To Recognize Employees, Appreciate Hard Work In 5 Simple Steps

By Paola Pascual & Simon Kennell on Dec 9, 2021 12:58:39 PM

You're probably coming to the end of your year and, if you are a manager, you may want to be able to recognize some of the people on your team and really show them that you've seen all the hard work that they've done. Here's how to say thank you to them.

5 Quick Steps To Recognize Employees

Sometimes recognizing employees and appreciating colleagues can be a little bit tricky. How do we do it? How do we recognize people in our team without it feeling awkward? There are a few things you can do. Follow this 4-step framework:

#1 Show your motivation

Instead of starting with "thank you" straight away, you can show that you are motivated to give this recognition. You can use a phrase like: "I just want to take a moment to recognize This person for X, Y and Z".

Example: "I want to give a big shout out to John for all the great work he has done."

#2 Be specific

The first thing you need to think about is what specifically you want to thank them for. Did they improve the sales in a country? Did they fixed a particular issue? Clearly pinpoint the action you would like to recognize them for.

Not specific: Being a great team member.
Specific: Helping Anna and Anton understand the new platform through a careful walkthrough.

#3 Describe when it happened

Specify when the action happened or point out that you have been watching it over a period of time. This way, you are not just throwing out a random fact, but tying it to an actual situation.

Example: "The work that you did on this specific project was so important. I know you spent a couple months through June and July going over that. But, you know, we really saw the difference".

#4 Be social about it

Encourage other people to say thank you as well. Do a public shout out or tell others how well this person is doing. Social recognition is powerful and will make your appreciation even more meaningful.

Example: "If you see Steven, just please tell him great job because he really did well."

#5 Give a reason

Why were their actions important? How does it tie into the bigger picture? State why the recognition you are giving impacts the broader goals of your team or organization. Explain what goals you are achieving because of (or thanks to) their support and hard work.

Example: "I just want to take a moment to say thank you, to Steven, who has done so much to increase the sales in the last week by more than 20%. I mean, this is such a great accomplishment, and really is going to boost our chances of meeting our yearly goal this year. So just all around awesome job. "If you see Steven, just please tell him great job because he really did well."

In the previous example, the message was very specific, because it says that Steven increased sales by a certain percentage. It includes the specific time when this happened (i.e. last week) and how this is will help meet the yearly goal of boosting sales.

Summary

Remember to start by showing your motivation. Then, be specific about what you are recognizing and when it happened. Don't be scared to involve other people and encourage them to congratulate their colleague, and provide the reason why their actions impacted a broader goal.

This article works as supporting material for our podcast episode on how to start a presentation effectively. You can read the transcript below. Make sure you check out all our other Talaera Talks episodes and subscribe to get new episode alerts.

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If you enjoyed this article, keep reading:

Talaera Talks - Transcript Episode 31

If you are learning English, including new English words and expressions will help you with effective communication. Remember to check out our other episodes on how to make small talk, how to deliver engaging presentations, how to speak English fluently, and many more: visit the podcast website. Listen to it on your favorite platform.

Intro
Welcome to Talaera Talks, the business English communication podcast for non-native professionals. My name is Paola and I am co-hosting this show with Simon. In this podcast, we're going to be covering communication advice and tips to help express yourself with confidence in English in professional settings. So we hope you enjoy the show!

0:24
Welcome back to another Talaera Bit. My name is Simon and, as always, wherever you are, I hope you are doing well.

0:36
It is crazy how fast this year has flown. I mean, if you think about it, we started these podcasts in January of this year 2021. And it feels like we just blinked and then we got here. But it's really exciting.

0:54
And of course, wherever you are, you're probably coming to the end of of your year. And if you are a manager, if you work in a team, you probably want to be able to hopefully recognize some of the people on your team and really show them that, yeah, you've seen all the hard work that they've done, and that you want to say thank you, right?

1:18
Sometimes that can be a little bit tricky. How do we do that? How do we recognize people in our team or even just our colleagues? And there is no, there is a good way to do it, there are a few things that we can think about when we do that. And I'll provide some examples.

