Today is Employee Appreciation Day and this evokes a lot of thought among our team here at Grata. As an organization who’s true “north star” is to give everyone a platform in which to appreciate & recognize the great work of others (and be appreciated & acknowledged) - our commitment to the 80M frontline and customer facing team members (and the great companies that employ them) is truly missional. On this landmark day - we would argue that every day must include some form of Employee Appreciation.
Let’s step back and consider what it means to feel appreciation for all of us in our jobs. It means someone sees you, someone acknowledges your effort, what you are doing and how you are doing your job and acknowledges your exemplary work when you go beyond the call. Someone understands and appreciates when your day is hard or frustrating or exhausting but you keep working. And most importantly, someone wants to connect with you to recognize and appreciate your efforts with a few words, a simple expression of acknowledgement. The opportunity to call out those on our front lines (generally some of our least compensated and appreciated employees) is not simply an act of decency and fairness – it is also our most powerful cost mitigation tool available regarding human capital.
The data is indisputable – feeling recognized and appreciated is the most important determinant in job satisfaction with these frontline team members. Increase Recognition – Reduce Turnover! (quoting Gallup, PWC, Korn Ferry). Ironically that same act of gratitude has also been proven to drive additional top line sales (so says McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte). Gratitude pays.
Connecting with our employees is more important as we exit an environment where our human interaction fell far below the norm. Doing right by those employees that serve our food, cut our hair, change our tires, wait on us at a bank drive-thru line or the myriad of others from sales associates to health care providers - is doing right by OUR people and by default our organizations. Simply seeing, recognizing and valuing our employees (doing the right thing) pays dividends.
HR, Operations and owners of Culture within organizations large and small are hyper-accelerating changes in workplaces with an emphasis on a healthier work environment (physically and mentally). They are implementing cultures of gratitude as a strategic asset to rebalance the relationship with talent and deploy appreciation as a strategic benefit.
At Grata we believe that the COVID induced “Resignation Economy” is quickly moving to our rear view mirror and we are now entering the Recognition Economy. Human Capital is a strategic asset and we have the most powerful tool available to dramatically mitigate employee churn costs, vastly improve job satisfaction, increase sales and dramatically uplevel quality of service all by simply capturing the goodwill that our frontline brand ambassadors create every single day with their outstanding service. So yes, our employees do great work every day – likewise Employee Appreciation Day is (and should be) a daily occurrence as well.
