Effective employee recognition has identified as an important piece is strong management practices. But what does “effective employee recognition” look like?
Companies struggle to develop to make their employees feel valued.
The business industry has become even more saturated with opportunity. It is more important for managers to take action to retain top talent amongst employees. Employee recognition is the first step in ensuring your top talent stays within your company.
Benefits of Recognizing Your Employees
Employee recognition and reward programs are inexpensive tools to improve productivity and morale.
Managers can develop a positive internal company culture. Employees will flourish in a workplace community based on gratitude and achievable goals. Through active employee appreciation efforts, managers can create a positive workplace culture.
Improves Employee Retention Rates
Companies with employee recognition programs experience a 31% decrease in voluntary turnover. Employees who feel appreciated at work are more likely to feel a sense of ownership in their company.
Low employee turnover also boosts company productivity and saves money. Rather than spending money on new employee training individuals can continue working. Companies with low turnover rates are more efficient.
Incentivizes Company Collaboration
Rewards can be used as a tool not only for individuals to exceed their goals but for teams and departments as well. Through individual recognition programs, it is possible to minimize team unity.
Through effective rewards, programs collaboration can be increased. This is done by creating projects that promote cross-department or group collaboration.
Increases Company Morale
Business settings can often become adversarial places. The constant pressure of deadlines and a mundane routine can keep tensions high. By company leadership showing their employees that they are appreciated you can relieve a lot of potential tension. This can help to make a business a pleasant place to work.
Managers have the ability to make employees feel appreciated and their work seem purposeful. A company culture of gratitude helps to reduce resentment amongst employees. Employee recognition programs are also a great tool to bridge the divide between employees and management.
Create Meaningful Employee Recognition
In a fast-moving business, it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day administrative work and forget to thank employees for their hard work.
From a managerial perspective, you spend most of your day thinking of the big picture of the business. It is important to zoom in and be intentional about thanking your employees for their dedication and hard work. Here are some key elements to keep in mind when recognizing employees.
Be Specific
Showcasing a specific behavior or achievement can make the employee feel truly appreciated.
Being specific in your praise also allows other employees to have a standard of achievement to strive for. For example, sharing that your employee boosted her sales by 10% in the past month shows that you have acknowledged the success of their hard work.
Be Timely
It is important to share your gratitude for an individual’s actions in a timely manner. Prompt recognition makes a manager seem attentive and authentic.
Routine gratitude programs, such as employee of the month, can be used for timely recognition as long as you are specific in your reasoning.
Connect Individual Achievement to Collective Success
When recognizing an individual employee’s action you show the positive effect on the business as a whole. This showcases how all people in the company are a team and working towards one collective goal.
By connecting someone’s work to the big picture or the company’s goals it allows the employee to feel impactful, even within a large business.
Ideas for Recognizing Your Employees
There are many ways to showcase appreciation to your employees. These gestures of gratitude do not need to be expensive, just intentional. Here are some ideas for ways to best recognize your employees.
Some managers use employee rewards platforms like https://axomo.com/employee-rewards-platform/, to boost employee recognition. Through these platforms, they can create a tailor-made approach for intentional recognition efforts.
Foster a Shout Out Culture
One of the easiest ways to foster a greater sense of appreciation within your business is to foster a shout-out culture. Make it a regular practice to praise an individual’s work in a company-wide email or in one on one communication.
This is an entirely free way to publicly acknowledge someone’s work and is a useful tool to motivate your employees.
Distribute Physical Rewards
It may not always be practical to offer a raise every quarter for stellar employee performance. You can still offer low-cost physical rewards that make your employees feel valued and appreciated.
Depending on your office culture physical rewards may be best embodied as customized trophies or plaques. You can get these customized with your business’ logo for professional employee of the month awards.
You may not have the budget to give salary increases. Another financial incentive you can give for a job well done is gift cards. Gift cards allow you to give a token of appreciation to an employee.
Company-Wide Reward
Managers can provide incentives and thanks for company-wide achievement as well. Employees are more likely to recognize gratitude as a change in the status quo.
If your company maintains a strict dress code, casual Friday can be a thank you for excellent company-wide performance. This may not be feasible if your business requires a certain standard of dress.
You can also provide a fun platform for celebration or even competition. By hosting a party in the break room or setting up a team-based competition, like a chili cook-off you can boost morale.
Make Sure Your Employees Feel Appreciated
Employees are truly the backbone of any business. Treating your employees as if they are valued in the company’s big picture can go a long way. By ensuring that your employees feel appreciated you can see an increase in productivity and profitability. You can also build a company brand that top leadership can be proud of.
If you are wanting to build a positive recognition-based work environment start by asking your employees. Ask if they feel appreciated and what kind of recognition would be most meaningful to them.
Connect with us if you want to learn more on how to boost your business with employee recognition.
Also published on Medium.
