As a small business owner, you work tirelessly every day to make sure that your small business is operating smoothly so that it can prosper and grow. Unless you are in a sole proprietorship, you have other employees at your company and you wouldn’t have hired them if their duties weren’t important. Moreover, they work hard too, helping your small business function and grow and they deserve praise as well. Sometimes one might feel like it is “corny” or “babying” to constantly praise your employees’ achievements but studies have shown that employee recognition from management is the top motivator of work effort. Indeed, according to recent surveys, workers attribute 67% of their effort put forward to the praise they receive from managers and 78% reported willingness to work harder in their jobs if recognized. Shockingly, 65% of American works report receiving no praise or recognition while on the job. Does it really matter? Yes. Organizations that actively recognized their employees on the job achievements had a 14% improvement in employee engagement, productivity, and customer service compared to firms that did not. Further, companies that chose not to effectively recognize their employees work saw a 46% higher level of employees leaving to work elsewhere and this turnover can add a lot to your small business’s costs. The full infographic is below and in nicely lays out the rest of the quantified benefits of employee recognition. Derek Irvine continues, “My company, Globoforce, recently summarized a good deal of research on the ROI of recognition in this infographic, which I’m pleased to share here: