The end of yet another year is drawing near, and this presents the perfect oportunity for business owners to show their appreciation to their employees.  There are many ways to show your workers that you value them not only as assets, but as people as well. 

The most common method is with the traditional end-of-year bonus, but as is the case with many small businesses, finding affordable workers is difficult enough.  However, you can still let your employees know that they are valued and increase morale without spending a dime, while possibly even saving money.  Give the gift of time.  Especially in instances where employees have families, time may be even more valuable than money at this time of year.  With relatives visiting, younger children home from school, or older children returning home briefly from college, affording employees a day or two off to spend quality time with family is a simple gift to give and can allow employees to recharge and return fresh in the new year.  If you happen to run a business that has a lull in activity this time of the year, you may even wish to consider closing down for a couple of days, and saving on the overhead costs of running the business in the off-chance that there will be a spike in activity. 

Additionally, by briefly shutting down, you as the business owner give yourself the chance to take a step back for a moment and recharge your own batteries and return with renewed vigor and enthusiasm for the new year.  Nobody likes to feel unappreciated, and talk is just that, talk, so take this time to show your employees that their efforts over the past eleven-plus months didn’t go unnoticed.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 3:13 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.