How to show appreciation to remote freelance teams
As business owners, you should know how important it is to show appreciation to the people who help you in your career. For regular employees, it might be easy to tell them verbally how good they are at a specific task. You can also send a quick email saying ‘congrats on the good work’. Regardless of how you say it, someone knowing how much you appreciate them also boosts their performance and engagement at work, and their well-being and mental health. Moreover, leaders who actively show how they value their employees also increase employee’s loyalty.
But what if you have freelancers? Are they worthy of appreciation too?
Of course! Just because you don’t see your outsourced staff doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t thank them. In addition, even if you are their client you are still in a position to let them know your appreciation especially if they are still working for you. Loyalty deserves reward. People who work for a longtime within a company must be doing a good job and must enjoy the culture.
In the United Kingdom, there are 2 million freelancers who are dedicated to selling their skills and talents to various businesses or individuals (not just one employer), and these 2 million people are probably waiting for a client to tell them ‘good job!’
Especially now that the world is facing a crisis, a simple sign of appreciation to show that you– the employer, cares.
How to show appreciation even during the pandemic?
- Send an appreciation email– how hard is it for a company to send a letter of gratitude to someone working hard? It must be easy. A simple thank you goes a long way and feels rewarding. You can also show some empathy, like asking how they have been during the lockdown? You can also ask them if they are facing any troubles to complete the work and try to meet them halfway.
- Highlight Freelancers Efforts– you can consider emphasizing the role of freelancers in your business in a personalised video or a blog post to your website. In addition to that, you can also host a freelance online party to celebrate their efforts especially now that we are on lockdowns because of the pandemic.
- Send monetary or tangible gifts– Although we agree that even businesses face crisis because of the virus as stated in a recent McKinsey online survey of UK SMEs, where more than half view the country’s economy as very or extremely weak and half expect market stagnation or recession… if you just can, we are not forcing you to do it but you can give freelancers bonuses if they did an amazing job. However, keep in mind that each employee is unique like if you would reward a millennial, they tend to appreciate monetary reward, or if someone is an introvert, they might feel shy of public praise.
