Many times you want to appreciate your employees for showing great effort in work. But, you sometimes don’t know what to say and you end up saying a simple thank you. Although, thank you itself is a great term to express your gratitude, sometimes you would want to say a little more. Even employees want to hear more than those two words for doing great work. After all, they deserve it don’t they? A thank you speech to employees is sometimes all they want to have a motivation boost. An employee appreciation speech will benefit your workplace in many ways that we’ll talk about in this article.

So what else should you say to your employees to appreciate them? What benefits will it have? 

In this article, we list some employee appreciation speeches or sentences for you to get an idea from. You can use these employee recognition speech samples as they are or you can take the idea and be a little creative on your own. 

Benefits of Appreciating Your Employees

Before we begin let’s look at some benefits you’ll have when you start appreciating your employees for all the good they do:

  • Appreciating your employees results in reduced turnover and increased retention. Of course, if you keep your employees happy and motivated, they wouldn’t want to quit unlike in a toxic work environment.
  • A study reveals that appreciating someone or expressing gratitude has a great impact on the mental health of both the giver and receiver. In fact, counting blessings and expressing gratitude is associated with less depression and more happiness.
  • A report revealed that employee appreciation and recognition increase employee engagement by 2.7x.
  • Employee appreciation results in higher work engagement, less stress, decreased absenteeism and increases enjoyment in work.

Now that you’ve seen some benefits of appreciating the employees, we’ll now look at some employee appreciation speech samples. So let’s begin!

Employee Appreciation Speeches 

Generalized employee appreciation speech or words are great, but did you know that specific appreciation weighs more? For example, “thank you for doing great work!” is a good thing to say to your employees. But “ thank you, John, for those 5 extra hours you spent on this project and for getting us back on track with your amazing skills in sales. We couldn’t be more thankful to you” is way more powerful. Other examples of an employee appreciation speech are as follows:

Recognizing Great Performance

So one of your employees did tremendously well on a difficult project. What do you do? Instead of letting this opportunity go, thank them with specific praise and make them feel valued. Try saying words like:

  • Thanks for the top-class performance you showed this week! We’re so proud of you.
  • It’s amazing that we’ve got a gem amidst us. We’re so glad you work with us when most companies dream to work with people like you. Thanks for all the great work that you did this past month!
  • Today we’d like to grab this opportunity and appreciate [insert name of the employee]’s work they did yesterday. We’re so thankful to you for making things work for us and giving new heights to this organization. You’re truly an inspiration for many of us here.
  • Your attention to detail has made us stand out in many organizations. What you’ve done for us, will never be forgotten. As much as we love your enthusiasm, your dedication to showing great work performance has inspired us!
  • Today, I’d like to thank you on the behalf of all senior management for always exceeding our expectations when it comes to great work. Thanks for helping us touch new heights every month. Kudos to your efforts.

Recognizing Work

Recognizing Achievement of Goals

Not many of your employees will help you reach company goals. But for those that do, make sure you recognize their efforts. You can use the following employee recognition speech samples:

  • [insert name of the employee], you probably thought no one would notice you staying late at the office and putting your back into this project. Guess what? You’re wrong. Today we are letting you know that we noticed your efforts. And we’d like to thank you for spending that extra time and hitting the goal of reaching $1M for the company.
  • Thanks for playing a crucial role in hitting our 10000 subscribers goal! We’d like to express our gratitude for showing tremendous efforts with your top-notch marketing skills. Honestly, this wouldn’t have been possible without you. 
  • We’ve been meaning to reach this goal for quite a long time now. We’re so glad you joined us and made things 10x easier for us. Thanks for showing a great path to everyone. We’re proud and inspired. 
  • On the behalf of the entire management, we’d like to thank you for the outstanding performance you’ve shown ever since you joined us. A special thanks to you for helping us reach our goal for this year. We’re eternally grateful for the success you’ve brought to this company. 

