Mike Bayer
Welcome back to the Vacation Rental Success Podcast. It's Mike Bayer, CEO and co-founder of the Vacation Rental Formula Business School, and I'm thrilled to share the fantastic response we've had to our newest training program, THRIVE Essentials. Launched in October of 2024, THRIVE Essentials is designed to be the ultimate onboarding tool for vacation rental property management teams. It's perfect for quickly bringing new hires up to speed, cutting down on training time, and ensuring they have the essential knowledge to thrive in their new role. With THRIVE Essentials, your team members gain the foundational skills they need to be effective contributors faster, building confidence, loyalty, and job satisfaction right from the start.

Mike Bayer
The feedback from property managers and HR teams has been overwhelmingly positive. Many are saying they wish they had had access to this program years ago. Enroll your new team members in THRIVE Essentials today, and you'll see how quickly they adapt, contributing with confidence and being effective within days. For more details, visit the link in the Show Notes or head to vacationrentalformula.com to see how THRIVE can transform your team.

Mike Bayer
Now, let's get into today's episode. Here's your host, Heather Bayer.

Heather Bayer
It's Thanksgiving Week, and I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all our colleagues and friends in the US. Happy Turkey Day people.

Heather Bayer
In today's episode, we're talking about giving thanks, giving appreciation. We are talking about The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, how you can motivate and retain your staff by just simply using appreciation. I'm joined by my business partner, Mike Bayer, to discuss this. I hope you enjoy.

Heather Bayer
This is the Vacation Rental Success Podcast, keeping you up-to-date with news, views, information and resources on this rapidly changing short-term rental business. I'm your host, Heather Bayer, and with 25 years of experience in this industry, I'm making sure you know what's hot, what's not, what's new, and what will help make your business a success.

Heather Bayer
Well, hello and welcome to another episode of the Vacation Rental Success Podcast. This is your host, Heather Bayer and as ever, I'm super delighted to be back with you once again. And my guest today is the one and only Mike Bayer, my business partner and my son. And it is absolutely great to have Mike join me on this in this episode to talk about something that's dear to both our hearts, and it's very topical. It's Thanksgiving and we're talking about 'Thanks Giving' in the workplace. Why languages of appreciation matter.

Heather Bayer
So welcome, Mike, it's an absolute pleasure to have you join me yet again.

Mike Bayer
Thanks for having me. It's great to be back. And yes, Happy Thanksgiving to everybody listening in the US of A. Here in Canada, we had our Thanksgiving a month ago, so it's fun to celebrate for a second time. But for everybody else who's listening in America, yes, Happy Thanksgiving. And yeah, we want to make sure that as you're listening to this episode, you're thinking about exactly what it is that you can do for all the key stakeholders around your business. There are your guests, your owners, your community and your team, and all of those groups can be thanked at this time of year and especially in the lead up to Christmas.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, talking about Christmas though, Mike, this is why we have our Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October, because then there's a massive gap between turkeys. The holiday season has started, so you start off with turkey and you're going to do it again in four weeks time. Yeah, I'm very happy that we have our Canadian Thanksgiving so much earlier. But anyway.

Mike Bayer
This week I've been seeing already a lot of the posts on LinkedIn from different property management companies and it's not just in America. I think it's a good time of year leading up to the holidays and obviously your summer destinations tend to be in a slightly slower mode leading up to Christmas, but your winter destinations are just starting to ramp up. So this is always a good time of year just to take a step back and have a think about what special things you can do for your team and the people who help keep your business running.

Heather Bayer
Yep. So that it. It's the theme of appreciation. And we talked on the podcast around about a year ago, and I talked to one of the authors of the book Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, Dr. Paul White, and we had a great conversation about this, on a very generalized level.

Heather Bayer
This is good, we're actually going to spend the next 40 minutes or so honing down on our particular industry, and as Mike said, the different stakeholders and making sure that when we are doing appreciation, that we're remembering all these different stakeholders, guests, owners, community and the team. I read Love Languages a long time ago. You've read this as well, haven't you?

Mike Bayer
Yes, yes, I have.

Heather Bayer
So do you know what your love language is?

Mike Bayer
Absolutely. Mine is a very.... It's something.... Even just today, I've been on some calls today and I've got a particular project going on. And for me, it's the pat on the back. It's the words of affirmation that really help me out. That's what I need. And what really drives me is it's always well and good to think and be happy with yourself that you've achieved something or you've  completed a project and you've done it well. But when somebody else tells you that, I don't really need a gift, but that pat on the back and just the, You did a really great job, I really appreciate all this effort you put in. That really is what fills my bucket.

Heather Bayer
So you say pat on the back, but you mean....

