Authentic and consistent recognition has become essential to building a strong company culture. With great recognition comes effective management, unwavering engagement, and high productivity.
But what’s the secret to a solid recognition strategy? What are some of the tools we can use to attract and retain top talent?
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how successful companies approach employee recognition best practices. We’ll explore what HR professionals are doing to keep workplace engagement high, and reveal what recognition tools are trending in 2024.
Let’s get into it!
Employee Recognition: The Pulse of a Workplace
According to Gallup, workplace recognition is a driving force for engagement – a low-cost high-impact strategy that all companies need to succeed.
However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all formula. Every workforce is unique, and there are countless ways you can show your team how much you value their work. It’s about finding the right motivational pulse of the team and powering it with praise and acknowledgment.
Global Employee Recognition Programs in 2024
Creating a meaningful recognition program is perfectly doable – but you need a solid approach!
If you’re starting from scratch, you can save a lot of time and energy by focusing on what’s important for your company regarding objectives, mission, and commitment – then build up your program from there.
1. What’s the Goal?
Number one: Have a clear objective.
Before you sit down to write a list of rewards, it’s important to think about what you want to achieve with the program. If you already have a recognition program that’s not performing the way you want it to, focusing on establishing clearer goals is key.
What does the program look like right now? Is it limited to an employee-of-the-month certificate or a periodic cash bonus? Does it focus on years of service awards?
You don’t need to discard what you already have. Instead, upgrade it to a holistic strategy that rewards employees every time great work is accomplished – focusing specifically on:
Engagement
Motivation
Retention
Productivity
Creativity
Job satisfaction
Commitment
2. What Do You Want to Celebrate (and Elevate)?
Number 2: Decide what the criteria are.
Recognition at its core is about reinforcing positive behavior and creating a culture that reflects the values of your organization. This is most effectively done by celebrating accomplishments that do precisely that.
In other words, the criteria used in your recognition program should align with the brand of the company. It should reflect its mission in a way that inspires!
According to Gallup, the need for clear standards is important in order to avoid backlash for rewarding employees inconsistently. When that happens, your program can actually end up hurting employee motivation rather than elevating it.
Find out more about the role of employee recognition as the secret sauce to workforce commitment.
3. Who Gets to Be Involved?
Number 3: Make it a collaborative effort.
Chances are that your HR colleagues will want to chime in. Chances are also high that your team is going to have valuable opinions to offer.
In fact, employee feedback can be extremely helpful when you’re in the process of developing a workplace recognition program. Think of it as a collaborative project where you’ll want to involve all divisions – from the top down.
4. How Do You Want to Recognize Your Employees?
Number 4: Choose the form carefully.
There are countless ways you can show your employees that you appreciate them – anything from a few good words to a quarterly bonus, a gift card, or a nice achievement certificate.
The way in which recognition takes form is important to determine how effective it’s going to be.
Generally speaking, there are three different types of recognition:
Public recognition – praising an employee’s work at events, meetings, conferences, or through social media.
Private recognition – acknowledging a team member’s performance through a note, email, or private conversation.
Peer-to-peer recognition – acknowledgment comes from a teammate or co-worker rather than a manager.
Not everybody wants to be recognized publicly. And there’s no reason why you can’t combine public recognition with peer-to-peer recognition or private recognition depending on who you want to praise. To ensure that the effort has impact, it’s important for the recognition to be honest, authentic, and tailored to the person being recognized.
5. When Do You Want to Recognize Your Employees?
Number 5: Decide on the timing and focus of the praise.
Believe it or not, the timing of the acknowledgement is also key. And there are some contrasting opinions on the subject. According to Forbes, the best way to retain talent is to spread out recognition through each stage of the employee’s journey – from the moment of recruitment all the way up to their departure. This strategy goes beyond traditional service years awards.
In fact, for the program to be effective, appreciation should happen more often than once or twice a year.
What is recognition-worthy work?
Beyond frequency, there’s also a question of what types of work should be recognized. At some companies, it’s not solely about work but about behavior as well. Employees who practice company ideals are acknowledged for it.
Other situations where it’s a good idea to highlight a team member’s valuable work are when it goes beyond the call of duty – like working extra hours to finish a project before a deadline, or championing a new and exciting idea that doesn’t necessarily fit neatly into the employee’s job description.
Here are some other examples:
Recognizing thankless tasks that often get overlooked.
Recognizing work that has an impact on the overall team effort.
Recognizing innovative problem-solving that contributes to project success.
Acknowledging exceptional adaptability in managing unexpected challenges or changes in project scope.
Acknowledging proactive initiatives that improve team processes or workflows.
Acknowledging exceptional customer service or client satisfaction.
Celebrating attitudes of leadership during team meetings, presentations, or group discussions.
6. How Will You Measure Recognition Success?
Number 6: Track the success of your program.
Implementing a recognition program is a process – and to track its success, you’ll need some surefire tools. Besides conducting regular surveys and one-on-one meetings with team members, you can monitor the program with software that provides valuable analytics.
7. Who Should Be the “Recogniser”?
Number 7: Make your recognition memorable.
In a recent Gallup survey, employees were asked to indicate who has given them the most valuable recognition.
The results revealed that memorable recognition most often comes from a manager (28%) or a high-level executive (24%). That’s well worth remembering.
Almost a quarter of employees receive the most memorable recognition from a team leader or CEO. This doesn’t mean, however, that peer-recognition has no impact on employee engagement. But a combination of the two might in fact be the key to a high-impact recognition program.
Building a Recognition-Rich Work Culture in 2024
The best managers cultivate a recognition-rich work environment where praise comes from every direction and several times per year. According to Gallup, acknowledgement should be given as often as every seven days! This helps ensure that employees understand the value of their most recent achievements.
It can also help bring the message of company values home more effectively.
The point of recognition is to drive engagement. When employees are actively involved, they perform better, and this helps the company become even more successful.
Good luck in taking your employee recognition program to the next level!
About GoGift
GoGift, a leading global provider of gift card solutions, specializes in offering innovative and versatile gift card services to over 15.000 corporate clients worldwide. With a commitment to simplifying the gift-giving process, GoGift provides a broad range of gift card options from numerous popular brands, catering to a diverse array of tastes and preferences. Their services are designed to enhance the gifting experience, making it more convenient, personal, and enjoyable for both the giver and the recipient.
For more detailed information about GoGift, please visit their official website: https://www.global.gogift.com/