The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People (My 3 Takeaways)

What do you think of when you read the words, “appreciation in the workplace?”

One of the first things that came to my mind was the ways in which managers and supervisors acknowledge the quality of work people do in the workplace, both through employee recognition programs and formal performance reviews.

For example, in one of my former workplaces, one could count on the department head disseminating an email to the entire staff after every event or program, which included one sentence about every individual who contributed to the success of that initiative.

However, appreciation cannot be confused with recognition.

"Recognition is about improving performance and focuses on what is good for the company. Appreciation emphasizes what is good for the company and good for the person (which may sometimes mean helping them find a position that is better for them than their current role)," (Chapman & White, p. 20).

Recognition is about the value of a person’s behavior, but appreciation is about the value of the person.

In their book, "The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace," Gary Chapman and Paul White articulate that each of us has our own primary and secondary languages of appreciation. When others communicate our value through our primary or secondary languages, we feel valued. When those types of messages are repeatedly sent outside of our primary and secondary languages, we will not feel valued.

In "Now, Discover Your Strengths," Marcus Buckingham and Don Clifton said, "To excel as a manager, to turn your people's talents into productive powerful strengths, requires an additional, all-important ingredient. Lacking this ingredient... you will never reach excellence. The all-important ingredient is Individualization," (p, 171).

This requires not only managers and supervisors, but in fact, all of us in the workplace to learn the primary and secondary languages of our supervisors, peers, and supervisees, and then intentionally communicate their value to us and to the organization using those languages.

The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace:

• Words of Affirmation

• Quality Time

• Acts of Service

• Tangible Gifts

• Physical Touch

Here are my three biggest takeaways.

Takeaway #1: The Business Case for Appreciation

Why does appreciation even matter in the workplace? After all, if employees are compensated fairly, shouldn’t they be happy to even have jobs?

Chapman and White cite two false assumptions about appreciation: 1) The primary goal of communicating appreciation is to make employees feel good, and 2) Certain types of career groups and occupations are more receptive to the concept of communicating appreciation than other industries are. In response, the authors provide research-based evidence, individual testimonies and stories, and the response in the marketplace over time to counter those false claims.

In Chapter 2, the authors present the evidence that personally relevant authentic appreciation leads to employee engagement; which leads to lower absenteeism, lower turnover, and higher productivity; which in the end results in a more profitable bottom line.

The empirical evidence that higher employee engagement has a whole host of positive benefits for organizations is well documented, but does appreciation have a measurable impact on employee engagement?

In a word, yes. In the 2006 book, “12: The Elements of Great Managing” by Gallup researchers Rodd Wagner and James K. Harter, as well as in a 2013 survey conducted by Glassdoor, there is significant evidence that genuine appreciation positively impacts employee engagement.

The authors go on to demonstrate that existing recognition strategies are not working, citing that 85-90 percent of US workplaces have implemented some sort of employee recognition program, but rates of employee engagement and turnover have not changed over time, despite companies spending $90 billion in annual incentives.

The cost of employee turnover, on top of the costs of ineffective incentive programs, is clear. A staggering 79 percent of employees who leave their jobs voluntarily cite a lack of appreciation as a key reason for leaving, and 66 percent of current employees said they would quit if they felt unappreciated, The approximate cost of that turnover is:

• 30-50 percent of the annual salary to replace an entry-level employee,

• 150 percent of annual salary for a mid-level employee, and

• 400 percent of annual salary for high-level or highly specialized employees.

To emphasize the importance of appreciation in the workplace, a global study by the Boston Consulting Group of more than 200,000 employees revealed that the most important factor in job satisfaction was whether or not they felt appreciated, whereas financial compensation was eighth on the list.

Takeaway #2: Recognition is not for everybody, but appreciation is

In Chapter 10, Chapman and White expose why recognition programs are ineffective, and two of the limitations of those programs are connected to who is (and more important, is not) being recognized. They pose the question, if a high performing employee has an off day or makes a mistake, do they cease to be valuable? The answer, of course, is no. These become opportunities to communicate support and value for the person beyond their performance, which allows managers and supervisors to address behaviors and performance issues in positive, supportive ways.

“Particularly during these difficult times, managers need to be actively communicating appreciation, encouragement, and support for their team members-not based on performance or achievement but grounded in the value you hold for them as a person,” (Chapman & White, p. 133).

Similarly, only 10-15 percent of employees are recognized for outstanding performance, and the same top performers may be recognized repeatedly over time. Meanwhile, a middle 50 percent of workers, who show up and consistently complete their work, hear nothing simply because they are not “star performers.”

This can be devastating to the team’s continuity and performance when you recall the statistics described in Takeaway #1.

Takeaway #3: Creating a healthy workplace

Chapman and White close the book with a comparison of the consistent use of encouragement and appreciation to vitamins and antibiotics. In the same way that vitamins and antibiotics are chemicals that help us maintain our physical health, so the former two are ingredients to maintaining organizational health. Vitamins and antibiotics both are relatively small doses of chemical compounds that make a difference over time. One dose is rarely enough. Similarly, an occasional dose of encouragement or appreciation will not be effective. In short, if an organization wants to reap the rewards of appreciation described in Takeaway #1, the leaders, managers, and all members of the organization must develop a daily habit of appreciating the value of everybody in that organization.