Mike Bayer
Yes. No!

Heather Bayer
A verbal pat on the back?

Mike Bayer
Yes, you're absolutely right, because. Yeah, that'd be physical touch. No, yeah, I absolutely mean like more verbally in the words of affirmation.

Heather Bayer
And mine is acts of service. I love it when you guys come and stay with us over a weekend and at the end of a meal, you all get up and clear off the table and do the dishes and tidy up my kitchen. That really means so much to me. So acts of service is my principle preferred language of appreciation. And in a moment, we're going to go through the different Love Languages or different languages of appreciation.

Heather Bayer
Let's take out the word love because we're talking about workplace appreciation. So in this episode, we're going to be talking about understanding those five languages of appreciation, but then we're going to go onto some real practical strategies to use them effectively in a workplace or rental management setting. And not only that, but we'll also be talking about remote work settings as well. And also out in the field, how you use Languages of Appreciation with owners, how you use it with the community as well. And we've got some real world examples for application. So let's start with.... Do you know, before ChatGPT, Mike, I always used to say, let's dive in.

Mike Bayer
And now you don't want to.

Heather Bayer
And now I can't use that, because apparently ChatGPT uses it all the time. So therefore, if you use the word dive, it means that you are ChatGPT focused. So I'm having to change my language because of AI. So anyway, let's dive in and talk.

Mike Bayer
Let's dive in. I'm fine with it. Yeah, I think anybody listens to this podcast for a while will know that is a pretty common term that we've used long before ChatGPT, which we've been doing for 14 years. So, yes, let's go.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, so we're going to talk about, first of all, these five languages, and they are pretty much, they're pretty similar to the original Love Languages. So just going back on that a bit. The original Five Love Languages was a book by Gary Chapman and it proposed that we all have different methods of giving and receiving love from our significant others, from our relatives, from the people... our friends. When we take this into the workplace, we have to adapt some of them just a little bit, because we're in a different environment.

Heather Bayer
So the book Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace was co-written by Gary Chapman and Dr. Paul White, who is an expert on interpersonal communications in the workplace. So just to put that all into context, we're talking about the workplace. So there are five of these languages and the number one is the one you've mentioned earlier, Mike, which is Words of Appreciation. It's a verbal acknowledgement of someone's effort. And give  me an example, Mike. This is your language. You're not having the best day today.

Mike Bayer
First of all, it's Words of Affirmation, not Words of Appreciation. So it's Languages of Appreciation, but the very first one is Words of Affirmation. Yes, affirmation. And yes, I'm having a very challenging day. There is another project going on, I don't need to get into that. It could definitely have just broken down my day, but I have been lifted by some of the comments I've received. I just received a text message five minutes ago to say, Oh, really sorry about this, but you've done such a great job. And there's something about that when somebody can assure you that you are giving all the effort and all the heart that you put into something has actually been not just something you conjured up in your mind. Like you have actually produced some piece of work or you've done a service or you've achieved something for your organization and your supervisor, your friend, an owner, a guest turns around and just says, thank you so much, Mike, you've done such an amazing job. I really appreciate that. And simple words like that can really make a person's day.

Mike Bayer
And we talk about that quite often in the world. It's like, how can you pay that forward just by saying something nice to somebody? And especially in the world we live in now, which can quite easily descend into the black hole of negativity, I think it's always good for us to be reaching out and putting a bit of positivity back into the world. And words of affirmation is a great way to do that.

Heather Bayer
Yeah. So secondly, we've got quality time, and that's about giving undivided attention to somebody. So when you go back to the love languages, that's sort of having a date night or sitting down and watching a movie with a significant other, that's all about having quality time. In the workplace, though it could be having some time with a manager to talk about your career and how that's going forward. It could be having a team building day, which is tailored to the team preferences. And an example could be an escape room challenge, or a brainstorming lunch.

Heather Bayer
I was down in Gulf Shores earlier this year and I visited with Beach Getaways with Deb Furlong and her team, and we all went out to lunch together. I did the same thing with Valerie Hawkins and her team at Perdido Key Realty. And that for the fact that I went out to lunch with them was one thing, but both Valerie and Deb brought their teams along as well. And that was such quality time for them, taking time out of the workplace. And I think that was such a great gesture that they did. It could have been that I'd gone out for coffee with Deb or Valerie, but no, they brought their team along as well. So that's an example of quality time.

Mike Bayer
And the nice thing about quality time is, it goes both ways, is that those teams looked at that opportunity to spend time with you, that you were giving them quality time. And then you are also very appreciative that they brought the whole team along to hang out with you. As quality time is not a one way act. If you are expressing the language of appreciation and you're getting that across to other people around you, you're putting that out there so you're giving somebody else your quality time.

Mike Bayer
But if you're somebody who appreciates when you're having a conversation and the person you're with puts their phone away, that's a real classic one, is that you want to show somebody that you're actually concentrating on them. Put your computer on sleep mode, turn your phone over or put it away in your desk drawer or in your pocket or in your purse. That is a very clear sign that you're committed to that conversation and that interaction where you're not going to be distracted by anything else. And that's a very easy one to get into the habit of doing, especially if you're a manager and a supervisor and actually just dialing it right back.

Mike Bayer
That's something I wanted to mention at the beginning is that I'm getting a lot more into leadership coaching. I have a background as an officer in the fire service as well as a trainer in the British Army before I moved to Canada. And something that you learn in the military and in the fire service is how a good leader needs to be embracing these languages of appreciation in the workplace. Because that is how you form tighter bonds and stronger bonds with your employees, with your team members. And that is how those people will then have your back. They're going to look after you and your interests as a leader, as a supervisor, if you can show them and demonstrate to them that you also have theirs. And that's where these languages of appreciation come into play.

Heather Bayer
Let's go into acts of service. As I said, this is my favorite one. You know, for me personally, when somebody assists me with something, then I mean, you helped me put up the Christmas lights the other day on a tree outside. I could have done that on my own, but having you there to help me out, it made just such a world of difference. In the workplace it's just about helping somebody in a meaningful way. Understanding when somebody is a little stressed out and needs some additional help; that's a really good example. When somebody's having an issue with a platform. And you know, some of the platforms we use in this industry can be pretty tricky. Noticing when somebody is having a problem navigating through some software. Just sitting down with them and saying, Hey, let me help you with this. I've spent more time on it and I think I know what the problem is. That is an act of service. It's stepping in. It's a property manager stepping in to clean a room when a cleaning team is running short of time, or handling a guest inquiry to give somebody some breathing space.

Heather Bayer
So those are all examples of acts of service. The one that really interests me because this one is right at the bottom of my list. It's my number five on my love languages and on my languages of appreciation in the workplace. And that's tangible gifts. And it's interesting that so often in the workplace managers think that giving a gift is the thing to do when they want to give their appreciation. The research shows that tangible gifts are not as important as the other languages. There are some people who like to get a tangible gift. So it could be an example as giving somebody a gift card, giving them a personalized gift, like giving them their favorite coffee, maybe giving a spa day for a job well done. What do you think about this one, Mike?

Mike Bayer
I'm in agreement where I feel that the giving something, a physical gift or a monetary gift can sometimes be more about the giver than the receiver. And I think it could be more about this sense of, I've done a good thing here because I'm giving this person this gift. It's very tangible, it's something that's in your hand, or it could be a gift card. But it can also be something that hasn't had a lot of thought put into it. And if you listen to this thinking, if I'm giving somebody a hundred dollar gift card to a spa, they take it or they leave it. That's not the point of you giving that gift. If you really want to build that relationship with your stakeholders and I think more specifically with your team, you've really got to truly understand what it is that's valuable to them.

Mike Bayer
So let's say your cleaning manager is really struggling because they've just lost their nanny or they've just lost their spot at a daycare. So now they're super stressed out, because they are trying to balance kids and where they're going to go and they love their job. They've always been so good with your company. A tangible gift would be, oh, hey, here is the contact number for somewhere where I have a friend who has a vacancy. You know, you've taken that time to think about this individual. You know what their problem is. You've come up with a solution to their problem. That's a tangible gift. And you could even go one step further and say, hey, no worries. Like I want you guys to try this place out, it's really great. I'm going to pay for the first week for you. Could you imagine any team member where your manager goes out of their way like that, who won't be loyal to you and will put it all on the table to be excellent at their job and to support you?

Mike Bayer
I think everybody has to think beyond, I'm going to give you a mug with your name on it, or I'm going to give you a branded..... Please stop giving branded mugs and cups and things as gifts to your staff. They don't want it, they really don't. So really take some time. If you're going to give a tangible gift, make sure it's something specific to that individual and really ask yourself, is this something that that person's actually going to use or is it just a trinket to make you feel better?

Heather Bayer
Yeah. And the other thing is, keep in mind that tangible gifts could be right at the bottom of their wish list for how they want to feel appreciated. So we'll be going into how you recognize what somebody's language is in a bit, but the last one, and we'll touch on this very, very briefly. Very appropriate because it's physical touch. Physical touch is very important when we're talking about love languages, but not so important in the workplace and in fact not so appropriate in the workplace. But the physical touch in the workplace could be, it's non-verbal gestures, could be high five, could be handshakes, it could be the pat on the back. But you've always got to be careful about physical touch in the workplace. Obviously there's other ways of using this type of language of appreciation. It could be an emoji in an email. And that sounds a bit weird that we talk about physical touch and then we're talking about emojis, but it evokes an emotional response. So does that make sense?

