Do you have a way to show your dance teachers that you appreciate them?

Don’t underestimate how important this is.

The close margins businesses operate on today make it very important to find creative ways to incentivize and reward your staff. Appreciation is perfect for this! It is a proven fact that employees value being appreciated and – believe it or not – it is actually preferred over other more costly perks or bonuses.

If you’re falling short on ideas for showing appreciate, we’re here to help.

The first thing to do is to mark your calendar for this year’s National Dance Teacher Appreciation Week – March 1-9. That is just over a month away, so don’t think that you have plenty of time. You need to put your plan together now!

We found some cards that are perfect for dance teacher appreciation and 32 really cool teacher appreciation gifts that kids can make! Perhaps you can even sponsor an event – a “secret” gift making party – so your students can make a gift for each teacher.

We’ve also shared some other ideas about appreciation and your staff in a previous post of ours: “Keeping Employees Happy”.

Just in case you’re wondering about how valuable showing appreciation can be to your studio, consider the following information noted in a recent Forbes article by Jacquelyn Smith about how to show appreciation and get better results from your employees.

Glassdoor (online jobs and career community) released its Employee Appreciation Survey last Fall that revealed how appreciated employees feel by employers, what really motivates them at work and what employer-provided perks they wanted most this Thanksgiving.

What is interesting – and applicable to all children’s activity centers – is that the survey data overwhelming shows that the majority (53%) of employees would stay at their company longer if they felt more appreciation from their boss. An even larger majority (81%) said they’re motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation for their work.

That is justification enough for putting a simple appreciation program in place for your studio to encourage increased loyalty and better performance from your teachers. Use these ideas as a starting point to create your own events and gifts so that the way you express your appreciation is tailored to the lifestyles and needs of your teachers!