Organizations today understand the importance of rewarding and recognizing efforts and achievements of their employees effectively. In this context, appreciation mails and ‘thank you’ notes for employees of great significance in the process of recognition. Hence these emails and citations for employee recognition need to be composed with utmost care and consideration.
It is the responsibility of the employers to ensure that their employees feel happy and satisfied with the organization. An effective way of doing so is by appreciating their smallest efforts, achievements, and behaviors that contribute to the organization.
A well-written email or letter of appreciation featuring relevant employee recognition quotes can prove extremely effective in this respect.
Such emails/letters ensure the following benefits for employers in terms of employee engagement and motivation:
1. Appreciation emails or letters help in building a stronger relationship between the employees and their managers and supervisors. Therefore, a handwritten letter appreciating their achievements can go a long way in fostering a positive bond between the two.
2. The emails/ letters help in enhancing the sense of belonging and loyalty for the organization among the employees. Hence, a recognition email, containing a note of thanks, assures employees that their superiors appreciate and value their efforts.
3. Appreciation emails help enhance the job satisfaction of employees and motivate them to stay on with the organization. These emails can act as reminders for the employees about their significant contribution towards organizational growth and success
4. The most important benefit of employee recognition citation is that it keeps the employees motivated and encouraged to perform better. These emails indicate that their employers are happy with them. It motivates them to enhance their performance even more.
Most organizations focus on finding creative employee recognition ideas while ignoring something as basic as writing good appreciation notes. This is mainly because writing such letters or emails requires specific skills and a good hold over language.
However, not all managers might possess these key skills and hence might not be capable of compiling a good citation. In addition, managers are often unclear about which achievements to highlight while composing emails for employee appreciation.
Writing good appreciation emails that can motivate and inspire employees requires some effort on the part of the managers. Hence, managers need to make sure that they cover specific points relevant to the achievements of the employee receiving the recognition.
So, here are a few useful tips for managers to write authentic, memorable, and impactful messages of appreciation for their employees:
Why the employee is receiving the recognition should be specified clearly and precisely, in the first paragraph of the email/ letter.
The manager also needs to cite the benefits received by the organization that made the employee worthy of recognition.
The manager should use a language and tone suited to the recognition so that it makes the employee feel valued.
Additionally, the manager should frame the email of appreciation to make it unique and personal for the employee.
The manager should try to use the name of the employee in the email as many times as possible.
Also. the manager may also try weaving a success story around the specific achievements of the employee who is getting the recognition.
Additionally, the email should include a ‘thank you’ for the employee for the hard work and the achievements.
Receiving rewards and recognition from their superiors for good work and performance can boost employee morale significantly.
When these rewards are accompanied by a well-worded email, citation or letter of appreciation, it ensures an even greater sense of happiness and satisfaction for the employee.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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