Do you remember to praise and recognize your employees?

When asked about well-being at work among employees, it is often when they are praised and recognized for the work they have done and feel seen and heard by management.

When work is busy and the workday is fast-paced, it is important for managers to take the time to praise and recognize their employees. Praise and recognition from managers and colleagues creates well-being and reduces sickness absence and stress in the workplace.

Professor and researcher Norbert Semmer's stress theory describes how stress is a consequence of excessive work demands combined with low influence and recognition. He describes that recognition is not necessarily just a pay rise, but a combination of several things. Among other things, it can be a pat on the back that you as an employee are valued for the social skills you bring to the group. That you can be recognized by being given meaningful and challenging work tasks that are self-developing. Recognition is also experienced when the boss gives constructive feedback and praise for the work you have done. We will return to this later.

Why do we suffer from stress at work?

It is not always easy to identify the cause of why people suffer from stress at work and therefore there are no easy solutions to apply in the workplace. However, it is said that working conditions as well as demands and influence/co-determination are key areas that need to be balanced. In this context, it may be appropriate to take a closer look at the working environment in a given company. A good working environment with a suitable framework for individual employees can create greater job satisfaction and promote the quality of work. An example of this can be that employees in a company are aware of their role, expectations and tasks to be adopted. It is also about being allocated space and time to carry out a specific task, where there can be a focus on constructive feedback and recognition of each other's work and efforts. Something that has also been mentioned earlier regarding Norbert Semmer's stress theory. Especially in the case of challenging or newer work tasks, involving the employee as well as recognition and praise can lead to high well-being and thus lower sickness absence.

In this context, there may be talk of how a good psychological working environment can help to influence well-being in workplaces with good management, involvement and supportive colleagues. An experience of a good psychological working environment, where people praise and support each other, among other things, has been shown to create a sense of security among employees, which can also lead to the employee being able to take a critical approach and talk openly about concerns without fearing what will come back.

Praising, acknowledging and treating each other well is therefore essential for you and your colleagues' stress. This is a key issue to focus on in preventing stress in the workplace.