Employees are More Engaged When They Feel Valued

By Sara Spear

When people start their career or in a new role, they are excited and energized, motivated to do their best. Over time, if their work goes unacknowledged and their ideas or concerns repeatedly go unaddressed, many will lose that enthusiasm and drive, becoming complacent and doing the bare minimum. Despite one’s tenure at an organization, the lack of support from one’s leader can diminish satisfaction and pride in the workplace.

Feeling like we matter is a basic human desire. In the workplace, we may feel valued when we experience any of the following:

• Your supervisor thanks you for the great work, privately and publicly.
• Your team acknowledges your talents and contributions.
• You receive regular feedback, including constructive feedback.
• Your supervisor gives you credit for your ideas but shares the blame when things go wrong.
• You are given opportunities to share your opinion before decisions are made. ?
• Your office celebrates your personal milestones like a birthday or a baby shower.
• Others reach out to you for guidance or to collaborate because they have heard you do great work.
• A senior leader knows your name!

People who feel appreciated in the organization are more likely to dedicate themselves to working hard and surpassing expectations. Unfortunately, when employees express that they do not feel appreciated or valued, this sentiment is often associated with reports of low morale, disengagement, and high turnover across the unit.

Since feeling valued leads to higher engagement and strong commitment, here are some suggestions for how leaders can help their employees feel valued:

Feedback

Providing feedback is a key source of communicating the importance of your faculty and staff on the team. Too often, we hear that leaders only provide feedback during annual performance evaluations. Feedback needs to be frequent, shared both privately and publicly, and it needs to be specific and personalized so, “great job” is too generic to have much of an impact. In addition, leaders want to be intentional with sharing praise throughout the unit. Focusing your attention only on the superstars will be perceived by others as favoritism, lowering morale and increasing resentment.

Leaders need to also provide critical feedback because when employees only hear positive messages, they begin to sound less genuine. Constructive feedback like, “For next time, let’s think about strategies for how we can engage the audience more. In my experience, I have found think-pair-share to be really effective,” points out the area for improvement and provides a piece of advice that they might be able to use to improve.

Lastly, feedback is not exclusively top-down. Instead, leaders can create a culture of feedback by encouraging colleagues to provide feedback to one another and inviting it from them and your other stakeholders. People will feel seen and heard when their accomplishments are celebrated and when they know they can provide constructive feedback as a way to contribute to the team’s improvement and progress.

Growth Opportunities

It is always nice to receive praise but the words have limited value if they are not reinforced through action. In fact, employees will begin to ignore your feedback if there’s no follow-through. For example, your supervisor may sing your praises but do they offer you bigger projects, stretch assignments, and opportunities to grow? To appreciate your employees is to commit to their continuous growth and improvement – by providing additional opportunities, expanding their responsibilities, and giving them more autonomy, leaders demonstrate their belief and trust in them.

However, leaders need to exercise caution in this area. Again, people are going to perceive preferential treatment if you offer all the opportunities to only a select few. In addition, leaders need to carefully consider whether such opportunities are truly going to help someone grow. For example, only offering committee roles to an assistant professor does not help them in their pursuit of tenure. Or, frequently providing projects to staff that are misaligned with their strength areas will not make them feel recognized for the skills they bring to the team. Ultimately, growth opportunities should support faculty and staff development toward their goals so leaders need to know what those are.?

Involvement

Faculty and staff frequently lament that they do not feel like they have a “voice” in decision-making. This is particularly hurtful when people care deeply about an issue or have demonstrated their commitment or excellence in an area but then are not invited to participate. For example, the dean publicly acknowledges your excellence in teaching students each year but then when the school’s leadership team creates a committee to look at teaching practices at the school, you are not invited to participate. On the other hand, inviting someone who is passionate about a particular topic to be involved with a related initiative will make them feel seen and appreciated.

Involvement is particularly important when leading change efforts. If you want people to feel engaged, you must engage them, and do so in ways that demonstrate you value their involvement. People will be looking to you to see if you are listening and really care about their input. It can be very damaging to the unit and the change effort in particular if they sense that your gathering input is just a formality and their voice does not matter.????

Rewards

Tangible things like awards, promotions, salary increases, or benefits like a flexible schedule or being trusted to work remotely are all important ways to show how you value employees.

It is important to note that rewards should be aligned with the other areas. So, a faculty member who receives positive or little feedback will be confused (and understandably upset) when they receive low evaluation marks or are denied tenure.

Gratitude

Lastly, leaders must integrate gratitude into their practice of leadership. Leadership is not just a formal role that is filled by one person. Instead, it’s a shared process where you are only a leader if you have followers. Recognizing when it’s a team effort and even a simple “thank you” will help people feel appreciated for their contributions.

This has been a really challenging year where people are in isolation, and so it is even more important for leaders to express their appreciation for faculty and staff. The pandemic has impacted everyone and the university’s success has been a collective team effort. As we head into the fall semester, I encourage leaders to thank their teams, communicate your appreciation, and ensure each team member feels valued.?

Reflection Questions

• How do you express your appreciation of your faculty and staff? ?
• What makes you feel most appreciated and valued? ?Answer this question for each member of your team (if you do not know, ask them).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sara Spear is a Senior Program Administrator at the?Rutgers Center for Organizational Leadership?and a Ph.D. candidate in the Higher Education program at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University.