During the coronavirus crisis, due to the nature of their work, many organizations have been unable to go entirely remote. Their employees have had to check in to work each day and provide essential services to ensure the smooth functioning of our society. As such these frontline employees deserve our utmost gratitude and appreciation.
However, during these uncertain times, traditional ways to show employee appreciation have become tough due to the need to maintain social distancing. But these are also times where leaders need to step up and to connect, motivate, and inspire their employees.
Here are 5 ways you can still appreciate your frontline employees and show them appreciation while adhering to social distancing regulations.
- Celebrate the smaller wins too
During normal times your organization might have set up criteria to recognize your employees. They might be during their performance review or due to the successful completion of a project. During stressful times such as these, it is important to appreciate your employees for the smaller wins too and not wait for a bigger milestone.
Reinforcing how important the work that they do or appreciating their efforts with a simple thank you or an early time off can work wonders in encouraging and motivating your employees.
- Appreciate behaviors not just achievements
We can sometimes get tunnel-vision and believe that only results are needed for appreciation. But don’t let things such as great customer service, going above and beyond with following safety regulations, or just being a great team leader during these times of uncertainty go unnoticed.
When you appreciate these behaviors, you also reinforce the behavior making them more likely to be repeated. Everyone responds to positive reinforcement and these little things can help create a great work atmosphere.
- Leverage multiple channels for appreciation
When appreciating your employees, don’t just stick to one channel. Rather leverage all platforms available to you to recognize your employees. So whether it be in-person one-to-ones, team or company-wide emails.
Benefit One USA’s unique employee recognition platform can also be a great tool to appreciate your employees. You can customize the platform to fit your company’s needs and provide instant recognition which can such a great boon during these times.
- Invest in peer recognition
Managers can’t always have their eyes everywhere and are bound to miss a few achievements or behaviors. Whereas peers are always very familiar with the work their coworkers put in, the day to day struggles as well as the smallest achievements. Therefore organizations should empower their employees to recognize each other as and when they see fit. These opportunities will not only serve to motivate and engage your employees but also help build a great camaraderie amongst employees and create a strong team.
- Create a culture for appreciation
Don’t wait for the appraisal time or end of the quarter to appreciate your employees. Similarly both managers as well peers should have ample opportunities to recognize great work. All of this helps to boost employee morale, build a great relationship between managers and employees alike, and in general create a wonderful culture of appreciation at your workplace.
As our employees are standing strong in times of adversity, we should stand strong with them and support them and appreciate them as much as possible. Let’s use any and every opportunity to truly applaud the heroes in our work and provide them with a sense of purpose during these times.
