Happy Workers: How Bosses Can Appreciate Employees
Happy workers are good workers, studies show. But if you're a boss, how can you keep your employees happy?
A big part is showing employees they're appreciated, experts say. So how can bosses do that?
Amrit Sandhar works to make business leaders better bosses. Writing in Business Matters, he says it's important for employees to feel heard by their managers, and to feel able to share their thoughts without being judged.
He says this should be done face-to-face when possible, not just through surveys, which employees can find impersonal.
People all make mistakes, but job website Indeed suggests that bosses can show their appreciation by ignoring small mistakes that don't really matter to the company. This shows you trust your employees as well as appreciate them, says Indeed.
Instead, try thanking your employees in public, the site adds, whether during a meeting or even on social media.
However, Sandhar says it's important to remember that all employees are different, and getting to know each person will let a boss show appreciation in a personal way.
One way of doing that, according to Bennett Conlin from Business News Daily, is to use "gamification." That means making success at work into a game, with employees earning points they can use for things like extra holidays or work-from-home days.
This might not work in all companies, but one boss who used it said that, since employees could choose what they wanted to get when they won, it allowed them to be appreciated in ways that were meaningful to them personally.
