Showing employees that you appreciate them doesn’t stop at recognizing efforts on a specific project; that’s only the beginning. To inspire engagement, loyalty, and performance, it’s important to demonstrate that you appreciate and support the employee as a whole person.

At From Day One’s Miami conference, Alexandra Powell, the director of cultural insights at Reward Gateway, spoke in a thought leadership spotlight session on the distinction between recognition and appreciation, and shared new insights on leveraging appreciation drivers to boost employee engagement and satisfaction. With 15 years of experience driving organizational culture change through leadership coaching and training, Powell leads employee recognition research at Reward Gateway and partners with clients seeking enhanced engagement through the use of recognition and communication tools.

The Power of Appreciation

Berkeley Haas School of Business conducted a study showing that people who were recognized at work were 23% more effective and productive, while people who felt appreciated for who they are as a person were 43% more effective and productive.

While these numbers speak for themselves—feeling genuinely appreciated nearly doubled employee effectiveness and productivity—it is more nuanced than simply telling people leaders to appreciate their employees more.

Powell demonstrated this difference in a qualitative way through a personal anecdote. A few years ago when her daughter needed additional parental support, Powell’s boss quickly created a simple system for her to easily communicate each morning the level of work she was capable of that day, and helped to triage and manage her workflow on the days that she was less available. This leader honored that Powell was not only an extremely valuable employee, but a mother, and understood the importance of supporting her in balancing those roles.

Despite how vital it is to both people and businesses, actions supporting employee appreciation can be challenging to identify and initiate. This led Reward Gateway to research employee perceptions to help train leaders for success.

Early Research Findings

For the first phase of their study, Reward Gateway worked with 3,000 people across the US, United Kingdom, and Australia. With traditional surveys, results can be skewed as respondents have time for a longer thought process and tend to give the answer they want to give, or the answer they think is wanted, rather than the actual answer. To record true, instinctive answers to the survey questions, Reward Gateway used a fast-response model where statements were flashed on the screen and participants had a limited amount of time to respond.

The full 40-page study will be published in January, but early findings validate the importance of employees being and feeling appreciated. Using a scale of 0–100, employee appreciation is shown to impact how hard the employee works (average rating of 72.14), their engagement (average rating of 70.5), and how satisfied they are with their job (average rating of 68.7). Across the surveyed population, the average global appreciation index is 65 on that same 0–100 scale (with, of course, some deviations across multiple demographics such as gender, industry, seniority, age, organization size, and control over work.)

By measuring the response speed for each statement, Powell’s team was able to identify the top five most likely drivers of employees feeling appreciated. Finding ways to impact the employee experience in these areas is one key to boosting engagement:

1. I am recognized by managers.
2. My hard work is rewarded.
3. I feel I belong here.
4. My managers support me.
5. My organization praises me.

Applying Appreciation Drivers

Powell shared some examples of actions her clients have taken to influence their employees’ sense of appreciation. Recognition and appreciation don’t necessarily have to require developing a comprehensive program or system. You can start with simply meeting employees where they are to show genuine interest and gratitude for them.

I am recognized by managers. Add a recognition moment to team huddles. If you have weekly huddles, this adds over 50 opportunities per year to recognize and appreciate your team members—even more if this is implemented across multiple departments. If you don’t know exactly what every person is working on, that’s okay. Ask them what they have done recently that they’re most proud of, and have a conversation about it.

My hard work is rewarded. A couple years ago, one of Reward Gateway’s UK clients designed and sent a festive end-of-year holiday card to all employees and, because it had been a tough year, deposited just 20 pounds into everyone’s reward accounts. The CEO was concerned about the amount of the gift, so the day the card and reward were released, the organization also shared a video from the CEO communicating “how much he appreciated them, how hard it had been, and how instrumental they’d been to this success.” He got many messages of thanks from people who could see and sense his authentic appreciation for them.

I feel I belong here. Top performers may appreciate additional professional development opportunities, or having the option, after a challenging project, to participate in enrichment events outside of the office. Expand traditional recognition programs to include celebrations of individual groups and belief systems. One of Powell’s clients created a series of 124 such celebrations organized on a quarterly calendar to recognize holidays such as Autism Awareness Month, Diversity Month, National Volunteer Week, Lesbian Visibility Day, Military Appreciation Month, as well as various religious holidays. They included supporting materials and a glossary of how to recognize and celebrate intentionally.

Another client put additional effort into welcoming and celebrating new hires during the early stages of their tenure through automated recognition of their 30, 60, and 90-day milestones. This, in combination with ongoing in-person interactions, lets employees know right away that their presence is appreciated.

My managers support me. Place a well-being block on everyone’s calendar for them to use as they see fit—yoga, a walk, play music, read a book, meal plan, attend a virtual wellness class—illustrating and reinforcing the company’s awareness that each person needs time to take care of themselves in whatever way is appropriate for them.

My organization praises me. Use existing recognition events to ensure frequent praise and awareness across teams. Some examples include employee appreciation days, holiday celebrations, or highlighting the team members working on new and high-visibility projects.

Powell provided insights into existing theories, but also introduced some new research findings and examples of practical ways to better support appreciation in the workplace, arming attendees with a framework of ideas to improve organizational engagement and illustrate to their teams the impact they have each day.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Reward Gateway, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. 

Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer and proofreader based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.