Setting Up Employee Recognition Practice

Overview

Sincere recognition is one of the most potent ways to let employees know they are valued and their work matters. Monetary compensation and formal awards are only a few ways to recognize employees. This toolkit provides a variety of other forms to provide prompt, meaningful, and relevant recognition. The purpose of this toolkit is manifold. It provides guidelines for leaders who build a recognition culture and model recognition activities with their teams. Employees who play a role in peer recognition can benefit from this toolkit by learning various ways to recognize their co-workers. Recognition is best when kept simple and time effective. This toolkit will also help organizations foster recognition habits among employees that feel meaningful for both the giver and the recipient.

Why Prioritizing Recognition is Important

There are many forms of recognition programs, but for recognition to be meaningful, it has to be aligned with the values that define you as an organization. Your recognition strategy must present a model in alignment with the existing policy that both leaders and workers can use to create a culture of recognition in their teams. Prioritizing recognition in workplaces has several practical merits.

Engenders a sense of camaraderie - Appreciation connects employees to each other, to their departments, and organization. Peer-to-peer acknowledgment and team celebrations foster bonds among team members and improve communication.

Fulfils innate need - Everyone has an innate need to be appreciated for their accomplishments and praised and recognized for a job done well. 

Fosters job satisfaction and engagement – Recognition is a powerful tool directly linked to workplace employee engagement. It contributes to a sense of meaning and purpose.

Supports overall goals - Acknowledging team member accomplishments helps reinforce how individual or group efforts contribute to achieving departmental and organizational strategic goals. 

Builds self-esteem and lowers stress - Besides reducing stress, acknowledging team members' efforts boosts feelings of belonging and interpersonal connection.

Decreases absenteeism and improves retention - If people's efforts are acknowledged and recognized, they are more likely to remain in a position happily.

Defining Principles of Recognition

A cultural transformation begins when a culture of informal and formal recognition becomes a part of the management philosophy across an organization. Recognition helps make a great place to work, attracting exceptional employees. Consider following a principle-based approach to defining recognition to align recognition practices to organizational values. Following are some of the common principles followed by organizations.

Sincere: An explicit and genuine thank you can be powerfully reinforcing in building a culture of collaboration. However, the expression of gratitude may feel tokenistic without sincerity. Therefore, look for genuine opportunities to highlight employee accomplishments as they occur, formally or informally, rather than by some predetermined schedule.

Inclusive: Irrespective of whether employees are frontline or working backend, contingent or permanent, working onsite or offsite, they deserve to be noticed for any extra effort or contribution to the team's success.

Respectful: Recognition practices can be unique, creative, and fun, but not at the cost of hurting individual beliefs, faith, religious sentiments, gender identity, background, and ethnicity. Respect here means that the net effect of any recognition act shall be uplifting and not humiliating for an employee.

Individualized: Having a diverse workforce means that employees prefer to be recognized differently. Hence, a need to be creative about ways of recognition that can be customized to individual needs and preferences.

Accountable: While meaningful, recognition practices and strategy must also be transparent and accountable to organizations' policies, objectives, values, and competencies.

See. Aligning Recognition to Organizational Strategy

Categorizing Recognition

Workplace recognition programs can be broadly placed under three heads, explained in the diagram appended below.

1. In-the-moment acknowledgment or appreciation is a progressive habit. These are primarily unexpected gestures of appreciation and applause for various day-to-day small contributions and support employees extend. These don't come with any cost implication or preplanning. Even though quick and simple, in-the-moment appreciation still casts a positive impact if it is genuine, timely, and targeted. It fosters a culture of gratitude inside the company and enables employees to get real-time feedback on their performance.

2. Milestone Celebrations recognize significant moments and achievements that are comparatively less frequent than in-the-moment appreciation. These informal celebrations might require funds and involve preplanning. These might be collaborative achievements like wrapping up a project or completing a milestone target. Anniversaries, weddings, the arrival of a new family member, work anniversary, earning a credential, or completing a project are all examples of individual personal or professional milestones worthy of celebrations. These often require discretion on the management and leaders' part to balance public and private recognition and individual and team recognition. Also, celebrating all the milestones for all the employees might be overwhelming. Hence, for the celebration to be memorable, initiatives should be customized to the recipient's tastes and the personal style of the individual delivering them.

3. Formal Recognition are preplanned, structured, and cost-intensive program tied with big achievements or career milestones such as awards and formal lunches or dinners. Formal recognition is generally an annual or biannual, time-intensive program requiring well well-organized, thought-out plan. Awards require nominations for either internal or external award categories by industry associations. Employees can also be celebrated for completing long years of service or for excellence of service, etc.
   

Acts For Which Employees Can Be Recognized For

1. Taking bold initiative

2. Solving problems outside of their key responsibility areas or functions

3. Developing new and effective systems or processes

4. Contributing to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), such as volunteering for the environment or charitable endeavors, internal or in the community at large

5. Boosting team morale

6. High-quality work that attracts positive customer feedback

7. Initiatives to reduce costs or improve products and services

8. Scaling operations or contributing to profits

9. Mentorship and thought leadership efforts

10. Going out of the way to support a project or peers

11. Counselling and helping a co-worker out of a difficult phase

12. To enliven the company's values and principles

13. For showing an act of future leadership
    

Various Ways of Employee Recognition

Employees give of themselves, their time, effort, and expertise and want to know that these gifts are appreciated. Reward them by un-wrapping their potential and assist them with their career development. Help them transcend the notion that it's just a job they have. Instead, give them a career.

Encourage Employee Development

• Enrol people to attend conferences and seminars and participate in forums. Encourage them to present a summary of their learnings in these events.

• Work with each team member individually to chalk out a career and self-development plan.

