with whom disengaged employees may come into contact. These negative interactions can directly affect customer purchases, retention and recommendations on company review sites, such as Glassdoor, Capterra and TrustRadius.
Further, brands always need to be mindful of the speed at which information, whether good or bad, can travel. With the advent of channels like social media, negative and positive messages can disseminate quickly and cast a wide net reaching many individuals in either good or bad ways.
It’s Good Business
Organizations that promote cultures of positivity, camaraderie, collaboration, feedback, and good communications will benefit in myriad ways when it comes to employees.
As mentioned earlier, unappreciated, disengaged employees who come into contact with customers can start a downward spiral, which may, in turn, show its effects with weakening sales numbers and poor online consumer reviews.
In a research project conducted by Gallup, researchers identified nine impactful factors that affect employee engagement with customer ratings, productivity and profitability being listed as three of the factors that can either advance or regress an organization’s brand image and fiscal health.
In a related research study published in the Harvard Business Review details from a Gallup Poll survey uncovered findings that show disengaged workers had 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and defects. The occurrences of these high percentages are a strong indicator of not only disengaged employees, but unmotivated employees who don’t find satisfaction in their work, nor do they have a positive outlook of their company. In a joint research project conducted by doctors at the University of California and University of Florida, they found that those participants who focused on the positive aspects of their life, versus the comparison group who focused on feelings of irritation and dissatisfaction, were much happier, optimistic and more likely to demonstrate healthier habits. These feelings are not exclusive to one’s time away from work. They spill over into people’s work lives, affecting productivity and results.
Lastly, organizations must give their employees reasons to be brand ambassadors by setting an example for employees to follow and to not expect people to share goodwill if they aren’t included in the conversations nor allowed to be a contributor. Open communications, recognition, showing appreciation, and good listening are all ways to open the door to a more harmonious work culture.
Related Blogs
-
Mar 6, 2020Effective Job Search
The Key To Carrying Out A Productive And Effective Job Search In my experience as a career coach, I have found that people who are..
-
Feb 28, 2020Your Company Might Offer…
Your Company Might Offer High Salaries, But Does It Have Soul? It’s a well-established stereotype that large-scale companies are about as approachable as a concrete..
-
Feb 21, 2020Benefits of Stay Interviews
Retain More Employees With Stay Interviews Employees are quitting in droves, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, backed up by hard data from..
-
Feb 7, 2020February Job Search
3 Things You Need To Know About A February Job Search There’s no bad time to look for a job, but there are seasonal trends..
-
Jan 24, 2020Hire Without A Resume
Hire Without Looking At A Resume We’re all more than what’s on our resume. But while a lot of leaders pay lip service to that..
-
Jan 17, 2020Meeting Don’ts
8 Things You Should Not Do In Meetings Meetings are perhaps the most powerful personal branding tool there is—when you master them. They also make..
-
Nov 29, 2019Job Offer Management
How To Turn Down A Job Offer Without Burning Bridges Sometimes you have to make the difficult decision to turn down a job offer. It’s..
-
Nov 22, 2019Spend your day wisely
How To Spend Your Working Day Wisely And Actually Get Things Done Time doesn’t discriminate. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company with an overloaded..
-
Oct 25, 2019Super power at Work
What Is Your Super Power At Work? Do you know that every person who works for you has a super power? Well, they do. Superman..
-
Sep 27, 2019The Interview Question
The Interview Question You Need To Answer Right: ‘Tell Me About Yourself’ “I bombed the interview.” This was a message I got from a brand..
-
Sep 20, 2019Belonging At Work
Belonging At Work Is Essential—Here Are 4 Ways To Foster It In the complex study of human psychology, one finding is remarkably consistent: our well-being..
-
Aug 30, 2019Effective Time Management
11 Signs You're Not Managing Your Calendar Effectively Time to admit there's a better way to stay on top of your appointments. If you’re like..
-
Aug 23, 2019Great First Impression
How To Make A Great First Impression At Your New Job You only get one chance to make a first impression, so make it count...
