I heard someone say the other day that their company couldn’t ‘afford’ to keep employees through recognition and incentives.  That seemed like very narrow and extremely short sighted point of view to take for a couple of reasons: you will pay more to hire and train then you will to incent and recognition; and, incentives do not have to be extravagant to be valued.

In a blog post by a North Carolina Employers’ Association, serving the Research Triangle the following post was written, http://blog.capital.org/top-10-reasons-employees-stay-with-an-organization/ citing reasons employees stay.  Hello number five and six…feeling valued and recognized.

So knowing you have a good boss, which usually includes someone you know who appreciates you is important.  So if you are the boss, how do you handle appreciation and recognition operating under a tight budget?  The following is a great post addressing that exact question.  Rewards without monetary investment (or very minimal investment)… http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/managing/article/51-ways-to-reward-employees-without-money-mike-michalowicz?cid=em-smartbrief

Sam Walton sums it up well, “Appreciate everything your associates do for the business. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.”