Mike Bayer
Yeah, absolutely. Something that I've done quite frequently in the fire service is, I've got 17 years fighting fires and I quite often work with very junior people. And if I'm sitting in the back of the truck and I have a junior guy with me and we're on our way to a fire, you can just see that they're mentally going through all the training and preparing themselves for what we're going to encounter. And all I've got to do is just reach across and just give him a fist bump on the knee. So he looks up and then I say, Hey buddy, you've got this. We're in this together and give him a fist bump. And that's all it takes. It's just that, that simple physical touch and it gives them eye contact. Eye contact is just as good as physical touch. That's almost very similar to quality time is to look at them and it's yes, you nod, give them a fist bump and we've got this. It can, as I said, from the military when I was in England to the fire service here, that simple connection with somebody can really power them up to drive through a challenge.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, we don't have..., we do have fires obviously in our industry, but we're not usually out there fighting them. We're fighting different types of fires and challenges. And just being with somebody and giving them that sense of being together is.....

Mike Bayer
A great one is, when you've got your customer relations team and there could be something that is affecting your whole tourist area, like a hurricane or a power outage or something that's out of your control. And you're fielding phone calls and you have guests who are frustrated or upset. And sometimes it just gets to you and you can feel yourself pulling down and when somebody reaches across and just gives you a nudge on the shoulder and you look across and, you know, reach out for a high five and say, hey, you're doing a great job. That's a combination of two. You're giving them words of affirmation and you're giving them some physical touch, that those kinds of things combined, and I know some of you are probably listening to this going, This is super soft skill stuff. But if you really take the time in your working day to incorporate these five languages of appreciation, that you will have such a strong bond with your team like everybody will, whether you're the leader or whether you're part of the team.

Mike Bayer
You can also be, even if you are at the very bottom of your team, you listen to this. Let's say you're a brand new cleaner in an organization. You're listening to this. It's like, how does this affect me? You can be that beacon of change and positivity in your workplace. And I guarantee you, anybody who's taking what we're saying today and actually applying it in the workplace will see themselves, everybody in the organization is going to see you in this very positive light. And it's a wonderful way to work.

Heather Bayer
Okay, so we've covered off the five languages of appreciation, the different languages. Let's just talk about some statistics to show how important this all is. I saw a study that showed that appreciation has three times the impact on employee retention compared to salary increases. And they give the explanation that people often stay with companies not because of paychecks, but because of the cultural and emotional connection they feel.

Heather Bayer
I talked to Valerie Gangas from Juniper Holiday + Holmes recently and she talked about how much she appreciates her team and how she goes to different lengths to make sure they feel appreciated, and then went on to talk about how amazingly loyal her team was. So that's almost a case study in itself. But from the MIT Sloan research, they said that when a team member is publicly praised, or they receive tailored recognition, then the company tends to see lower turnover than in teams where efforts are ignored. And then when you look at it in terms of the cost of turnover, because replacing an employee can cost up to two times their annual salary, that also comes out of that research. When you consider recruitment, training, lost productivity, then appreciation is a really low cost, high impact strategy to reduce this.

Heather Bayer
Do you have any statistics within the fire service, or have you seen that people are more likely to stay on because of the appreciation they get? I don't know whether you've got any sort of stats like that.

Mike Bayer
No, not specifically statistics, but I think that what I do see is the fire crews who are happier and actually come to work and crews where you might have one or two people who actually go off on stress or PTSD. And that's not because they're abusing the system, they actually have those conditions. The crews that work better together and actually work almost like a family or a brotherhood - that's a term often used - is the crews where you actually have the leader who is very quick to praise and lift their crew up.

Mike Bayer
I think anybody coming into the workplace who feels valued, you know, where you feel valued is so important. And I think we mentioned at the top of the show two things. I know my personal language of appreciation or love language is words of affirmation. And for me, that's very important. That's exactly what that is. Being appreciated and being valued is so much more valuable than actually just giving somebody more money to stay.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, really interesting. I go back to my early days of being a worker, which is quite a long time ago, and it really was all about the money. But things have changed so much over the years. So that's a great segue into talking about generational differences, because as we look at the statistics, again there's some really clear generational differences in how employees want to feel appreciated. And the one that really struck me is that older employees, that's 60 years up strongly prefer words of affirmation and they're least likely to value tangible gifts. And in fact only 2% showed that receiving a gift was their preferred method of appreciation. Yet when you go to younger employees, let's say the Gen Z, the most important thing for them is quality time, which was over a 37% preference across the whole raft of the research segment. But they prefer spending their time with peers rather than supervisors, which I found was an interesting one, because Generation X and baby boomers tend to be comfortable with both individual and group recognition, whereas the Gen Z just want that appreciation from their peers. And that's really important to take into account.