-
Aug 16, 2019Purpose And Values
How To Connect With Your Company's Purpose And Values Some employees feel fully inspired by their company's mission, vision and values. But they don’t just mindlessly glug the Kool-Aid—they connect on a deep,..
-
Aug 9, 2019Holiday Season Job Search
4 Reasons You Should Keep Up Your Job Search During the Holidays Now that the holidays are upon us, you may be considering taking a..
-
Jul 26, 2019Job Search Difficulties
3 Surprising Reasons Your Job Search Still Isn't Working It’s been months into your job search and you’re just about ready to pull your hair..
-
Jul 5, 2019Overloaded And Overwhelmed?
Overloaded And Overwhelmed? Four Things You Can Control When Your Workload Is Out Of Control Our research indicates a terrifying 43% of knowledge workers do..
-
Jun 21, 2019Employee Empowerment
4 Leadership Methods for Empowering Employees and Building Strong Teams Realizing your responsibility to lead can be scary, but done right, leadership breaks down to..
-
Jun 7, 2019Five Things Employees Want
The Five Things Employees Really Want I haven't managed to catch all the episodes of Undercover Boss this season, but there was one I knew..
-
May 31, 2019Thrive At Work
6 Steps To Unleash Your Inner Polymath And Thrive At Work In a previous article I explored some of the virtues of striving for a..
-
May 24, 2019Successful and Happy
The One Daily Action That Will Make You More Successful And Happier At Work In our fast-paced world where we have more to do than..
-
May 3, 2019Great Employees
What It Takes To Be A Great Employee: The Parable Of The Oranges Being a great employee pays off with better positions, higher pay, and..
-
Apr 25, 2019Your first Job
10 Essential Strategies To Succeed In Your First Job Congratulations, graduate! After the exhausting and stressful process of finishing school, searching for and landing your..
-
Apr 19, 2019Starting a New Job?
When You Start a New Job, Pay Attention to These 5 Aspects of Company Culture When you join an organization, you have a short window..
-
Apr 12, 2019How To Escape Procrastination
How To Escape The Procrastination Doom Loop When you imagine a highly productive person, you likely think of someone who focuses effortlessly on the job..
-
Apr 5, 2019Exceptional Employees
8 Clues That a Candidate Will be an Exceptional Employee Over the past 40 years, I have reviewed at least 30,000 resumes and LinkedIn profiles..
-
Mar 22, 2019Increase Employee Retention
4 Smart Ways to Increase Employee Retention Keeping your employees once you have them is a thorny problem in the staffing services industry. The difficulty..
-
Mar 15, 2019Things Happen!
Here's How To Recover From A Career Setback Whether you’ve botched an interview question, cancelled an important meeting last-minute or missed a typo in an..
-
Feb 22, 2019How to Assess Transferable…
How do you make sure you don’t lose out on those candidates who bring additional talents, interests, and unusual experiences that can be a real..
-
Feb 15, 2019Workplace Diversity
In an 8-Minute Animated Film, Pixar Just Captured Why Companies Still Struggle With Workplace Diversity Yes, it's a movie about a pink ball of yarn--but..
-
Jan 25, 2019Effective Job Interview
How to conduct an effective job interview As the employment market improves and candidates have more options, hiring the right person for the job has..
-
Dec 14, 2018Stay Focused Through the…
14 Ways to Stay Focused at Work Through the Holidays We’re in the midst of the holiday season, and as you try to juggle parties,..
-
Dec 7, 2018Great Employees Leave Great…
Why Great Employees Leave “Great Cultures” “We have a great culture.” We have all heard it. We have all said it. But what does that..
-
Nov 30, 2018On-the-Job Training
Young Workers No Longer Get the On-the-Job Training They Need -- So They're Finding It Elsewhere With companies training people less, the most valuable path..
-
Nov 23, 2018Help Your New Hires…
3 Ways You Can Help Your New Hires to Succeed Filling a vacant position is expensive, and unless you do these three things, it's liable..
