4th March is employee appreciation day.
Wait! Shouldn’t every day be employee appreciation day? If our business didn’t have any employees we wouldn’t have a business. And if we didn’t have the employees we have we wouldn’t have our business.
A key part of my role is to make sure every member of our team understands why they do what they do and to give them the tools, skills and autonomy to do it.
We’ve moved away from boring job descriptions to Work I Do statements (Work IDs). These succinctly set out the activities of each role in the business and – most importantly – recognise what each person is accountable for and what needle they turn. Every single person in the business contributes to its success, and when each contribution is clear it makes the satisfaction of achieving success all the greater.
Part of appreciating our employees is looking after them. That means recognising everyone as an individual with their own unique life circumstances. Some think that problems outside work – relationships, physical and mental health, stress, bereavement and much more – don’t (or shouldn’t) affect an employee’s performance at work.
Of course they do!
And so does the state of the world – who isn’t seriously concerned by events in Ukraine right now. I grew up in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles; it wasn’t uncommon to have to stay in school because there was a bomb scare, or a bomb. I was used to the sight of soldiers, weapons, and armoured vehicles on the streets. What’s happening on the streets of Kyiv and elsewhere is easy to imagine, and it’s frightening.
We should appreciate that for many employees having woken up to their own personal issues and/or news of unspeakable suffering in Eastern Europe and predictions of more on the way, just making it to work is an achievement.
With the Great Resignation upon us, gone are the days when companies thought that it was employees who should be grateful they have a job.
What are you doing to appreciate your colleagues today and every day?
Written by Ross Penney, CEO of AVC Immedia.