Happy employees are 12 per cent more productive than unsatisfied employees, according to at least three unrelated studies. Over an eight-hour work day, in other words, a happy employee is going to put in the equivalent of a full hour and a half more productivity than an unhappy employee.
Over a month, that’s 30 hours of productivity. And in the context of a year, it’s a whopping 360 hours, i.e. nine full-time work weeks. Using that logic, you can’t afford NOT to make and keep your team happy.
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But how?
If your brain jumps right to wages and salary, you’re wrong. Yes, money matters, but it doesn’t matter as much as you might think. Psychologists say wage boosts rarely and only temporarily bump employees’ attitudes about their work and employer. So, the good news is that investing in your team’s happiness won’t demand bumping their salaries to unsustainable heights.
Job perks? Nope. Generally happiness can’t be bought that way either. While perks like extra vacation time, use of technology or vehicles, even big benefits like free accommodation are no doubt valuable, they very quickly become expectations rather than wildly appreciated gifts.
Instead, it turns out the best, most impactful way to motivate, retain and satisfy employees is authentic, personalized, regular (but not routine) appreciation. In other words, your employees need your gratitude and thanks.
“Businesses that haven’t tapped into appreciation and celebration — whether that’s a big corporation or a single farmer — have lower productivity, less innovativeness, less creativity, lower morale, higher absenteeism,” says Debbie Lawrence, a business coach and president of Abundant Living Inc., who leads business skill development programs for farmers through Nova Scotia’s Department of Agriculture. “What we do know is that people are hungry for feedback, for acknowledgement, for gratitude. People don’t leave organizations. They leave people. When you do it right, people will stay.”
But wait — there’s a catch. (You knew it sounded too good to be true). In order to make your employees truly feel appreciated, you have to provide the kind of appreciation that genuinely and individually works for each employee.
Dr. Gary Chapman, best known for his bestselling work on the five “Love Languages” of relationships, also completed research into the languages of celebration and appreciation at work. What he found — as the very best bosses and people managers intuitively understand — is that there is enormous variability in how employees want to be thanked and appreciated.
“For some people, celebrating — a party, a lunch, an event — would fill up their emotional tank to overflowing,” says Lawrence. “For others, having a boss or a customer acknowledge effort or success would make them feel great.”
Even within the language of affirmation, however, there are all kinds of different dialects.
“Some who would say: ‘Why are you celebrating me for doing what I do? Of course I’m great at that!’” says Lawrence. “Instead, what would fill them up would be if someone talked, not about what they’ve done, but about who they are as a person, describing them as a person of integrity or honesty. Still others would say, ‘No, none of those things do anything for me. I’d feel celebrated if you acknowledge my specific skill set.’”
While the variety in how people like to be thanked might sound strange, consider this: as a farmer, you probably don’t fall into the easiest or most obvious appreciation channels either.
“What we non-farmers might see and celebrate would be things like: ‘Wow! You had an amazing product this year or an amazing crop yield… or you improved profit margin by x per cent!’” says Lawrence. “But many farmers might respond to that kind of acknowledgement saying, ‘Well yes. Of course. That’s what I do. That’s what I have to do.’ They wouldn’t see it as worthy of celebration. There are so many different dialects in the language of acknowledgement and so many different ways to describe success; you have to find what feels authentic.”
Lawrence says a major frustration for employers is not understanding why their efforts at acknowledging or rewarding employees sometimes fall flat.
“Employers will say to me: ‘I’ve done A, B and C and it works for some but not for others.’ What I tell them is they’re not hitting the language of appreciation for some of their employees. Sure, anyone is going to like any kind of celebration. But when you get it really right and hit that sweet spot, it fills them up.”
If you’re not sure how to start appreciating others in ways that genuinely work for them, open up the lines of communication: ask each employee what would be meaningful to him or her. Remember there are as many unique and “right” ways to celebrate a team member as there are unique people. If someone isn’t sure what they need or doesn’t know how to ask for their ideal forms of recognition and appreciation, just watch them. Most people tend to offer appreciation in ways that work for themselves, since that’s what they assume others need too.
Then, look for success, effort, and opportunities to celebrate the individual. According to multiple studies, the best workplace acknowledgements are frequent, varied and unexpected.
At first, actively seeking chances to appreciate and celebrate may feel almost awkward. A big part of the problem may be agriculture’s “culture.” Here’s why: in some businesses, celebration of achievements, of milestones and of people is an accepted, expected part of doing business. Unfortunately, that’s a lot less common in the case in agriculture. Part of the issue is functional; farming’s cyclicality, its dependence on external weather and market forces, and the blurred lines between life and work mean it can be hard to set defined goals and benchmarks. Because goals and celebrating go hand-in-hand, a lack of goal-setting usually limits opportunities to celebrate. Ultimately, the less you celebrate, the less you’ll think of celebrating. If you’re not celebrating milestones and achievements, you’re probably also not celebrating or actively appreciating the people who helped make those milestones and achievements happen.
“In other businesses, you’re much more apt to see people strategic planning, identifying clear goals, developing or intentionally changing. Farmers measure and experience their business differently. Because their business is also their life, how they operate their business is just how they are on the Earth. A lot of the things they do, they don’t even take time to acknowledge,” says Lawrence.
There’s more to farming’s non-celebratory tendencies, though. As a sector, farming tends towards the traditional. Though “traditional” carries with it excellent, positive values like work ethic, dedication, constancy and resilience, its very nature dampens celebration.
“As a generalization, farmers — especially older farmers — are very stoic about the work they do,” says Lawrence. “The notion of celebrating often feels very foreign.”
Unfortunately, whatever holds you back from celebrating may also hold your farm business back from success. (Remember those nine weeks of productivity you’re losing if you’ve got a less-than-satisfied employee?)
Being out of the habit of celebration can be particularly bad news on family farms, where older farmers may accidentally promote dissatisfaction, decreased commitment and decreased success in the younger generation, ultimately limiting the chance of a successful intergenerational farm transfer.
“Younger farmers are often hungry for celebration, but no one has carved a path for them because that wasn’t the tradition,” says Lawrence. “One of the big problems in the farming sector is succession. Children don’t want to take over the family farm. I think part of the problem is that what they see is mostly negative. Farming is really hard work, yes, but there is also lots that is worth being excited about, acknowledging, celebrating.”
Valuing celebration may not come naturally for you. But if you have farm hands or family members participating in farming activities, don’t assume that because you feel you don’t need celebration or active acknowledgement, they don’t either. The reality is even the most stoic farmer needs positive feedback and acknowledgement more than he or she might ever want to admit.
“Celebration is the motivator to show up and work really hard to get to that achievement,” says Lawrence. “Just for our own sanity and sense of self-worth, we need to make sure we acknowledge successes. Ultimately, celebration is what keeps us going. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
