Does your employer appreciate you?
How do you feel about the company you work for? Do you feel appreciated and needed on a regular basis? If not, you are certainly not in the minority. Recent studies show that most employees want some sort of recognition for a “job well done” every seven days, yet their superiors do not live up to that expectation. In fact, over 79 percent of employees have said they have left a job because of lack of appreciation in the workplace. It turns out that “people leave their managers, not their companies.” Even those who stay with their unappreciative jobs have a difficult time, with 60 percent of employees saying they do not feel motivated by their managers’ desires and goals for the company. Unfortunately, only 14 percent of employees claim real satisfaction with their jobs and a feeling of appreciation in the workplace.
Leaders of companies often feel that they do recognize employees, although the employees would disagree. Ironically, 56 percent of management believes it does a great job at recognizing employee efforts, while only 23 percent of staff members claim the same to be true. So what seems to be the problem? It looks like leaders simply do not show appreciation for employees for three different reasons. They don’t know what to do, they don’t know what is okay, or they don’t want to deal with the hassle. However, if they hope to keep the organization running well and they want to have motivated, quality employees, they had better get appreciation savvy. They need to come up with an easy way to recognize great work, know what is appropriate, and have a variety of tools and ideas to do so. Leaders need to recognize things including smart ideas, extra effort, team success, a job well done, and great service.
This quote from the Towers Watson Global Recognition Study sums it up nicely: “Engagement comes from the sense that my boss cares about me and appreciates my performance.”
Employee appreciation changes everything in the workplace and beyond. So if you’re not feeling appreciated look elsewhere until you do. Eventually employers will get the hint!