Heather Bayer
This whole business of Gen Z workers is an entire subject on its own. But it is definitely worthwhile thinking about generational differences in the terms of their languages of appreciation. But as I said, that's an entirely different topic. Maybe that's something to bring up with Steve Trover next time we talk to him, because I'm sure he's got some views on that.

Mike Bayer
So just really quickly going into my experience of the fire service, and I see this all the time, so when you have been in the service for 20 years or 25 years, you get your long service recognition. And the way we do it in our fire department is that you get a link in an email and you click on that link and it gives you a catalog of things you can choose for your 20 year gift. It's so impersonal. It's like an obligation. And you go through this stuff and it really is the kind of things that you would get in a grab bag at a conference. Oh, this is nice to get for free. Yes, it's free, I get it. But if you're going to give somebody some kind of recognition for long service, I think it's pretty bad to just arbitrarily just give some random trinket. And it's a real testament to the managerial style of your organization.

Mike Bayer
If you are not taking the time to get to know these people, because they're going to be a very small percentage of your team. Even if you have 100 plus employees, you might have one person you're recognizing a month. So to not spend that time to actually maybe come and have a coffee with them. Sit down. How's things going? So you've been here for 20 years. Is there anything you've seen over the last 20 years that you've never had the chance to put forward? I'm here, I'm listening. Simple things like that. It matters. And for somebody who is in their loyalty years, you could say, or it's also the golden handcuffs. You're just in this job, you don't want to go back into the market and go and find another job. You're just going to stick with what you have and you just come in and punch your card. So I think that to reinvigorate somebody at that age, this is the perfect opportunity to do that.

Heather Bayer
Yeah. And just remember that when they get to that age, that only 2% of them want to receive a tangible gift. But that's a great segue into how you know what someone's preference is. Because I'm sure our listeners are out there thinking, this is all well and good. It's not stamped on your forehead for you that says, you've got to give me praise, words of affirmation. It's not stamped on my forehead that says, I really respond well when somebody helps me out with a job. There are 10 different ways that you can ascertain what someone's preference is. I'm not going to go through all 10. I'm just going to pick out a few and I think I will put together a blog post on this or a LinkedIn post and just have that go out at the same time as this podcast so you can go have a look at all 10. Does that make sense?

Mike Bayer
Yeah. So make sure you go visit the description in the [Show Notes] or if you're on a digital device, if you're on your phone, if you're on a computer, just click in the description and the link to the podcast, the blog post will be there as well as the link to the Show Notes.

Heather Bayer
Yeah.

Mike Bayer
So definitely check that out.

Heather Bayer
Okay. So the first one is just observing people's reactions to recognition. Just pay attention to how they respond when they're appreciated. Do they light up when they're praised? You always did as a kid. Mike, that was really great. And little lights would come on all around your head. I could see them because I was a mom, but I knew that....

Mike Bayer
It could be as simple when I was a kid of just like when we had friends over for a party and I just get up and go and clean the table without being asked. And then it was even better if it came from one of the guests. Wow, you're amazing for cleaning the table. And I see it in my own kids exactly the same.

Heather Bayer
Or do they seem to value more one on one conversation? If you've got an employee that comes to you and says, can I have 15-20 minutes of your time, I'd like to talk through something. They're probably showing you that they have a preference for quality time as their language of appreciation. Do they show gratitude when you step in to help with the task, which indicates acts of service.

Heather Bayer
Going back to our example, you getting up at the end of a meal and saying, I'm going to clear the table. That fed into my language of appreciation. When my love language, which is acts of service. And then when I said to you, Mike, that is fantastic, you're the most amazing person. That fed into your words of affirmation. So you can just observe reactions to recognition.

Mike Bayer
Yeah, I think you just have to be present. You have to be present with your team.

Heather Bayer
Yeah.

Mike Bayer
Take every interaction with every member of your team as an opportunity to learn something a little bit of something about them.

Heather Bayer
And of course, reflecting on past interactions. If you've had somebody on your team for a long time, then you could probably look back to some successful and perhaps less successful recognition moments. What types of appreciation made them happiest? When did they seem indifferent? Did you give them a gift and they just looked at it and put it on one side and then you found it in the waste paper bin later on? That gives you the indication of their preferences. You might find that when you give them a gift, a tangible gift, maybe you buy them, I mean for us it's Tim Horton's coffee. We had a team member who loved Tim Horton's coffee. So we would buy them a tin of coffee and a Tim Horton's mug as a Christmas gift. They just absolutely loved that, because they appreciated that much more than us giving them something that wasn't very special to them.

