The Power of Appreciation: Don’t Forget the Basics
Tsvetelina Hinova, Thankbox
Now imagine this, you spend thousands on fun benefits, but your team spirit continues to be low. You don’t know why? It’s because you replace appreciation with perks.
Now let’s paint a picture. Jane joined the company. She gets great career progression, great salary, bonuses, medical, dental, maternity, all of it. It sounds like a great job, right? But then she quickly realizes that the focus is always on the negative when doesn’t go right. Her enthusiasm starts to fade. She doesn’t feel recognized and the perks stop.
Now imagine the second company. She continues to have great salary, boy, too fast, great salary, but no fancy perks, no crazy benefits. But her ideas are heard and considered. She feels seen and supported. After a meeting, she gets feedback like, “You did really well in that meeting. You are so prepared. Well done. Thank you.” She feels valued and it’s to no one’s surprise that her best self start showing up.
Now we all know which company we’d rather work for, right? I see a few knows so that’s a good sign, and same as we all know how crucial appreciation is for success.
But let’s be honest. When we get swamped with work, appreciation is the first thing to go. In our busyness, we throw money into expensive and complicated solutions, and then we wonder why they don’t work and why they don’t solve our culture problems. Well, it’s because we forgot to say thank you.
Now, let all take a step back and start turning appreciation into our daily routines, not on special occasions only. You don’t tell your partner you love them once a year, right?
So there are five things I want you all start doing tomorrow.
Kick off meetings with praise. Say something like, “Jane, you did really well on the report last week.” And what you see is that that will set the tone of the meeting. People will start following you. It’s contagious.
Recognize effort, not just the results. It’s easy celebrating success, but let’s start appreciating the hard work, the long hours, the prep work, the devotion to the work. This is what will drive the team forward and will motivate them.
Peer-to-peer recognition, super important. It’s sometimes the team recognition, not the top-down recognition that makes the biggest impact. Teams that recognize each other build trust, and that’s what drives stronger results for the business.
Send a quick thank you note. It doesn’t have to be a complicated solution. You can simply just send a note, say thank you, but a genuine message will show you care, and this will have a huge impact on your relationship with a person.
And finally, make it spontaneous, not a corporate version. Don’t save it for special occasion. Surprise someone when they least expect it, and I promise you you’ll make a huge difference for them.
Now I get it. If you’ve got a results-driven brain like mine, this all might sound like fluff. But I’ve got a financial background so I totally understand it and I know what you need to get you on board.
So here’s the hard stats. It takes six to nine month of salary to replace employee. So for a 40,000 pound salary, that’s nearly 30,000 pounds for a leaver. So stop wasting your money and simply start saying thank you.
And here’s another one. People who feel appreciated report 36% more productivity. We all want those incredible, innovative teams, right? Appreciation is your cheat code to get you that.
Now some of you might be sitting here thinking, “I do all this already. This doesn’t apply to me.” But here’s the thing, if you don’t measure it, how do you know you’re doing it enough?
So here’s my advice. Track and measure appreciation. It doesn’t have to be a complicated solution. It could be a simple platform, it could even be a survey, but something that will keep you really, really focused on the basics when nailing this appreciation.
So I’m at the end of my presentation and if there’s one thing I want you all to take away from today is this. Go back to basics. Turn appreciation into a habit, not a hope. It all start with you first.
Watch Tsvetelina deliver her session over on Vimeo >>>> DisruptHR Glasgow 6.0 – June 19 2025 on Vimeo
