With the holiday of love just a few days away, you are probably focused on making the people in your personal life feel appreciated. When the roses and chocolate are behind you, you may want to turn your attention to your convenience store staff. Studies suggest that only about a third of employees feel like they regularly receive recognition for doing their jobs well. By and large, employees seem to feel like their best efforts are ignored, which naturally leads to reduced productivity and poor morale. This negativity will naturally make its way to your customers and your bottom line. Check out these ideas to turn that around.
Give Them Their Day…
What Valentine’s Day is to your loved ones, Employee Appreciation Day is to your employees – a single day to make up for all the days you didn’t quite show them how much they mean to you. Observed on the first Friday of every March, Employee Appreciation Day was created to help managers express their gratitude to their most important asset – their employees. Do something special for your convenience store staff on this day – it can be as simple as a personal note written to each staff member or something more elaborate, such as providing meals for each shift.
…And Make Every Day Count
While a special day of appreciation is nice, the truth is, employee appreciation needs to happen the other 364 days of the year, too. For it to impact morale, productivity, and customer service in the long term, employee appreciation must be part of your culture. Make sure you and other supervisors practice these basic principles of ongoing employee appreciation:
- Communicate effectively. Employees will feel more appreciated when they feel listened to. They’ll also understand the importance of their role in the company when you provide consistent and constructive feedback.
- Provide proper tools and training. Nothing will make an employee feel unappreciated quite like being set up to fail. This is what happens if employees are expected to reach company goals without being given the tools and training to succeed.
- Distribute appreciation fairly. Not everyone deserves a blue ribbon in the workplace, but everyone does deserve respect and recognition. You have to find the balance that works for your team. Don’t pile on so much praise that it loses its impact, but don’t make any employees feel left out, either.
- Make employee appreciation a team effort. Employees want to feel appreciated by their peers as much as by their bosses. Develop a system that gives employees opportunities to show appreciation for each other in meaningful ways.
Convenience Store Training
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