Your amazing employees deserve appreciation and acknowledgment, don’t they?

Many bosses veer wildly between saying they would love it if their team worked faster, more consistently, etc – and then saying “they are the joy and I couldn’t have reached my success without my amazing team”.

So this article is about motivation and enjoyment.

I thought I would share with you what we do for our team, and see if this inspires you.

Speak up

Words matter! We have clients we work with and give all sorts of favours to – not because of the money aspect, but because they say how great we are, and show appreciation. It matters internally too. If someone has coped with a difficult task tell them “well done”! If they have had a good response from a client, share it with the whole team. Don’t hold back, I do it almost every day and I have the same senior designers for more than 12 years.

Team trips, team events, getting together

In the past we went on one or two trips a year! We went on a ski trip with our clients at Snowbizz, to the Udaya Yoga Festival, to Brighton, to Lithuania. Our last trip was to Cyprus in January 2020, when the news was all about Meghan and Harry leaving the UK. Little did we know it would be 4 years before we all got together again.

Luckily, this summer we’re finally all getting together to hang out in London and trek mount Snowdon for our client, Starlight Barking.

Commissions

If you can link money-related perks to money that the team member has a direct relation to bringing in, then do so. For example, if they help close a new project, or their work causes the client to come back and hire you for more, a percentage of the profit or a per-deal fixed fee can be agreed.

Gift cards and little gifts

We tried using an employee card from Volopa to show appreciation, but I have to say their service/interface failed us, so we’ll still be collecting cool and unique ideas for you here, beyond the obvious Amazon! We haven’t tried “Love to Shop” but it works with over 50 online and in-store brands. It’s worth reviewing the tax implications and I prefer to not give them taxable gifts (this article explains How to give workers a tax free gift in four simple steps).

Our accountant gives us good honest advice about this.

Since we’re in all different countries, we want to get a good list of useful ones that are global, and relevant. Suggestions welcome!

I found this article on affordable gifts in the UK and gives some nice idea, and supports independent creative people.

We plan to check out if can pre-buy them on Black Friday – something to diarise!

Work-related tech gifts

It’s a double benefit if you give the team something that will show appreciation and help them streamline their workflow and also make life easier for them at work. So, a new mouse, tablet, headphones, or laptop are good ideas and of course legitimate business expenses.

Flexible work arrangements

At TLD, we are a fully remote team now, and we wouldn’t return to the office based environment. Especially because we’re in 4 countries! Though we do get together when we can, the pros outweigh the cons – no more rush hour, time saved commuting, being able to be at home with the pets!

Office upgrades

Before we would go to work physically in our amazing offices in Soho. And it did bring us a lot of interest from talented recruits! If you’re in an office, have a look around the spaces, are there break out areas? Nice toilet paper? Fun signs like we used to have in our office? Ergonomic chairs and desks at the right height?