3 Powerful Ways to Make Your Team Feel Truly Valued

"I'm doing everything I can think of to keep my team engaged," a fellow business owner confided over lunch last week. "We've got the ping-pong table, Friday drinks, and even increased the budget for team events. But people still seem disconnected, and our turnover is higher than ever."

It's a frustration I've heard repeatedly from leaders across industries. Despite their best intentions and perks, they're watching their teams slowly disengage, leading to decreased productivity and increased turnover costs.

Yet I've also witnessed the opposite scenario. During a recent visit to a travel agency facing tough market conditions, I was struck by how energised and committed the team seemed. When I asked their director about their secret, she simply said, "We don't just value our team—we prove it through consistent, meaningful actions."

The truth is, genuine appreciation goes far beyond superficial perks. While free snacks and team outings have their place, research consistently shows that people stay and thrive where they feel genuinely seen, heard, and valued for their contributions.

After working with hundreds of teams, I've identified three powerful tactics that consistently transform how people feel about their workplace—without requiring massive budgets or restructuring.

The Three Tactics That Transform How Teams Feel Valued

The following three tactics from Team Tactics by Pip Decks provide a framework for creating genuine team appreciation that leads to higher engagement, reduced turnover, and improved performance:

1. Onboarding Retro: Improving how you welcome new team members and gather fresh insights
2. Health Monitor: Keeping a pulse on your team's wellbeing and addressing issues proactively
3. Team Appreciation: Creating structured opportunities for peer recognition aligned with your values

Let's explore each tactic with practical examples from Pip's Travel Agency, who used these approaches to transform their team culture.

1. Onboarding Retro: Making People Feel Valued From Day One

The first few weeks at a new job set the tone for everything that follows. According to LinkedIn, almost a quarter of people decide they're going to leave their role within the first 45 days. The Onboarding Retro tactic creates a structured way to improve your onboarding process while making new hires feel genuinely heard.

Why it works

When people join your organisation, they shift from "knowing everybody and how everything works to knowing no people and how nothing works." This vulnerability creates a unique opportunity for connection and improvement. By systematically gathering their feedback, you simultaneously improve your processes and demonstrate that their perspective matters.

How to run an Onboarding Retro

1. Schedule the session
   • Book a 45-minute meeting with new team members about 4 weeks after they join
   • Ensure a comfortable, private setting where they'll feel safe sharing
2. Create a visual timeline
   • Draw a horizontal line on paper or a digital board
   • Mark "When you first heard about the job" on the left and "Today" on the right
3. Guide them through their journey
   • Ask them to walk you through each step of their experience
   • Record each step they mention on the timeline
   • Note pain points and improvement ideas as they arise
4. Invite additional reflections
   • Once they reach "today," give them time to add anything missed
   • Ask specifically about moments when they felt uncertain or supported
5. Document and integrate feedback
   • Compile insights into a digital document
   • Add improvement ideas to your onboarding checklist
   • Assign clear ownership for implementing changes

Real-world example

At Pip's Travel Agency, new hire Maria identified that she'd spent her first three days without proper system access, largely watching others work. Through the Onboarding Retro, the team discovered this was a common problem caused by a disconnect between IT and HR processes.

The agency implemented a pre-arrival checklist ensuring all system access was configured before new hires started. This simple fix dramatically improved the first-week experience and demonstrated to Maria that her input was valued—leading her to share additional insights that improved their customer onboarding process as well.

Six months later, their new hire retention had improved by 40%, and they'd shortened the time to full productivity from eight weeks to just four.

2. Health Monitor: Keeping A Pulse On Team Wellbeing

You can't address issues you don't see. The Health Monitor tactic creates a structured way to regularly assess your team's wellbeing across key dimensions, giving you early warning of potential problems and demonstrating your commitment to their experience.

Why it works

Research from Oxford University shows that happy workers are 13% more productive. The Health Monitor creates visibility into the factors affecting team happiness, allowing you to address issues before they become severe. More importantly, it demonstrates that their experience matters to leadership.

By measuring consistently over time, you can identify patterns and track the impact of your interventions, creating a continuous improvement cycle.

How to run a Health Monitor

1. Create a consistent assessment framework
   • Develop 5-7 questions covering key areas of team experience
   • Examples: "I feel my work is meaningful," "I have the resources I need," "I can raise concerns without fear"
2. Gather responses using a traffic light system
   • Red = Disagree
   • Amber = Neither agree nor disagree
   • Green = Agree
3. Review and discuss the results
   • Focus particular attention on any red indicators
   • Explore what might be causing issues
   • Ask what has changed since the previous assessment
4. Create accountability for improvements
   • Determine specific actions to address concerns
   • Assign clear ownership for each action
   • Set timelines for implementation
5. Track changes over time
   • Maintain a record of results from each assessment
   • Note which interventions led to improvements
   • Celebrate when indicators shift from red to amber or green

Real-world example

Pip's Travel Agency implemented monthly Health Monitors and quickly identified that their team was struggling with work-life balance as travel bookings increased post-pandemic. The red flags appeared most prominently in responses to "I feel able to disconnect from work during personal time."

Rather than ignoring this feedback or offering superficial solutions, they facilitated a team discussion that uncovered a root cause: clients were contacting team members directly after hours with urgent requests.

The agency implemented an after-hours rotation system where one team member would handle urgent client needs each evening, allowing others to truly disconnect. This simple solution dramatically improved their next Health Monitor results and reduced signs of burnout.

