5 Ways to Show Your Employees You Appreciate Them - Spark Hire

5 Ways to Show Your Employees You Appreciate Them - Spark HireManagers and human resource professionals know that one way of improving sekretariat morale and ensuring employee retention is by showing employees that they are appreciated. The difficult piece is giving employees effective recognition. Often, employee appreciation is lumped into a few days of the year. Maybe HR provides cake for the office to show employees that they care other times, recognition isnt given until performance reviews come around, at which point the recognition is mandatory and possibly less authentic. Here are 5 ideas for giving your employees genuine recognition that will encourage and motivate them in their jobs.Greater compensation There are no two ways about this. Employees respond to a raise in their salary. Giving an employee a raise is an excellent way of showing them that they are valuable to your company.Public recognition While no manager should play favorites, you can seriously boost the morale of your employees by recognizing them in front of their colleagues or other managers. The fear is that this will make other employees disgruntled. However, an employee concerned with their own performance and development should make musiknote of the recognition and reassess their own job for ways they can attain it. If your employees approach recognition this way, hopefully your recognition of one will improve the efficiency and performance of many.A thank you note While it may seem like a small gesture, giving an employee a hand-written note shows that you took time out of your busy schedule to offer them thanks. What could easily have been captured in a short email youve now displayed to your employee in long-hand form, which takes more time, energy, and thought.Take time to understandThis tip for recognition may at first seem odd. Theres no verbal, written, or compensation-based recognition here, but this tip will help to drive your future recognition. In a one-on-one situation, take a few moments to really understand the nuts and bolts of a regular task or project which your employees undertake. Even though you most likely assigned the task, understanding the finer points of the project, along with its rewards and frustrations, is crucial to recognizing them in a meaningful way.Give credit where credit is due Be on the lookout for the opportunity to recognize your employees in any way. If they have a particularly good idea to invent a new process or create efficiency, recognize them at the time of that action. Similarly, if something they have done helps you, such as preparing a presentation for a client or simply making copies, be specific about the ways in which you thank them. Instead of simply offering thanks, tell them that their contribution will make your meeting go more smoothly, or comment that their assistance gave you the time to give needed attention to a client or other task.Recognition is often an elephant in the office space that no manager prefers to poke. However, research shows that employees will respond favorably to recognition simply by staying with their current employer. Youll find that employees that have been genuinely recognized will show their gratitude in their work and in their attitudes, which will benefit your team and the company as a whole.What are some ways you show your employees you appreciate them? Have you tried any of the methods we discussed? Share your thoughts and success stories in the commentsIMAGE Courtesy of Flickr by Patrick Hoesly

Elevating the Future

Elevating the Future Elevating the Future Elevating the FutureRoald Dahls classic childrens book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was considered a work of fantasy when it was published in 1964. After all, along with nut-sorting squirrels and teleportation via television, the book describes the eccentric Willy Wonkas ingenious glass elevator that goes up, down, sideways, and every other which way you can think of going.Now over five decades later, German engineering firm Thyssenkrupp Elevator AG is turning the Wonkavator into reality. The company has developed the Multi, a rope-free elevator that can travel both horizontally and vertically in a single shaft.A cabin of the MULTI elevator system. Image ThyssenkruppElevators may not be an obvious venue for innovation, as the business is very conservative. But as buildings are growing higher and higher, it becomes obvious more and more that the traditional elevator is a limiting factor and a bottleneck for the constructors of visionary b uildings, said Markus Jetter, head of product development at Thyssenkrupp Elevator.To avoid those bottlenecks, Thyssenkrupps technology enables multiple elevator cabins to run in a loop and the cars move via a magnet-based linear motor drive system, similar to that found in Maglev trains. The elevators have an exchanger, which can switch from vertical to horizontal to allow for sideways movement.The system, Jetter said, activates only those sections where the cars are located, so energy is consumed only where cars are areaccelerating, moving steadily, or decelerating.The absence of ropes may give a different first impression but that isnt true in any respect, he said, adding that the linear motors are safe because they need to be energized before they move. Without electricity, the cabins wont move.The cabins also include emergency batteries so they can continue to run in the case of a blackout.In June, Thyssenkrupp displayed a fully functional unit in an 870-foot test tower in Rott weil, Germany. The company is now working on getting international certifications. OVG, the developer of smart office buildings, will be installing the elevator system in the East Side Tower in Berlin.Besides being one of the first new innovations in the elevator industry since the invention of the safety elevator some 165 years ago, the Multi promises to reduce peak power demand by as much as 60 percent, compared to conventional elevator systems.Multi offers a 50 percent higher transportation capacity. That means the same amount of people can be commuted with half the number of shafts. This is particularly important as elevator shafts can occupy up to 40 percent of the floor space in a typical tall building, Jetter said.The Multi wont have all the features of the Wonkavator, though. In the books sequel, the Great Glass Elevator flew to an orbiting space hotel. For Further DiscussionBut as buildings are growing higher and higher, it becomes obvious more and more that the traditional elevator is a limiting factor and a bottleneck. Markus Jetter, Thyssenkrupp Elevator AG