Mike Bayer
Another good point to watch out for here, and this is a little bit of a trap you can get into, is sometimes we can get locked into seeing the reaction for somebody for something specific like a Tim Horton's coffee. And it's just like you stop paying attention as to whether or not there's something else or an alternative. Because if you just do the same thing over and over again. Yes, it again begins to lose its value because it's just, Oh, it's another Tim Horton's gift card. I like that, but it just feels like it's just a no brainer. So always be mindful not to become stuck thinking about if the thing you're doing is actually still of value to that person, because their taste may have changed.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, yeah, good point, good point. Another one is just engaging conversation. Use this in interviews. You could start out a relationship with a new employee by finding out their language of appreciation just by simply asking them what's the most memorable compliment or reward you've received, or what motivates you the most at work. Asking them specific questions. And it just dawned on me that you could create a list of questions for each language of appreciation by just asking ChatGPT to come up with interview questions that align with each language of appreciation at work.

Mike Bayer
That should be part of your onboarding process, if not part of your onboarding, that's where you get to learn you've made the decision to hire somebody based on their interviews, their resume. But that's really the veneer. You don't get to find out the real.... unless you're very good at interviewing and very good at digging a little bit deeper when you onboard them, that's when you have take that time to take that person out for a coffee, or hit the pickleball court, or whatever it is that you do to bond with new team members, which you should be doing, by the way, if you're not doing that already. And that's where you have these questions in the back of your mind so you can begin to learn how can I motivate this person? What is it that lights their fire?

Heather Bayer
Another way is to do it in a very informal basis and gather feedback from peers. But do it in a sort of a little team setting where you make it fun. You bring everybody in, you talk about languages of appreciation, you share the information from the book The Five Languages of Appreciation at Work and you discuss amongst the team who likes what the most, who likes acts of service, who likes quality time, or tangible gifts, or physical touches, or words of affirmation. And you perhaps even you get a team together, make a fun team building exercise of it where you guess other people's language of appreciation. That's another way.

Mike Bayer
Now it's worth mentioning if you're listening to this, it's where do I, how do I do that? How do I facilitate that? You just keep following The Vacation Rental Formula Business School, because Heather is planning to get certified as a Language of Appreciation in the Workplace Certified Facilitator. So if you're looking for a coach or somebody to come in and do training, that's something that you can look out for as somebody in your area. Or reach out to us at The Vacation Rental Formula Business School, and maybe we can set up a workshop where we can actually come out and work your leadership team and your whole team through some of these key parts of appreciation in the workplace.

Heather Bayer
Yeah. And if you go back to that statistic about the cost of losing an employee, then going through that process of understanding what those languages of appreciation that all your team members prefer, you will save a ton of money in people leaving when, maybe, just a slight change in the way you approach them would have made the world of difference.

Mike Bayer
I was just going to run into the last one here, which I think is the most important one. It's okay to get it wrong, do a bit of trial and error. So rotate. I mean, if you can work with somebody on your team who's your team HR professional, is to work through all five languages of appreciation with your team members over the course of a few months or a year. So that way you can begin to observe the reactions to different methods.

Mike Bayer
Now, I'd recommend trying to do this as best you can on an individual level, not just a group or team level. As in, don't just reward the whole cleaning team with gifts. This really needs to come down to the person in charge of a cleaning crew or a maintenance crew. You talk to them and then you get this feedback on different choices that you've made in how you're delivering these five languages of appreciation. And it's okay to get it wrong or not to land perfectly the way you'd like. But I think just as long as you're learning from each of these and to ensure that you are constantly being present and aware of the reactions you're getting from your efforts.

Heather Bayer
Yeah, exactly. So I want to talk about something that's really important to just about everybody listening who has a remote worker. And many people do have remote workers, virtual assistants. How do you do this when you're not front and center and face-to-face with people on a daily basis? So let's go through each of them very briefly, and we'll give you some help on how you can appeal to their preferences when they're a remote worker. So you start with words of affirmation. Mike, what are ways that you can appreciate remote workers through words of affirmation.

