Employee Praise

Easy Ways to Give Employee or Co-Worker Recognition

Employees' happiness is often the most important non-financial vital sign for a small business to monitor, says Jennifer Openshaw, author of The Millionaire Zone and other books for entrepreneurs and investors. "If they're not happy, it's going to impact your bottom line."

While conducting formal employee surveys is one way to measure employee morale, less-formal surveillance can produce useful results. "Just look on their faces and body language."

To infuse more life into your company, here are some unique ways to give employee recognition:

* Use the corporate intranet as a way to spread praise.

* A low-tech way to reward others is writing on whiteboards with dry erase markers. Author Tim Sanders points to a "Recognition Whiteboard" he observed at the British Columbia Lottery System. Anyone could scribble notes of recognition for other team members. Introverted types found the whiteboard a great way to thank each other for contributions to a project's success.

* Recognize employees' work anniversaries as a way to let them know how they've made a difference in the company.

* When inquiring about completed projects, managers should ask their project managers, "Who else helped you accomplish this?" It's a great way to broaden praise beyond the "face" of the project.