• We’ve talked about the links between employee appreciation/recognition programs have on employee engagement.
• We’ve talked about tips employers can use to create their own employee appreciation strategies.
• We’ve talked about the most common reasons why employee appreciation strategies fail.
• We’ve even talked about how celebrating unofficial office holidays (like the upcoming National Employee Appreciation Day) has helped us show our appreciation as a company for all the hard work our employees do throughout the year to ensure our clients enjoy the highest level of service.

This year, we thought we’d try something different by sharing how some of the participants in one of the G&A Partners’ #HRTailgate Twitter chats (co-hosted by Chelsea Krost, Co-Founder and CCO of MPulse, and Bonnie Scherry, director of Corporate HR for G&A Partners) thought about the topics of employee appreciation and recognition. Below are some of our favorite tips and strategies shared during our “How To Make Your Employees Feel Like Star Players” #HRTailgate chat:

Question: How does your company recognize and reward high-performing employees?

“My company does Happy Hour Friday, group workouts, we pay for our employee gym membership as reward for great work!” – Chelsea Krost

“It’s not just about tangible rewards. It’s that they have contributed to the vision of the company and know what they do matters.” – Dale Clareburt

“Most of the time though they just need to be told they’ve done a good job.” – Simon Martin

Question: What are some ways to reenergize a recognition program that’s starting to feel stale?

“Crowd-source your employees and ask them what they would like to work towards.” – Chelsea Krost

“I’m a big proponent of letting employees lead recognition, rather than leaders. They keep it fresh.” – Toni Howard Lowe

“Make recognition a key part of your culture Allow the shout outs & stars to come from across the organization, not just from the top down.” – Danyel Rupert, SPHR. 

Question: What makes employee appreciations feel more genuine, versus coming across as contrived or cheesy?

“Employees can sense if efforts are genuine, and won’t respond to artificial appreciation.” – Bonnie Scherry, SPHR

“When they come from unexpected sources, not regular, lack of enthusiasm when being presented.” – Alan

“Frequency helps. If appreciation is embedded in your everyday culture, it doesn’t feel so weird.” – Weirdly

Question: What are some free or affordable ways companies of any size can show their appreciation for employees?

“I think doing small team building activities; maybe running a marathon for a cause, company dinners, yearly retreats.” – Girl of Style

“Employees love time off. Even a few hours will go a long way toward showing your appreciation.” – The Mingle Master

“Say ‘thank you.’ Words don’t cost you anything, but your time and attention are often priceless for your employees.” – Bonnie Scherry, SPHR

Read the full recap of our lively discussion in our #HRTailgate Recap! 

Do you have any employee appreciation tips our Twitter chat participants didn’t mention? Let us know in the comment section below!

Want to be the first to know what our next #HRTailgate topic is? Make sure to follow G&A Partners on Twitter (@GAPartners) for the latest updates!