“A great employee is like a four leaf clover. Hard to find and lucky to have.”
Most people, if not everyone, like to feel appreciated and valued. Appreciation is a fundamental human need. People respond positively to appreciation through recognition of their work because it shows their work is valued. When employees and their work are valued, their satisfaction and productivity typically rise, and they are motivated to maintain or improve their good work. Employee recognition helps employees to know their contributions are recognized and appreciated. It also helps to retain top talent, increase employee engagement and encourage high performance. With higher employee engagement comes lower turnover rates and stronger business results.
In a survey by the American Psychological Association (2017), only about half of the U.S. workforce (51%) said they felt valued by their employer. More than a third (36 percent) had not received any form of recognition in the last year. And only 47% said recognition was provided fairly. Employees who said that recognition practices are fair, that direct supervisors provide recognition effectively, and that they value the recognition they receive, reported a variety of positive outcomes. They reported higher levels of job satisfaction, a greater likelihood to work harder because of the recognition they received, stronger motivation to do their best and a greater sense of feeling valued. Making meaningful employee recognition part of your organization’s culture can go a long way toward improving job satisfaction, motivation and work effort. It's amazing that the simple act of showing appreciation for your employees and letting them know they are genuinely valued can work wonders for both the employees and the organization. One of the best ways to demonstrate appreciation of your employees is to honour them with a custom designed and handcrafted plaque, award or trophy.
At Andrew Watson Design, we specialize in designing and hand crafting employee recognition plaques, awards and trophies. All of our awards are made in-house in our boutique design studio. We pride ourselves on developing close relationships with our clients allowing us to liaise regularly, from initial design to final manufacturing of the awards. Above we have an example of employee recognition awards we made for our client at BP. Our website has hundreds of examples of employee recognition awards.