Have you finished your plans to recognize your employees on Employee Appreciation Day, Friday, March 4th? Employee Appreciation Day began as a way for Dr. Bob Nelson to celebrate his book, 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, and remind companies to continually thank their employees for their excellent work. Recognition is important, but today’s stressed-out workers require digital solutions to improve certainty, reduce wasted time and repetitive work, and improve worker productivity and a sense of equity.
Many organizations have traditionally celebrated Employee Appreciation Day by providing employees with thank you emails or texts, gift bags, providing lunch, throwing a happy hour, or volunteering together at a food shelf center or senior living community. In the era of Covid-19 safety, some companies send remote workers gifts through platforms, such as Caroo.
Managers thanking employees is obviously more than a once-a-year occurrence. Research shows that managers ought to give praise over criticism at a five-to-one ratio. Sadly, most managers don’t meet this standard, according to Gallup. The most sought-after appreciation by employees is the heartfelt recognition from the manager, often in private. The standard for success is for the manager to praise the employee’s specific action, initiative, or behavior soon after it occurs and tell the employee the significance of their action for the manager and the company. Some younger employees may crave public attention and recognition over a private setting, but it really breaks down to individual personalities.
The year 2022 is the third year of significant change in the workforce. In an era when Covid-19 safety concerns, labor shortages, and worker stress are at an all-time high, and with over 60 percent of the office workforce working remotely, and 52 percent looking for another job, traditional appreciation methods need to be rethought. While everyone likes to receive gift bags, they might prefer management initiatives that reduce their stress, gives them back wasted time during their workday, reduce repetitive work, and makes office and home-based workers feel they are on an equal footing.
Let’s take these one at a time.
Reduce worker stress and save time. One of the leading causes of worker stress is uncertainty. It can be uncertainty about priorities, the future, where to find the answers they need now, and where to focus one’s time.
The investment in digital technology that provides immediate, consistent answers to employee questions and saves them from having to review endless sources of data reduces stress. MeBeBot’s AI and friendly chatbot can provide employees hundreds of answers to questions asked of HR, IT, and operations in an instant, 24 hours a day, saving employees valuable time and lowering their stress level.
Reduce repetitive work. Equally important is that the HR, IT, and operations staff who field these hundreds of questions are freed from these repetitive tasks because MeBeBot is answering these questions for them with a 90 percent accuracy rate. MeBeBot’s reliable AI means the IT, HR, and operations teams can focus on the vital and strategic work that drives profitable growth. Just as importantly, the savings from answering these redundant questions often leads to $250k to $1 million in savings in six to 12 months for our customers.
Equity among remote and in-office workers. One of the biggest worries of remote employees is that they will miss out on having access to the vital information they need, be forgotten on essential training, promotions, and career opportunities – and recognitions — because they are not in the office daily. While managers of remote and hybrid employees need to establish team norms that assure those not in the office every day are not forgotten on recognitions and career decisions, intelligent assistants like MeBeBot provide work or home-based employees equal treatment in access to critical information and reminders
AI doesn’t discriminate. Employees working from home or in the office will have their questions answered expertly, efficiently, and equitably. In addition, the “Push Messaging” capability from MeBeBot’s AI can let all employees know about enrolling in training opportunities and new job openings. No one needs to hang out at the water cooler to get the inside track. MeBeBot’s push messaging lets employees from anywhere get reminders on when performance management or open enrollment updates are due, the beginning of open enrollment, training, IT system outages, and the CEO’s next “all hands” meeting.
Using MeBeBot’s Pulse Survey, HR teams can select one of the 10 Employee Satisfaction survey templates or create a custom survey statement, for instant feedback via MeBeBot’s chatbot in Teams or Slack. This feature allows companies to further ensure employees feel appreciated for the hard work they do!
We hope your employees enjoy an outstanding Employee Appreciation Day! We also encourage you to take practical steps to reduce their stress, improve their sense of certainty, and save them and your organization real money to your bottom line. Reducing unnecessary wait times, uncertainty, and anxiety might be the most incredible recognition of all for your employees.
MeBeBot’s Intelligent Assistant seamlessly installs as an app in Teams, Slack, or web portals to provide employees with instant automated answers to global HR, IT, and Ops FAQS, real-time usage Dashboards, Push Messaging, and custom Pulse Surveys, generating instant employee feedback on of-the-moment questions. MeBeBot’s “one-stop bot” is trusted by leading organizations to elevate the employee experience so work can be more meaningful and valuable.
Visit our website at https://mebebot.com