The Importance of Employee Appreciation in Higher Education

National Employee Appreciation Day may be in March, but recognising colleagues’ hard work shouldn’t be limited to one day! Ongoing appreciation helps create a positive, motivated workplace. At FindAUniversity, we know small gestures make a big impact.

That’s why we love celebrating the contributions of university staff and students. Our Postgrad Awards shine a light on excellence in the postgraduate sector, with the Best Postgraduate Project or Campaign category recognising initiatives that enhance the student experience.

Know a team that deserves recognition? Nominate them today - it’s quick and easy! Looking for more ways to show appreciation? Here are our top tips for recognising and celebrating colleagues.

#1 Promotes camaraderie and morale

Every staff member at a university is an integral part of making the institution a great place to study – and this puzzle has many, many pieces. A typical UK university has over 10,000 staff members across dozens of faculties and teams, and especially with the remote working, fostering a strong sense of community and morale across so many people (and so many functions) can be a challenge.

Events and initiatives aimed at showing appreciation for employees can be one way to do this. For example, an event celebrating a recent milestone or campaign could demonstrate gratitude to employees while promoting their sense of being a wider team advancing towards a shared goal. At FindAUniversity, we put on whole company food and drinks after big collaborative projects such as our events season and Web team deployments.

#2 Improves performance

It goes without saying that showing appreciation for an employee’s good work will motivate them to produce more of that good work – so providing positive feedback is a win-win!

The more assurance someone is receiving that they are doing a good job and are on the right track, the more energised and productive they are likely to be. So don’t wait for the annual review, let them know immediately! Our HR system, HiBob, allows us to give virtual Kudos to people for achieving great things, and we make sure to shout about individual achievements on our Teams channels and in our monthly whole company meetings.

#3 Encourages professional growth

Another way to show appreciation is to demonstrate that you’re invested in your employees’ professional growth. Actively encourage them to attend conferences and webinars (ours are great!) and find out what skills they want to develop for themselves as well as for their role.

At FindAUniversity, we fund short professional development courses for our staff and give them time within the working week to dedicate to their studies. In doing so, you’ll simultaneously be showing that all-important appreciation and helping your employees acquire skills that will benefit your university. And don’t forget to push them to think about training they may not automatically consider. Just because someone isn’t a manager, for example, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t benefit from a leadership module to improve their confidence and team work.

Employee appreciation at FAU

At FAU, we’re keen to promote a positive workplace culture where employees feel valued! Among many tokens of appreciation, staff benefit from flexible working hours, including locations (we trust our staff to get the job done no matter where they are, including abroad!), shout-outs at our monthly FYI days, volunteering days, fun-filled annual FAU Days, and more.

We asked Managing Director Rob Hardy to tell us why and how we strive to recognise the contributions of employees and FAU: