Appreciating your employees for their good work is an essential duty of any organization. It allows organizations to build relationships with employees, increase employee morale, retention, and productivity.
While employee recognition should be customized for each employee, creating a common appreciation template can often come in handy. It allows employers to craft an appealing letter, e-mail, or certificate of appreciation in the shortest time possible.
No two organizations deal with the same employees. Therefore, the templates swarming the internet may not be appropriate for your company. So, today, we will discuss the best practices to create employee appreciation templates.
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What Makes a Good Employee Appreciation Letter Template
It is important to recognize and encourage your employees in a good employee appreciation letter on their excellent work. At the same time, your letter needs to be personalized to your employees’ tastes.
So, while you are creating a template for recognizing your employees, it should be personalized, contain recognition and encouragement.
When you are using the same old letter or email format for recognizing your employees, they will notice, and it will not satisfy the goal of your recognition efforts. Therefore, you will need to keep enough room on your template to describe their job success and contribution to the company. Only addressing them by their name won’t be enough.
Secondly, it is important to pinpoint what the employee has done right and how their outcome has influenced the workplace. It will make your employees feel valued and motivate them to keep up their good work. Additionally, addressing what you most like about that certain employee will let them know that you have noticed their hard work and contribution.
Finally, simple words of encouragement can go a long way. It allows your employees to see that you believe in their abilities and encourage them to put their best foot forward.
When you combine the right amount of personalization, recognition, and encouragement, your employee recognition template will serve your employee recognition program’s best purpose and result.
Things You Need to Include in Employee Appreciation Letter Template
The template of your employee appreciation should not be too rigid or generalized. You will need to make sure the employee getting the letter or email can relate to it. There are a few things your employee appreciation template must contain. They are:
- A clear subject. It will give the employee a brief idea about what the letter or email contains.
- Proper greetings. It should depend on the relationship between you and the employee. If you are not sending the letter or template to one individual, you can directly start it without greetings.
- Reason(s) you are writing the appreciation email or letter. Here, you will detail the achievements and encourage employees to keep up their good work.
- Your name and signature. In this section, you will also need to express your gratitude to the employee.
Without these four components, your appreciation template will not be effective enough to make your employees feel appreciated and valued.
How to Create Employee Appreciation Letter Templates?
1. Decide on a Format
An employee should be recognized for their contribution to the organization. However, the degree of accomplishment may vary. For accomplishments like showing up early for setting up for an event or showing appropriate behavior, you can send them recognition via email. In such cases, the email subject should uphold the summary for their recognition.
If the employee is responsible for a huge accomplishment like successfully completing a project or acquiring a huge client, recognition through a handwritten letter is more appropriate.
2. Include Sufficient Details
The goal of the recognition letter is to let employees know they are appreciated for their work. However, a vague email or letter will not be effective in recognizing your employees.
At the beginning of the appreciation letter, you should let your employee know why you recognize them and why they are being appreciated. Once identified, mention why the specific event impressed you and the significance of their action.
Mentioning specific incidents allow your employees to identify the appropriate behavior and actions and allow them to replicate and improve outcomes. Therefore, you will see an increase in engagement and productivity.
3. Mentioning the Unique Qualities
Mentioning the qualities and skills possessed by employees makes them feel good about themselves. As a result, employees can identify their strengths and will continue to build their skills around their strengths.
Your employee appreciation template should have a dedicated section for mentioning the qualities of your employees. However, as each employee possesses unique strengths, you will need to customize it accordingly.
4. Encourage Employees for Their Future Accomplishments
You should dedicate one or two lines to encouraging employees for their future success. Also, express how you are excited to see their growth. It will encourage employees to take bigger challenges and feel more connected with the company.
5. Express Sincerity and Make Everything Personal
Your whole letter should reflect gratitude and sincerity towards your employees. To make the letter personal, you can address the employee by their name and sign the letter by hand.
At the end of the letter, mention “thank you” for all their contributions before signing your name.
By following these steps, you can successfully create an employee appreciation template.
Bottom Line
With a great template in place, recognizing your employees becomes easier and can be done immediately. You can keep your employees happier and reduce employee turnover with swift and exact appreciation.
Several online recognition applications can help you build a template. Make sure to give them a try if you are facing problems.