-
Nov 15, 2018A Successful Meeting
Three Ways To Prevent Someone From Stealing Your Spotlight In A Meeting We've all been there at one point or another. You're in a meeting,..
-
Nov 9, 2018‘Bad’ Interviewee
That 'Bad' Interviewee You Just Talked to May Be the Perfect Match for Your Job Opening The 'pattern matching' that companies have long used to..
-
Nov 2, 2018When should managers overlook…
Why managers should overlook results in these situations By focusing on culture and people first, you can set your team up for success in the..
-
Oct 26, 2018Recruitment in Cyprus
Recruitment in Cyprus - Thoughts and Ideas from Advance Career Team Read the detailed interview published on TopJobsCyprus website and share your comments and ideas!..
-
Oct 12, 2018Integrators VS Segmentors
Are your employees integrators or segmentors? An organization has both integrators and segmentors. Being a segmentor is a tough ask. If you choose to be..
-
Oct 5, 2018Help Your Team Members…
Help Your Team Members Succeed (Especially When They're Tempted to Leave) Help that valued employee being lured by another opportunity think through what they are..
-
Sep 28, 2018Avoid Toxic Team Members
Are You Hiring a 'Team' Player -- or Someone Just Looking out for No. 1? How can leaders make sure they're not unwittingly inviting a..
-
Sep 21, 2018What Motivates You to…
What Motivates You to Work? That paycheck will never be big enough if it's the only reason you're going to work. Each of us respond..
-
Aug 17, 2018Social media can cost…
When 'What Happens In Vegas' Ends Up In Your Job Search What happens in Vegas really doesn’t stay there. That “funny” picture about that..
-
Aug 10, 2018Avoid Summer Slump
How To Improve Productivity For Yourself And Your Team This Summer July and August are historically bad months for productivity. It might be the warm..
-
Aug 3, 2018Emotional Intelligence at Workplace
How To Develop More Emotionally Intelligent Employees In the quest to develop leaders who will foster a culture of equity and inclusion in the workplace,..
-
Jul 20, 2018Rewarding Employees Wisely
5 Ways to Reward Employees When Raises Aren't an Option Many workers are doing double duty these days because employers either can’t afford to hire..
-
Jul 6, 2018Hiring the right people?
5 Steps to Hiring the Right People for Your Business "Hire slow, fire fast" is great advice, but it's not always easy to follow. The..
-
Jun 15, 2018Experience or Talent?
When to Hire Raw Talent vs. Job Experience Experience is a must for some jobs, but people with raw talent offer unique benefits. You have..
-
Jun 8, 2018Back On Track
How to get back on track when you’re having an unproductive day A rocky start shouldn’t dictate your entire workday. Do these things to reverse..
-
Jun 1, 2018Value of Office Communication
Why Office Communication is Highly Valued and Often Ignored A huge number of employees don't trust their bosses, and it's not hard to figure out..
-
May 25, 2018Impacts of High Turnover
The Negative Impacts of a High Turnover Rate High turnover rates can negatively affect a company and its employees in many ways. With the constant..
-
May 18, 2018General Data Protection Regulation
Five Final Checks To Ensure GDPR Compliance It is just one week until the EU update to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance deadline of..
-
May 11, 2018Employee Onboarding Strategies
Seven New Onboarding Strategies You'll See This Year According to a study from Equifax, more than half of all employees who left their job in..
-
Apr 27, 2018AI empowers HR
AI will make HR more Human, Strategic and Innovated Artificial intelligence (AI) is a source of both huge excitement and fear across the HR function...
-
Apr 13, 2018Negative performance feedback
Is giving negative performance feedback really negative? Negative performance feedback is a difficult topic to talk about. Does it help the performance? This feature throws..
-
Apr 5, 2018Inclusion in the Workplace
Inclusion Doesn’t Mean Including Everything and Everyone Inclusiveness is not about thought policing. It’s also not about turning everyone into a liberal. It’s a normal..
-
Mar 30, 2018Inspire Change In Your…
4 Ways To Inspire Change In Your Employees Have you ever listened to a speech that inspired you so much, you were ready to make..
