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It’s no secret that happy employees are also more productive employees. And while your business should have incentive and advancement policies in effect to motivate and appease workers, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. No, sooner or later, you’re bound to run into some unhappy employees.

The good news is that unhappy employees can easily be turned around if you recognize it and make an effort to work with them soon enough. The first step in turning around an unhappy worker is first to recognize the signs of one. Here’s a look at five common signs of an unhappy employee and what you can do to turn this person – and their productivity – back in a positive manner for your company:

Sign #1: Low Productivity

Perhaps the biggest tell-tale sign of an unhappy employee is a significant drop in productivity. Studies show that happy employees are more productive and, conversely, unhappy ones are not.

How to help:

Correct this lack of productivity by first learning the root of the worker’s unhappiness.Then, consider one-on-one coaching to get them back on track. Reward this employee with morale-boosting special certificates and praise as they begin to meet – or exceed – goals again.

Sign #2: Excuses

If you’re getting nothing but excuses on why a sale hasn’t closed or why an employee’s work has dropped, you’ve likely got an unhappy employee trying to save face.

How to help:

Try assigning a mentor/coach to this employee to get them back on track.

Sign #3: Impatience

A snippy, impatient employee is likely an unhappy one. while everyone can get stressed at times, make sure this isn’t happening to the same employee each month. If so, there might be a bigger problem.

How to help:

To remedy this, consider assigning this employee a new, more challenging project. A lack of patience could simply mean that an employee is frustrated with their current workload and needs a change.

Sign #4: Tardiness/Sick Days

If you have a worker that’s always late or calling in sick, it’s clear that they don’t want to be at the office.

How to help:

Be careful with this one, as there may be external factors coming into play. So if there’s a problem at home, give the employee time off to sort things out. If it’s an issue of getting to the office on time, consider allowing the worker to telecommute.

Sign #5: Disruptive to Co-Workers

One bad egg can disrupt an entire team. And if your company’s productivity is suffering due to one unhappy employee, it’s important to have a sit-down with the worker immediately to let him or her know that kind of behavior won’t be tolerated.

How to help:

Talk with them one on one. Unfortunately, not every unhappy employee can be turned around and that’s where you might have to make the difficult decision to let a person go. But if you ensure that you take the time to appreciate, reward and work with your employees throughout the course of the year, you’ll find that you’ll have much more happy ones than unhappy ones.

As a manager, you’re aware that making your employees feel valued is simply good business practice. It increases productivity, improves the workplace atmosphere, and reduces employee turnover.

While every employee would welcome a cash bonus or a promotion, these aren’t always within your power to offer, but these aren’t the only ways to show your employee that he or she is valuable. In fact, there are hundreds of creative ways to show employee appreciation. Here are 3 simple ways:

Set up a white board for “kudos”

By hanging a white board in a place where all staff members have easy access to it, you can provide public acknowledgements to staff person or entire teams. This medium also allows spontaneous praise to be offered by one team-member to another, which helps build a spirit of cooperation and unity.

Also, the white-board provides an outlet for some creative playfulness, as thank-yous and compliments can be elaborated with doodles, stars, different-colored inks, and so on.

Trumpet your praise on social media platforms

While businesses are becoming familiar with using their Facebook and Twitter accounts for purposes of marketing, they are only beginning to explore the tremendous potential of these platforms for employee recognition.

If you make a special Twitter or Facebook post to praise an employee for going above and beyond the usual duties, you will be sowing an entire field of good will. Your employee will share this post with friends and family members, and co-workers will be able to “like” or re-tweet it.

One more, your customers will see that your business has a heart, and they’ll feel good about buying your products and services.

Give a custom-made certificate

A formal award certificate, custom-printed with your employee’s name and special achievement, carries with it a unique sense of permanent recognition. PaperDirect allows you to design your certificate online using a wide selection of templates, and receive them fully printed and ready to present.