1:37
The first thing we want to think about is really giving specific recognition. So making that recognition that you give very specific, you have done such a good job with, you know, improving the sales in this country, right, something very specific. This shows that you're really paying attention.

1:59
As well, you also want to make it where you describe when it happened, or that you've been watching it over a period of time. So, for example, you could say, wow, you know, "The work that you did on this specific project was so important. I know, you spent, you know, a couple months through June and July going over that. But, you know, we really saw the difference".

2:26
So there I'm I'm bringing up when it was, so it's not I'm not just throwing out a random date. I'm talking about that there was this specific time.

2:37
As well, you know, I think you shouldn't be afraid to be social about it, and to encourage, you know, other people to say thank you as well. And if you're doing this, you know, in front of a group of people, you can do that. Or if you're writing it in a group message, for example, you can do that.

2:56
And finally, if especially if you're a manager, you want to give the reason of why this is important. And that's what I mean by the the why is how does this tie into the bigger picture? How does this recognition that you're giving, you know, why does that ties into the bigger picture of your team of the organization? What goals are you reaching because of this?

3:24
Okay, so let's, let's get a couple examples here. "I just want to take a moment to say thank you, to Steven, who has done so much to increase the sales in the last week by more than 20%. I mean, this is such a great accomplishment, and really is going to boost our chances of meeting our yearly goal this year. So just all around awesome job. And if you see Steven, just please tell him great job because he really did well."

3:59
Okay, so there I was very specific, because I've said he increased sales by a certain percentage, right? I spoke about when this was so he did it last week. I included people in it that hey, you know, if you see Steven, by all means, go up and say thank you. And then I talked about how this is gonna meet our yearly goal of, you know, boosting our sales in that and that yearly sales goal.

4:32
Now, a couple things to think about is when we're starting this you can usually use a structure of I want or, you know, starting with thank you is seems a little bit forced sometimes. So you you want to show that this is something that really you want to give the recognition, right? So in that way we can say, "I just want to take a moment to recognize This person for X, Y and Z". You can also say, "I want to give a big shout out to John for all the great work he has done, or I want to give a shout out to the learning and development team for so many great projects that they've done this year".

5:18
So when we're starting it like that, we're showing that we are really motivated to give this recognition. So we want it to be specific, timely, we want it to be social, and we want to show why it ties into the bigger picture.

5:35
So I can even give some recognition right now to all of our listeners, I can say, "Wow, you know, I just want to take a moment to recognize all of these awesome listeners, all of you guys out there for tuning in and downloading Talaera Talks. I mean, this whole past year, the fact that our listeners have... The numbers has grown, and it's been incredible to see that all the way back from January up until now in November. You know, socially, I think it's so amazing that all of you write in, and we're creating a community of listeners. And, you know, for us, this really ties into the bigger picture of wanting to give people a resource to improve their English and do better and feel more confident in their workplace."

6:33
Okay, so there, I'm going one by one specific, timely, social, and explaining why it goes into the bigger picture. So you can follow these four elements of kind of wrapping them into the recognition.

6:48
And remember, you know, starting with not thank you for doing this, which sounds like you're not actually happy that anybody's done anything, but hey, I want to do this, I want to take a moment to recognize and I want to give a big shout out to everybody out there.

7:05
So that is a few tips on how to give recognition, not only in the workplace, you can use it in the workplace, but as well, with anybody as we come to the end of the year. There have been probably I hopefully so many great things that have happened in your workplaces. You know, balancing this whole pandemic and everything like that, and you really want to give your people on their team. A big shout out, this is a great way to do it.

7:36
And that's all we have for you today. We hope you enjoyed it. And remember to subscribe to Talaera Talks. We'll be back soon with more.

7:44

And that's all we have for you today. We hope you enjoyed it, and remember to subscribe to Talaera Talks. We'll be back soon with more! And visit our website at https://talaera.com for more valuable content on business English. You can also request a free consultation on the best ways for you and your team to improve your communication skills. So have a great day and keep learning!