Management Tip: Thank Your Employees For Jobs Well Done

If you supervise employees or are in a senior position relative to some others, make it a habit to thank employees when they do a good job.

Here are some tips for effective appreciation of employees’ work:

Appreciation is good even when it is an expected part of their duties. If the work is good quality, thank the person.

Don’t trivialize your thanks, however. Don’t thank an employee for just sending a meeting agenda or sending a recap of a meeting unless the agenda or recap they sent is so good that it impresses you. (An exception to this rule would be if in the company most people forget to send meeting recaps and this person did and you are working to encourage this good habit.)

Don’t send an email just saying “thank you” and nothing else. Add at least a sentence or two explaining why you appreciate what the person did.

Don’t always send an email. Mix it up. Sometimes walk up to the employee and thank them in person. If they are in a remote office location, call them by phone to tell them.

When thanking someone by replying to an email they have sent, send a thank you note directly to the person. Don’t reply-all unless it is a major above & beyond accomplishment that deserves public congratulations. When you do send a public thank you to an employee with other people cc’d, take the time to write at least a paragraph or a few bullet points mentioning the benefits of the accomplishment.

Mention by name the person(s) when you thank people. Don’t just thank “the team”, or “all who worked on this project” out of laziness instead of calling by name the people you are thanking, unless you have a good reason for not naming names.