Acknowledging Positive Attitude and Behavior 

While you may not give this much attention, appreciating your employees’ positive behavior is as important as recognizing their work. See the following examples of employee appreciation speech:

  • Dear Kate, thanks for bringing an upbeat attitude, all-smiles vibes to the office every day. You don’t know how much this helps us in gaining motivation for every day’s work. 
  • Your consistent positive attitude at work is absolutely wholesome. Thanks for bringing in that attitude every day to work and motivating us to do more. Honestly you raise our spirits to the level of the sky!
  • [Insert name of the employee], thanks for helping everyone out with work. We absolutely love and value your helpful nature. It brings in so much positivity and your helping nature makes everyone’s work a lot easier. 
  • Your positive attitude at work is so refreshing! You always cheer everyone up even if someones having a bad day at work. We need more employees like you. Thanks for the radiant energy and happy vibes you spread all over. 

Acknowledging Work Anniversaries

Those employees who’ve been working with you for many years deserve special appreciation for the loyalty they showed. See the following examples of a work anniversary speech:

  • [Insert name of the employee] has spent 2 years with us now. Firstly we are so happy that you’ve made it to this day bringing us so many accomplishments and what not. Honestly, we would never want you to leave us without spending at least another 100 years with us!
  • Has it really been 6 whole years? Time surely flies, man. Its been an incredible journey with you ever since you joined us back in 2015. I’d like to grab this opportunity and raise a toast to you for the immense hard work and loyalty you’ve displayed for this company. Thanks a bunch!
  • I still remember the day [insert name of the employee] joined this company nearly a decade ago. Now that you’ve made it to a senior position, we’d like to thank you for all the amazing work you’ve done for us. Your expertise and talent made us reach many goals. So accept this [anything you’d offer] as a token of our appreciation for services well done. 
  • Congratulations on reaching your 5 year anniversary with us. You’re a star and we cannot ask for anyone better. Keep shining and keep working with us. Looking forward to celebrating more years with you!

Appreciating employees

Appreciating the Entire Staff

Staff appreciation is important. After all, it takes the entire team effort for a company to reach goals, right? Make sure you recognize your employees’ teamwork, their strength, and their collaboration skills upon each successful moment. You can use the following examples of staff appreciation speech to write:

  • Thanks for the incredible teamwork everyone has shown this past week. From the sales department to the design department, everyone showed a top-class performance. We are so proud of having each one of you on our team.
  • This is truly above and beyond. You guys were amazing this week and each one of you has struggled way too hard to help us achieve this goal. We know most of you have been starting their days earlier than others and it is that hard work that paid off in the terms of the revenue we made this week. Thank you once again, to everyone. 
  • We are absolutely honored to announce that we have captured a big market share this month. To speak the truth, this would never have been possible without any of you. From the incredible designs from the design team to the awesome content from the marketing team, everyone did a great job! We are so happy and proud. 
  • It is with great pleasure and excitement that I announce that we have hit a milestone in terms of increased efficiency and the profit margin of our organization. This is due to the hard work that everybody 3showed. We are aware that each one of you has been committed to excellence and it has inspired others to push past mediocrity. 
  • Over the past year, we have improved customer services to up to 50x. We’d like to raise a toast to everyone in the customer service team for their immense contribution and dedication. We are also thankful for coming up with such creative ways of dealing with customers and increasing the profit. Thank you so much. 

General Appreciation Words

There may be times when you simply want to express gratitude for an employee despite anything specifically.  For those times you can give thanks by using any of the following examples of general employee appreciation speech:

  • Your desire and willingness to keep creating the best possible for this organization has led to so many great moments. We’d like to thank you for the careful attention you give to each and every project.
  • We’d like to thank you for setting the bar high every time with your amazing skills and talent. We are so glad you get to use your fullest potential with this organization. You being mindful about giving the best final touches to every project is totally appreciated. 
  • Thank you for jumping in and helping the team every time. We are so happy that you fully understand the company’s needs and then work your best to reach the expectations. Honestly, you’ve always exceeded the expectations we have. 
  • You truly deserve appreciation and recognition for the hard work you do for this company. At times, I become so happy seeing your work, I often feel like sharing it with others. At this time, it’s safe to say that you are our organization’s best catch!
  • Today we’d like to thank you for all the great you’ve done for this company. Your work ethics and dedication are admirable, and we are fortunate to have someone as dedicated as you onboard!

All Set to Appreciate Your Employees?

Now that we’ve listed down several examples of employee recognition speeches, it’s up to you to decide which one you should use to appreciate your employees. Appreciating your employees results in many positive changes in the workplace with motivation being one of the biggest outcomes. So go ahead, compliment your employees on what they deserve, and see smiling faces.

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