The Modern Workplace – Link Between Employee Appreciation and Internal Communication
Employee appreciation and internal communication are two important factors that play a significant role in the success of any organization.
When employees feel valued and appreciated, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated to perform at their best.
Similarly, effective internal communication is crucial for building trust, fostering collaboration, and promoting transparency within a company.
In this article, we will explore the link between employee appreciation and internal communication and why they are essential for any company’s success.
What is Employee Appreciation?
Employee appreciation is the act of recognizing and valuing the contributions of employees across all teams and departments. It can take many forms, such as verbal or written recognition via performance evaluations, special bonuses, or other forms of extra compensation.
Fostering a healthy work environment includes practicing gratitude within teams. It is not difficult to say thank you, yet it can make someone’s day.
When employees feel appreciated, they feel valued, respected, and motivated to do their best work, because employee appreciation is a key driver of employee engagement. When employees are engaged, they are more productive, efficient, and committed to their individual tasks and the company’s overarching goals.
The Importance of Great Internal Communication
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Seamless and effective communication between team members and departments helps them enjoy their work and perform it more productively and efficiently. Providing an efficient communication system for frontline employees, and indeed the whole company, is a critical step that will motivate and align every moving piece within it.
To put this into context, here are just some benefits of effective internal communication:
- It contributes to a pleasant work atmosphere. Internal communication that is effective gives consistent feedback and direction, which enhances employee appreciation and engagement.
These, subsequently, reduce employee turnover. In today’s highly competitive corporate market, a well-functioning internal communication system and a positive work atmosphere are a great advantage.
- Employers get relevant feedback. Employee feedback enables managers to better adapt to the requirements of their workforce, helping them identify more effective ways of motivating them.
Internal communication allows leaders to stay on top of what their teams are thinking and working on. It also puts managers in a better position to respond to existing and future difficulties, from technical elements like the need to upgrade your project management platforms, to preventing employee burnout and dissatisfaction.
- Better grasp of company ideals. Internal communication among employees that is open and sincere fosters sentiments of personal worth for each of them.
Employees must also understand how their impact extends beyond their team and can be felt throughout the company, demonstrating that they play a significant role in the overall success of the business.
- It makes workers feel appreciated. A strong internal comms plan goes a long way to demonstrating to employees that their opinions are valued, and that their managers respect and pay attention to them.
When employees know their input matters, they break free from the illusion that they are merely a faceless or irrelevant piece of the company puzzle.
- Improved cross-departmental collaboration. Consistent access to information promotes collaboration at all levels. Fixed silos are broken down, and effective interdepartmental working connections are established, resulting in an environment of shared accountability and purpose.
Creating a Link Between Internal Comms and Employee Appreciation
For companies everywhere, creating a link between internal communications and employee appreciation means effectively fostering a positive work culture, improving employee engagement, and increasing productivity. Below are three major ways to create this kind of link for your teams.
Frequent Check-Ins With Line Managers
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Frequent check-ins between managers and their line manages is a great way to show employees that their work is valued and appreciated. Conducting check-ins often is also a surefire way to boost productivity, accountability, and engagement across the board.
The primary goal of frequent check-ins is to provide a forum for open and honest communication, where employees can share their concerns, provide feedback, and discuss their progress on projects and goals.
The most straightforward way to implement check-ins is to schedule regular, recurring meetings between employees and their managers. Managers can use these meetings to These meetings to review deliverables, provide feedback to both the employee and the manager, and discuss any issues that may have arisen, but haven’t been addressed yet.
Another way to conduct check-ins is through the use of virtual communication tools such as instant messaging, email, or video conferencing.
For remote teams, these online communication platforms are crucial for maintaining a sense of community and teamwork. For hybrid or office-based work, you can use these tools for quick, informal reviews, where employees can share brief updates on their work outside face-to-face meetings.
For all internal communication platforms, it is important to remember that using them shouldn’t add to your employees’ workload, but instead streamline it and provide a safe space for them to express their opinions.
Use inclusive language throughout the review process, and make sure to schedule check-ins according to your employees’ availability.
Employee Recognition and Awards
Nothing contributes to employee appreciation more than an internal employee recognition or reward program.
These programs can include a points system that employees can earn through completing tasks, meeting goals, or demonstrating positive behaviors. The points can then be redeemed for rewards such as gift cards, extra time off, or any other perks that you may think of.
You can use your internal comms system to effectively communicate the steps for earning points and how to redeem them.
Regular communication about the program and its progress can help keep workers engaged and motivated to participate. Improve HR communication with your employees to keep track of their work/life balance and achievement satisfaction.
Another common method to make employees feel recognized is to use an internal newsletter, email, or the company intranet to highlight and acknowledge the contributions of individual workers or teams.
This newsletter can showcase their accomplishments, talk about their successes, or share positive feedback from customers or other colleagues.
For team engagement ideas, you can even try using an internal social media platform to allow employees to give each other shout-outs. Apart from fostering engagement, this approach has the added effect of encouraging a culture of appreciation.
Consistency in a Remote Context
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Businesses no longer operate in the same manner as they did before the pandemic. Employees are now dispersed across offices, cities, and even time zones.
In the typical office, it’s easy to just walk up to a colleague’s desk or cubicle to provide an update or offer instruction. Office-based teams tend to be on top of all internal communication needs for the simple reason that they’re all in the same place in person.
However, remote and hybrid employees need a reliable internal communication system to efficiently carry out their work together. However, your internal comms system affects not just how people work together, but also how they feel about their employment in general.
If hybrid and remote employees feel separated from their team members or are unable to obtain information as quickly as they need to, their motivation and productivity levels drop. The lack of responsiveness, or a slow response rate, can also make them feel undervalued or unappreciated.
That is why it is critical to maintain consistent internal communication across both physical and digital workplaces.
Takeaway
Ultimately, employee appreciation and your internal communications are closely linked, as effective communication is essential to create a positive work environment and recognize employee contributions.
We hope that this article has given you enough food for thought to help you create this link for your own teams, too.
Author: Nina Petrov is a content marketing specialist, passionate about graphic design, content marketing, and the new generation of green and social businesses. She starts the day scrolling her digest on new digital trends while sipping a cup of coffee with milk and sugar. Her white little bunny tends to reply to your emails when she is on vacation.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-petrov/