When you think of a time you felt valued at work, what do you remember? It might be a moment when someone noticed: a manager who remembered something mentioned in passing, a colleague who followed up after a difficult week or a meeting where your contribution was acknowledged.
Mattering has two elements: being valued for who you are and adding value through what you do. The NHS Staff Survey tracks both, asking whether staff feel valued and whether their work makes a difference. Gallup's 2023 global research shows employees who feel valued and believe their work matters are more engaged, more productive and more likely to stay with their organisation. When people feel they matter, they also spend less energy protecting themselves and are more willing to ask questions, admit uncertainty and raise concerns.
Mattering and feeling valued eases pressure only where conditions are safe, pay is fair and demands are manageable. Within those conditions, the everyday experience of being noticed and valued shapes whether people stay and speak up.
In The Power of Mattering, Zach Mercurio and colleagues found leaders accounted for under half of people's experience of mattering at work. Everyday interactions with colleagues and the shared habits of team life also play a significant role, so mattering is something teams create together.
Recognition from colleagues
At Royal Devon NHS Trust, staff are invited every Thursday to submit short shout-outs recognising colleagues' kindness, teamwork or achievement. Staff submitted up to 200 peer recognitions a month, with no budget beyond the time people gave, and the trust reported staff survey responses about feeling valued improved. A team can do something similar by closing each meeting with a round in which people say what they valued about the time together and about the contribution of the person to their left.
Noticing what matters to people
Mercurio describes a supervisor whose team had consistently high engagement scores. When he asked what she did, she showed him a well-used Noticing Notebook. Each week she wrote down her team members' names and what she had picked up in conversation, such as a piece of work someone was finding difficult or a trip they were planning. At the start of the following week she reviewed her notes and set reminders to check in, which showed people that she had noticed and remembered what mattered to them.
Appreciation and recognition do different work
Appreciation values who someone is and recognition acknowledges what someone did. Appreciation without recognition can feel warm but vague, and recognition without appreciation can feel transactional, so people are more likely to feel they matter when they experience both. Recognition is felt most when it is specific, so it helps to add one more sentence to ‘you were brilliant', describing what the person did and the difference it made. In Wellbeing Teams, the self-managed home care teams I co-founded, everyone received an appreciation book as part of their induction and colleagues wrote in it before their first shift.
Building mattering together
Team leaders can start a Noticing Notebook and bring appreciation into one-to-ones and team meetings, and colleagues can recognise each other, since peers often see contributions that leaders miss. Senior leaders shape the routines around every team, including how new colleagues are welcomed and how contribution is named in performance conversations.
A notebook or a round of appreciation at the next team meeting could be a place to start.
