Celebrating Success with a bang!

As we’ve been celebrating bonfire night and fireworks this month, it got us thinking about celebrating success with our teams – that this should be as amazing as the illuminating sparkly fireworks rather than a half-lit Catherine wheel or a tippled over roman candle. We all know that thanking people for doing a good job or for going that extra mile is the right thing to do – but do we always celebrate those successes in the right way?

Quite a few years ago now I worked for an organisation and my team, and I were doing some great work, getting some fantastic results with the people we were supporting.  One day our manager came across to our base as we were busy delivering services. We didn’t see her, but she left on each of our desks, a box of chocolates and a thank you note.   How nice I hear you say.

But to be honest it made me cross – and it’s very rare that the site of chocolate has that effect on me!  I didn’t want presents and cards for myself or my team – I wanted my manager to spend time with us, understand what we were doing, see us in action delivering services, see for herself that we were indeed, doing a great job. And to know that our hard work was appreciated. All we needed was some time, sincerity and a heartfelt thank you.

Recognition and reward are one of the top 3 areas of disengagement that always comes up in our Employee Engagement Surveys.  People feel that they are not valued for their contribution, this at times can be about their salary but often, it’s about the culture of the organisation and how people feel they are valued within – they want to work for a company where been valued and recognised is integral to their culture.

It’s not always easy to get it right.  But ensuring it’s coming from the right place and shows that you really have observed their efforts and value their contribution and thanked them in a way that is genuine and appropriate for each individual or each team is key.

And if you do get it right its literally worth its weight in gold.  It can: –

• Boost morale
• Increase the confidence of individuals and teams
• Increase motivation levels
• Increase employee happiness and well-being
• Support retention (key at a time when finding good employees is so difficult)

Celebrating success doesn’t have to involve spending a lot of money – but I am sure no one would mind if you did!  But it’s about finding out what is important to individuals and showing that you notice their efforts and value them and their contribution.

Our team celebrated a few weeks ago being a finalist in the York Press awards for ‘Small Business of the year’ and did it in style with a large bonfire, amazing fireworks, and a few glasses of mulled wine and the odd sparkler!   There wasn’t a roman candle or a half-lit Catherine wheel to be seen!

Since then we went on to win ‘Small Business of the Year’ last week so we will definitely be planning in another team get together to celebrate.

If you would like to celebrate the success of your teams in a fun and unique way then please get in touch as we have loads of ideas and activities on offer, not only that but here at Pro–Development we have a team full of people who specialize in celebrating!  And we can double celebrate if you are an SME in York, North Yorkshire or the East Riding as you might be eligible for 40% towards the investment too!