-
Mar 23, 2018Employees Feel and Act…
7 Ways to Incent Employees to Feel and Act as Owners Building accountability into your business culture is a leadership process. It can't be driven..
-
Mar 16, 2018Don’t Shuffle People Into…
Don't Shuffle People Into the Wrong Job Just Because They're Already on the Payroll You grow your company by putting proven performers where you need..
-
Mar 9, 2018The Best Internal Candidate…
Why the Best Internal Candidate Might Be from an Unlikely Part of the Company Nearly a decade since Gallup released its bible, Strengths-Based Leadership, which..
-
Feb 26, 2018Minimise Workplace Negativity
Tips for Minimizing Workplace Negativity To Deal with Negativity in the Workplace, Use These 9 Tips Nothing affects employee morale more insidiously than persistent workplace..
-
Feb 9, 2018The future Workspace
Why a Coffee Shop Will Probably Be Your Workspace Within 10 Years As the gig economy grows, there are both social and scientific reasons why..
-
Jan 26, 2018Prepare new employees for…
The Best Way to Set New Employees Up for Success Create an onboarding program that's both meaningful and memorable Congratulations; you've just hired a terrific..
-
Jan 19, 2018First Hour, Day, Week,…
Do This In Your First Hour, Day, Week, And Month Of Your New Job Getting settled into your new job is the ultimate act of..
-
Jan 5, 20187 Ways Modest Leadership…
7 Ways Modest Leadership Increases Team Success When we imagine the traits of successful leaders, whether they are managers, high level executives, CEO's or owners..
-
Dec 15, 2017Employee stress during Christmas
Managing employee stress during the festive period More than half of employees feel stressed in the weeks leading up to Christmas, with most calling for..
-
Dec 8, 2017HR in 2022
What's HR going to be in 2022? A Study sheds some light... A recent study shows us a glimpse of what HR might look like..
-
Dec 1, 2017Appreciating your employees
How to Avoid the No. 1 Reason People Leave Their Jobs William James, the father of psychology, stated that the most fundamental psychological need is..
-
Nov 24, 2017HR Function in 2024
Will You Be Leading an HR Function in 2024? Here are five things to look at to examine and determine if you’ve got what it..
-
Nov 17, 2017Employee Appraisals
Importance of Effective Employee Appraisals The performance appraisal may be one of the few times during the year where an employee and the reviewer, typically..
-
Nov 2, 2017The workplace is changing
From Cubicle To Coffee Shop - How The Workplace As We Know It Is Changing In the past few years we have seen a major..
-
Oct 20, 2017Employees don’t see link…
Employees don't see link between pay and performance Employers gave themselves only mediocre ratings on pay programme effectiveness. Employees are struggling to see the link..
-
Oct 13, 2017Working for small companies
Why You Should Consider Working For A Small Company Eighty-four percent of small-business employees are happy in their current job, according to the 2017 Aflac..
-
Oct 6, 2017HR’s key role in…
HR's key role in enlightened office design HR magazine and Landid's roundtable on the workspace of tomorrow explored how HR can positively influence facilities management..
-
Sep 22, 2017Workplaces still hamper productivity
Workplaces still hamper productivity Noise, lack of privacy and space are some of the factors causing the greatest dissatisfaction among office workers Nearly half of..
-
Aug 25, 2017Top 10 Benefits Of…
Top 10 Benefits Of A Workplace Wellness Program When Google opened up in the 90s it took a unique approach to employee satisfaction. In an..
-
Aug 4, 2017Is it time to…
The Best Ways to Reward Employees. Having an effective reward program in place can help solve many of your HR issues. Every company needs a..
-
Jul 21, 2017People don’t take HR…
People Don’t Take HR Seriously; Here’s Why That’s Dangerous Legacy beliefs like being the bad guy and a lack of strategic vision isolates HR, and..
-
May 2, 2017Employee Burnout
What causes burnout and how it can affect both the employees and the organisation How HR Can Help Prevent Employee Burnout An engaged workforce. It's..