Mike Bayer
Your remote workers will always feel remote if you treat them as remote. If that makes sense. Yeah. So with the words of affirmation you can simply, when they achieve a goal or a task is simply to send a personalized thank you message, highlighting specifically what they did. Well, this can be in text, this can be in video, this could be part of a meeting, but that's where you can. Words of affirmation is so important and it's so easy to do. Providing public recognition within team meetings or group chats, that's a very common, simple way to highlight the successes and they will shine even though they're sitting behind a camera. And then write detailed emails praising the hard work and specific contributions. Now with that, that can also come into appraisals as well. So when you're actually doing work appraisals, whether or not you do them monthly, quarterly, biannually, then I think just long as you're ensuring that you are putting in there all the good things that that person's doing and aligning with the company's core values.

Heather Bayer
So quality time for remote workers, that's relatively an easy one, and you should probably do this for every one of your remote workers anyway. And that's scheduling regular one on one video calls, giving them the time to talk to you about any work related issues, but also to create opportunities for casual conversations. Hana, who is my executive assistant, she's been with me for I think it's around nine or 10 years now. I've never met her. We meet every day, every morning we have a chat before her working day starts, or my working day starts. Her working day is ending because she's in Manila. But I know about her building her new house and her family and the ages of her kids. She's been with us through the birth of her twins and them growing up. So that was really important.

Heather Bayer
But also another one is to invite your virtual assistants to team building activities, or any informal online gatherings. I've talked to VAs who've said, oh no, we've never been invited to a team Zoom meeting, often because they are in a different time zone, a very different time zone. But you can create meetings that will include them if you think about it and you schedule it accordingly. So that was quality time.

Mike Bayer
The next one is acts of service, and with this one, this is a little bit more challenging because you've got to be very careful here that you're not providing something or going out of your way to do something that actually makes your virtual worker feel like they're not doing a good job. But what you can do is be very present with them. So when you're doing the quality time and you're chatting with them, make sure you're listening to what they're asking for from you, or things that will make their life easier, like removing obstacles that might be impeding their productivity.

Mike Bayer
So if the system, or the flow, or the work process that is going on is actually making it difficult for them, then make sure you take that time to change that workflow and show them how we've made this change to make things better. It's an act of service you can provide them. If they're struggling in a certain area of the business, you can go out and find maybe a training resource that can help them. I've signed you up for this as a certification. So maybe you want to sign them up for THRIVE Essentials. That's one of our products right now, which is super helpful for remote workers, especially if they're not familiar with short-term rentals. Sign them up for a course that might be of value to them and then be constantly offering support if they're struggling in a certain area. Is there somebody on your team who can mentor them and work them through the challenges that they're having?

Heather Bayer
Yeah, it is a bit of a tougher one to manage, but it's a really important one because you need to cover off all of these, except the last one, which we'll come to in a moment.

Heather Bayer
But I'm just going to talk about tangible gifts that is easier. You can send gifts to their favorite restaurants, find out where they like to go out to eat, purchase a music streaming subscription. We'll pay for your Spotify for next year. Sending personalized care packages or local treats. Hana's twins were born, we sent her a package of baby clothes. Gosh, that's a long time ago.

Heather Bayer
And then moving on to the last one, which would be physical touch. But that's really difficult. You can't really fist bump somebody who is across the world. But in its place we put trust. Trust as an appreciation language. And in that you're just giving autonomy in completing tasks, providing some clear expectations and guidelines and allowing flexibility in work approaches. I know I'm introducing trust as an appreciation language really late on in this, but I'm just replacing the physical touch aspect here. But it's definitely one to to consider as well. What about any additional appreciation techniques you can think of, Mike?

Mike Bayer
I think with remote workers, the only way you can develop that relationship is with really good, clear and open communication. And it's that old saying, don't allow anything to fester. If you feel as an employer, or as a team member, that somebody who works remotely is just not quite on the right lines or they're repeatedly doing the same thing that doesn't really work for the team, then you've got to have that conversation. But have that conversation in a positive manner that lifts them rather than puts them down. You can add some additional resources to help them and take responsibility too, because your remote worker is only going to have a good handle on the task that they're supposed to be doing if you, as the supervisor or the manager, you've clearly laid out exactly what it is that they're supposed to do. So make sure you look inwardly first before you go out there.

Mike Bayer
But good communication is really important and that goes both ways to encourage your virtual worker to reach out when they have challenges with their task. We've experienced this in the past. There are some cultures that they tend to shut down when they have challenges and that can be very detrimental, because you don't know that there's a problem until it's too late.

Mike Bayer
So make sure you're having those daily meetings or weekly meetings at the minimum, but at least daily meetings if you can, just to make sure that they are being looked after and they are very clear about the expectations of their work.

Heather Bayer
And finally, it's recognition strategies, celebrating any milestones publicly so that everybody is involved, including your VAs, in decision making processes and also asking for their input and opinions. Just because somebody maybe does data input for you doesn't mean that they don't have ideas and opinions. They've probably never been asked.

