Employee appreciation is fundamental. In addition to nurturing your employees’ well-being and motivation, it will build up your relationship with them.
For some managers, providing employee appreciation can feel strange and unnatural. Yet recognition is a core need shared by every human being on the planet and extends to both personal and professional life.
There is a myriad of benefits to giving recognition in the workplace; it improves quality of life at work while also fuelling employee motivation and engagement. Like social relationships, recognition is a protective factor against work stress and burnout.
Even though they are fully aware of these positive impacts, many managers don’t necessarily know how to go about putting together appreciation messages for employees. That’s why we thought we’d give you a little inspiration.
A few employee appreciation messages you can use
Recognition is given in many contexts and must be tailored to each specific situation. We’ve identified 5 types of situations where you might provide your team members with appreciation messages.
- To celebrate good performance
- To highlight progress
- To mark a professional anniversary
- To spotlight a promotion
- To showcase skills or attitudes
Here are a few examples of appreciation messages to give to your employees in each of these contexts.
Celebrating good performance
- Congratulations for your fabulous success with project X—your hard work, perseverance and critical thinking helped deliver the project on time.
- Kudos for the way you handled that upset customer on your last shift. You defused the situation brilliantly.
- Bravo for your efficiency and your professionalism at work. You inspire the other team members to be the best they can be.
- We would like to congratulate you on your outstanding performance with X, which enables the company to exceed its goals.
- We have received tremendous positive feedback about you. It’s important for us to tell you how grateful we are that you make the company shine the way you do.
- It’s important for us to underline your fantastic work, diligence and positive energy. We’re all very happy to have you on the team.
- The whole team benefits tremendously from your excellent work. Thanks to your performance, the company is more than ever fulfilling our mission and goals. Thank you!
- On the last shift, you had to manage more tasks due to your co-worker’s absence and you rose to the challenge brilliantly. Bravo for your efficiency and thank you for your dedication.
Highlighting progress
- I would like to acknowledge your progress since we last met. Thanks to your hard work and perseverance, you succeeded in achieving the goal we set together. Hats off!
- Since you joined our team, you have made remarkable progress and we are all impressed with how quickly you’ve learned the ropes. We are very satisfied with your work and effort.
- We recognize the meticulousness and professionalism you have shown since your last evaluation. Your progress is fantastic and we are more than satisfied.
Spotlighting a promotion
- We would like to congratulate you on the progress that has led to this promotion, which was richly deserved.
- You worked hard for this promotion and today your efforts have paid off. Congratulations!
- Employees like you deserve to be recognized for their effort and commitment. This is why we’ve offered you a new supervisory position—and we have every confidence that you will meet this challenge as successfully as you did the last.
Marking a professional anniversary
- Thank you for your loyalty, we are truly fortunate to have you on the team.
- Nothing makes us happier than knowing that our employees are happy at work—and what better proof of your well-being than the fact that we are celebrating your X years with us. Thank you for your loyalty.
- We wanted to recognize your X years of loyalty, progress and success. We are sincerely grateful.
- Recognizing your commitment to the company over the past X years is very important to us. Working with you is a real pleasure for the entire team.
Showcasing skills or attitudes
- Thank you for sharing your (name the employee’s expertise) skills for the benefit of our company. Your strengths help the entire team go further.
- Thank you for taking our reflection to a higher level with your vision, intelligence, and perspective. Your contribution to the organization is very valuable.
- Thank you for your positive energy. Your drive and attitude really brighten our day at work. Your presence on the team is greatly appreciated.
- The whole team benefits from following your lead and emulating your positive energy and efficiency. You are a natural leader and you make the entire team more productive. Thank you.
Small gestures are key to employee appreciation in the workplace
Considering the many benefits of employee appreciation, it is definitely worth adding to our management practices. In addition, the ability to recognize successes at the right time is a reflection of solid emotional intelligence. If this is all new to you, get inspired by our example messages and take things one step at a time.
I bet you’ll get excited about recognition, too, when you see how happy these small words and gestures make your employees. Discover how you can use Agendrix to show employee appreciation!