More importantly, team members reported feeling truly heard and respected—that their personal time was valued by the organisation.

3. Team Appreciation: Sharing Good Vibes

Recognition shouldn't just come from leaders—peer appreciation often carries even more weight. The Team Appreciation tactic creates a structured framework for team members to acknowledge each other's contributions in meaningful ways.

Why it works

According to Gallup research, employees in recognition-focused organisations are five times more likely to feel valued, six times more likely to invest in the company, seven times more likely to stay, and eleven times more likely to feel satisfied.

This tactic amplifies recognition by connecting it directly to your team's shared values, reinforcing both the appreciation and your culture simultaneously.

How to run Team Appreciation

1. Create your appreciation framework
   • Draw a grid with your team values across the top
   • List team members' names down the side
   • If you haven't defined your values yet, this is a great opportunity to do so
2. Share appreciation examples
   • Give team members time to add appreciation notes for their colleagues
   • Encourage notes that connect to specific values
   • Allow for additional categories if needed
3. Ensure inclusivity
   • Pay attention to team members who might receive less recognition
   • Encourage appreciation for different types of contributions, not just the most visible ones
   • Model the behaviour by sharing specific, meaningful appreciation yourself
4. Celebrate openly
   • Either have people read their received appreciation privately, or
   • Read appreciations aloud and celebrate each person
   • Create space for people to express how the recognition made them feel
5. Make it sustainable
   • Establish a regular cadence for appreciation activities
   • Consider creating physical or digital spaces where appreciation can be shared year-round
   • Connect appreciation to your wider recognition systems

Real-world example

Pip's Travel Agency had five core values: Customer Focus, Innovation, Integrity, Teamwork, and Excellence. Their Team Appreciation session revealed something unexpected—team members consistently appreciated their quiet finance manager, David, for embodying "Integrity" through his meticulous work ensuring client funds were always properly handled.

David, who typically worked behind the scenes with little visibility, was visibly moved by the recognition. He shared that he'd sometimes felt his contribution was less valued than the sales team's more visible successes.

Following this, the agency implemented a monthly "Values Champion" recognition where team members from all departments could be celebrated for exemplifying the values. This simple practice dramatically improved cross-department appreciation and helped everyone feel their unique contributions were valued.

From Tactics to Transformation: Building a Culture of Appreciation

While each tactic is powerful independently, the true magic happens when you integrate all three into your leadership approach:

1. Start with the Onboarding Retro to ensure new team members feel valued from day one and continuously improve your welcoming process
2. Implement regular Health Monitors to keep a pulse on team wellbeing and address issues proactively
3. Build structured Team Appreciation to foster peer recognition aligned with your values

This integrated approach creates a continuous cycle of listening and acknowledgment that demonstrates genuine value for your team members' experience and contributions.

Addressing Common Objections

"We don't have time for these activities"

Consider the time you're already spending on recruitment, onboarding, conflict management, and compensating for disengagement. These tactics require just a few hours per month but can dramatically reduce the massive hidden costs of turnover—which typically ranges from 50-200% of an employee's annual salary according to Oxford Economics.

The question isn't whether you can afford the time for these tactics—it's whether you can afford not to implement them.

"Our team is too distributed/busy/diverse for this to work"

Each tactic can be adapted for remote, hybrid, or in-person teams. Health Monitors can be conducted through anonymous surveys, Team Appreciation can happen in digital collaboration tools, and Onboarding Retros can be conducted via video call.

The key is consistency and sincerity, not perfect implementation of a rigid framework.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Treating these as one-time activities rather than ongoing practices
2. Gathering feedback without acting on it, which can be worse than not asking at all
3. Focusing only on problems rather than also celebrating strengths and successes
4. Limiting appreciation to visible achievements rather than recognising all types of contributions
5. Failing to model vulnerability as a leader during these activities

The most common pitfall is approaching these tactics as HR checkboxes rather than genuine opportunities for connection and improvement. When leaders participate authentically and act on what they learn, these practices become transformative.

The Difference Between Teams That Survive and Teams That Thrive

Remember the business owner I mentioned at the beginning? After implementing these three tactics over three months, they reported a dramatic shift in their team's energy and retention.

"The ping-pong table is still there," they told me, "but ironically, it gets less use now because people are more engaged with their work. They know their experience matters to us, because we've built systems to prove it."

That's the difference between teams that merely survive and teams that truly thrive: not elaborate perks, but consistent practices that demonstrate genuine value for people's contributions and wellbeing.

In today's competitive talent landscape, creating an environment where people feel genuinely valued isn't just nice to have—it's a strategic advantage. These three tactics provide a proven framework for building that environment, one meaningful interaction at a time.

Take Your Team Leadership to the Next Level

Ready to transform how your team feels valued? These tactics are just the beginning of what's possible when you approach team leadership with intention and purpose.

For a complete toolkit of team leadership practices, Team Tactics by Pip Decks gives you 54 practical team leadership tools in a beautiful card deck, from building psychological safety to facilitating productive conflict. Each card provides clear instructions and examples you can apply immediately to your next team interaction.

Developed through work with hundreds of teams across industries, these tactics have helped thousands of leaders transform their teams from groups of individuals into cohesive, high-performing units.

Get Team Tactics →

The difference between being a manager and becoming a truly inspiring leader isn't about having more authority—it's about creating more meaning. Start your leadership transformation today.

Based on tactics from Team Tactics by Pip Decks.

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