All employers and business owners need to ask themselves one important question. Why are happy and engaged employees held in high esteem? Thus, the curiosity to find an answer to the question above is a wake-up call for employers, business owners and leaders to look around their organization with a critical eye to evaluate what is going on behind the scenes with their employees. It is necessary because looking inward or around afford you a golden opportunity to utilize your relationship skills to develop those meaningful conversations that are important to the organization and your employees.

The Value of Appreciation

It is very surprising to see how showing appreciation with two insignificant words like “thank you” and “well done” can have a great impact on people. Research confirmed that about 75% of employees often rate their workplace as enjoyable due to the appreciation they receive from their managers, leaders, and colleagues. This is a pointer that showing gratitude gives employees the support and motivation they need to be more engaged and productive in their job. In essence, appreciation inspires and encourage employees to have more interest in their job and the workplace.

Brand Ambassadors

Building a cadre of brand ambassadors from your employees is a wonderful idea for any company planning to expand their brand externally and strengthen it internally. When employees feel included and valued, they are more likely to go beyond their job description and expectations, show greater commitment to the job, voluntarily talk express their feelings about the organization and the work they do that delivers positive results. Hence, it is crucial to have conversations that cover the entire team of the organization as it helps to strengthen and unit the workplace where open conversations are part of the culture and practiced by every employee for the overall good of the company.

On the other hand, when employees are having the impression that they are pushed behind the scene, lack of interest on the job as well as their employer will begin to set in, and this can compel them to speak negatively about the company in public and that can easily spread to any customers with whom these unappreciated and unhappy employees may have come in contact with. Such negative conversations or speech can go a long way to have a direct unpleasant effect on customers’ purchases, retention, and online customers’ reviews.

In a nutshell, organizations must, therefore, give their employees good reasons to be brand ambassadors by setting an example for employees to follow and not to expect them to share goodwill if they are not carried-along in the conversations or permitted to be a contributor. Open communications, showing appreciation, and good listening ears are all keys to open the door to a more harmonious workplace.