These types of certificates or awards convey a sense of serious importance, and the staff person who receives one is likely to frame it and keep it as a long-term reminder that he or she is valuable.

Investing the time to give your employees a heart-felt message of appreciation will provide you with high returns in both productivity and good will so show your appreciation today!

Looking beyond your company to help others allows you to be active participants in your community and around the world. While many employees will be willing to donate and volunteer without any reward, offering incentives can help create positive emotions around the experience. Plus, recognizing and rewarding charitable activities helps develop a company culture where these activities are valued. Consider some of these low-cost ideas of how to reward employees for their charitable contributions.

Casual days: If your workplace has a dress code that is not strictly necessary for employees to stick to every day, offer casual days as a reward for charitable contributions. For example, give employees one casual day per can of food they bring in for a canned food drive. If employees need to dress up for client meetings or other purposes, specify when they are allowed to use their casual days.

Thank you certificates: Create a certificate for employees each time they participate in a volunteer activity or give a donation. Although a certificate won’t cost your company much at all, employees are likely to appreciate the recognition. Set up a template to make it easy to create certificates whenever you need them.

Monetary donations for volunteer hours: Allow employees to increase the impact of their volunteer hours by matching each hour they volunteer with a dollar from the company to the charity of the employee’s choice. This can be the organization where the employee volunteers or a separate one the employee designates.

Special parking spaces: Designate a couple of parking spots right next to your building for special achievers. Each time you have a donation drive or volunteer effort, award these spaces to the employees with the highest levels of participation. This can be a very desirable award if you have a large parking lot!

Volunteer recognition banquet: Public recognition for a job well done can provide a significant emotional boost to employees who volunteer. Organize an annual banquet and invite all employees who have volunteered or donated during the year. If a full dinner banquet is out of your budget, consider a dessert banquet instead.

The holiday season is a good time to think about offering your employees some well-deserved positive feedback. Workers are motivated by many factors besides their paychecks, so even if you need to keep your end-of-year expenses down, you can find great ways to validate your employees’ hard work. Here are five staff appreciation ideas that will brighten the holiday spirit at your office and help everyone start off the new year with fresh energy.

Create new opportunities for flexing schedules

According to the Center for Talent Innovation, the perk that means the most to employees of all ages is having some individual flex in their schedules. If you can reorganize the workflow to build in some new flexibility, employees will feel that you respect their needs as human beings and family members outside the context of the office.

Provide your staff with a chance to help others

If money is tight for your business, you can build employee morale by giving each staff member a modest sum and asking them to choose a charitable recipient for their donation. Harvard Business Review tested this notion of “prosocial bonuses” and employees receiving the ability to give to others reported more satisfaction with their jobs than an equivalent group did after receiving personal cash bonuses. Those charitable donations can be deducted from your company’s taxes later.

Participate in an office potluck lunch party

Rather than underwriting a restaurant meal for your staff, clear the calendars for an afternoon and decorate a meeting room or lunch room with a few seasonal items. Encourage each person to bring specialty foods for an office-wide potluck, and be sure that you and other managers take time to prepare something as well. Employees will feel personally valued if higher level staff actually put in the hours to prepare some good food, rather than simply buying a contribution.

Offer appreciation in writing

In his book, “1,001 Ways to Reward Employees,” motivational expert Bob Nelson reports that over 99% of employees find personal praise to be very important. Putting your appreciation into writing and personalizing it creates a long-lasting memento that will energize the employee every time they read it. Browse through PaperDirect’s blank certificates to find a design that perfectly conveys the appreciation that you want to express.

Arrange for praise from higher up

Good supervisors take care to offer appreciation on a relatively frequent basis — but how often does an employee have the experience of being recognized and thanked by one of the high-level executives whom they rarely see? Your staff members will feel truly appreciated if you can arrange for an upper-tier manager to personally stop by and express appreciation.

Shopping online at PaperDirect is a way to enter the holiday mood and get your creative juices flowing.