Heather Bayer
I don't know if anybody's seen this commercial that's on at the moment. It's for Fiverr, in fact, and it has Martha Stewart as an intern in a company and she arrives in this office as the principals are talking about their strategies for the business for next year and having some obstacles. And she hands them their coffee and she says, Oh, maybe I could help with that. And they dismiss her very rapidly. And the caption is, you don't know who may be working for you.

Mike Bayer
Absolutely.

Heather Bayer
Yeah. It's very impactful. I'll see if I can find that commercial and put a link to it on the Show Notes, because every time I see that, and I think, Yes this is your remote and your virtual assistants that you may have brought them on for just some data entry, but they may be carrying with them some skills that you have no idea that they have.

Heather Bayer
Okay, let's wrap this up. I think we've had a really good discussion here on languages of appreciation in the workplace. And I just want to leave with a couple of questions for everybody listening. And the first one is, think about the last time you felt genuinely appreciated. How did that affect your performance? Just think about it. Think about it from personal life and work life, but how were you affected by the way that you were appreciated? And secondly, how much are you now investing in retention strategies that are simply rooted in making your team feel valued? And I think that's a great question, because the moment I mention retention strategies people are drawing a blank. They may not have any retention strategies in place at all. And I think it's really worthwhile taking that phrase, retention strategies and figure out what you're investing in.

Mike Bayer
Yeah. Just before we close out, I think on that point is just remember that it is not down to just the company owner or the person in HR to work through these languages of appreciation and it is not just the leader's responsibility. I think if you can develop a culture within your team of peer to peer appreciation. If you have a great team who supports each other and works in a culture where they look after each other and that's both personally and in the workplace. They have challenges at home, they're in an environment where people are comfortable and leaning on their work colleagues who become friends. And there's nothing more powerful than a workplace where you're working with friends, not colleagues. And I've experienced that many times in the fire service - as I mentioned the word brotherhood. You will drop everything to go and help your brother who is struggling at home, or something awful has happened in their family life and they need help, support, moving, construction. That is part of the culture that runs through the fire service and that's not specific to the fire service. It can be absolutely integrated and interwoven into any organization. And you will see retention like you've never seen if people love coming to work with their friends.

Heather Bayer
And that is really a great point. And I just want to finish off with just some comments on how this all benefits a company. It's a property management company. And the first one is teams that practice regular appreciation are more likely to foster psychological safety, where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and addressing challenges. And secondly, the reduced burnout. You know, particularly in our industry, studies show that feeling unappreciated is a leading cause of burnout. And appreciating somebody regularly just mitigates this, because it reminds employees that their work has meaning. And as we move into this age of AI, where it feels like AI is taking over everything, being in employment where the work has meaning could be that difference between keeping that employee for a long time and having them bail out on you way too soon.

Mike Bayer
Absolutely. So I think one takeaway from this whole episode is, if you're listening to this, is take just one language of appreciation, just one, and practice with it this week with your team. And if you are not a leader, that is absolutely fine. You can still practice these languages of appreciation with your colleagues in the workplace. So just pick one. It could be fist bumps and high fives. It could be spending some time bringing somebody a coffee and just asking them how their day is going and becoming a little bit more involved. Just pick one and I think you'll see a dramatic improvement in your relationship with your team members by simply just investing a little bit of time into mastering these five languages of appreciation.

Heather Bayer
And on that note, we are going to wrap this up. It's been great talking to you, Mike. Just to let people know that you head over to the Show Notes, you can get to link to the post that I put in there on how to recognize what somebody's language of appreciation is. Anything else that we're putting in the Show Notes that I've missed?

Mike Bayer
And also the Martha Stewart video. And there's just a ton of resources if you head to the description on your smart device for this episode, there is a link across to the Show Notes. Now the Show Notes is hosted on the Vacation Rental Formula Business School website and from there, there is just a huge amount of resources. Past podcast episodes, blog posts, we have courses and we have training resources for property management companies, including our brand new THRIVE Essentials, which is a great course for anybody new into the short-term rental space and anybody who's also been around for a while. We're seeing some of the people who are going through this course right now are really coming out with some incredible aha moments that they never considered and they've been in the industry for 15-20 years. So THRIVE Essentials, check it out and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the impact it can have on not just yourself, but also your whole business.

Heather Bayer
And on that note, thank you, everybody for being here. We'll be with you again next week.

Heather Bayer
It's been a pleasure as ever being with you. If there's anything you'd like to comment on, then join the conversation on the show. Notes for the episode at vacationrentalformula.com, we'd love to hear from you and I look forward to being with you again next week.