• Empower your employees to sharpen their existing skills and develop new skills by taking courses from your organization's training and development catalog.

• Sharpen their awareness about the options they can access for continuing their education.  

Let the work be a Reward Itself

• Provide cross-training opportunities.

• Provide the employee with more of the kind of work they enjoy and less of the tasks they dislike.

• Set aside a day for every employee to represent their department. Even better to encourage them to represent their department at an important meeting.

• Encourage participation in idea generation and decision-making.

Offer the Most Important Benefits Considered by Employees

Rich benefit packages make employees feel more valued by their companies. Following are some of the essential benefits to contribute to employees' job satisfaction.

• Retirement plans

• Development and training programs

• Flexible work arrangements

• Paid time off

• Benefits for employees' families

Start New Employees on the Right Note

Employee recognition starts on day one by appropriately orienting new employees.  For those utterly new to the workplace, it can seem an overwhelming new workplace. It would be best if you did all you could to start the relationship on a positive note. Follow these tips to make your new employee feel appreciated right from the start. 

• Set the Tone: Make the employee feel wanted and welcomed right from the start. Be available to spend time with the employees on their first day.

• Inform the Group: Inform your staff about the incoming employee and involve them in the process of planning and preparing for the new employee.

• Plan the Induction well in Advance: Work with the appropriate offices or your staff to gather information on orientation, payroll schedules, benefits overviews, etc. 

Other Rewards and Recognition Ideas

• An all-staff offsite is a great way to raise workplace spirits.

• Recognize employees on social media.

• Surprise employees with lunch or dinner treats.

• Support sabbaticals for long-service employees.

• Introduce a rotating trophy for best-performing teams or employees of the month.

• Schedule an Employee Appreciation Day.

• Create a 'wall of fame' for employees.

• Host periodical 'Creatathons' to provide a platform to brainstorm and come up with innovative services or products.

• Schedule 'Readathons' to build a healthy habit of knowledge gains and sharing.

• Organize service days to support good causes and humanity. Do support multiple causes to cater to each employee's inclination.

• Town hall meetings are also a good stress buster.

• Give employees a day off for volunteer activities.

• Offer program discounts or health subscriptions.

• Share positive customer feedback companywide.

• Sanction recognition budgets for teams.

• Host family days or events.

• Schedule financial wellness and health fitness days.

• Give a thank-you letter or note from senior management.

• Write a LinkedIn Recommendation.

• Leverage company swag items like an ear pod, sipper/ bottle, power bank, and high-quality apparel.

• Sponsor certification programs.

• Feature employee thought leadership for the exchange of insights across departments.

• Offer experiential rewards for employees, such as sculpture-making lessons, guitar-learning lessons, a wine-tasting tour, etc.

• Pledge a donation to an employee's chosen charity or cause.

• Create and publish a yearbook with employees' favorite quotes or memories from the past year to showcase employees for their work over the last 12 months. This can be done online platforms such as Adobe.

• Launch a Kudos channel on Slack or other company social media platforms.

• Give a day off after the completion of an important project.

• Host a Secret Santa Recognition program where employees secretly give a randomly assigned co-worker recognition for a well-done task.

• Impromptu surprise thank-you meetings.

• Show your team on the company website as 'Team of the Month.'

• Send employee or family care packages.

• Offer early finishes or late starts on the days of choice in a week.

• Feature top performers in the company newsletter.

• Offer gift cards or vouchers.

• Host happy hours for employees who drink.

• Sponsor a travel plan for a chosen employee and family.

• Create a personalized recognition video for the employee.

• Mention staff achievements on a bulletin board.

See. Infographic: Recognition Tips

Best Practices of Employee Recognition

Simple gestures of thanksgiving, gratitude, and appreciation boost positive emotions that translate into camaraderie, a sense of mission, and a propensity to understand each other.

People will feel their work is valued and respected when they are thanked for a job well done, recognized for an act, or even appreciated for a regular chore. A great place to work is built on trust, which is a crucial component, and the resulting feeling of appreciation improves the individual's sense of belonging.

1. Courtesy goes a long way.

Be polite and respectful. People respond favorably to simple acts that show consideration and courtesy.

2. Be Specific.

Explain to the employee what they accomplished to merit your thanks or admiration and why it was significant to the company. Leave out any suggestions or feedback, as this is not the appropriate time or occasion for that.

3. Each person is unique.

One way to get to know your employees and how each would like to be recognized is to have them complete a short, personal recognition preference questionnaire. The response can be filed. Review their responses and plan accordingly whenever you see an upcoming recognition moment. This will bring them true joy.

4. Reward risks along with successes.

Recognizing the efforts, not just the results, drives people to take healthy risks and come up with unique solutions.

5. Take criticism but share the credit.

True leaders are always ready to roll up their sleeves and sit down with their teams to figure out a solution when there is a fallout. They are generous at giving credit to their teams and take the blame when the going gets tough.

6. Remember, if everyone is special, then no one is special.

Refrain from letting the act of appreciation degenerate into a formal ritual devoid of meaning. For instance, giving turns to each employee to wear the 'employee of the month' hat simply implies that recognition is a mere formality to keep everyone pleased. Look for genuine occurrences to highlight employee efforts or achievements in real time.

7. Managers' favorites often become the team's least favorite. 

Try not to have an apple of your eye if managing a team. This small act might create disharmony or even chaos within the team. Be careful not to shower your best and brightest employees with all your praise. Identify everyone's unique strengths and acknowledge their contributions.

8. Surprise people with random gifts or free meals.

Surprises almost always cheer people up and are a great way of thanking employees for going the extra mile to accomplish goals or beating deadlines or projects completed successfully. However, avoid any forced group cheer and don't overdo it.  Surprises are received well when they are rare and random.

9. Celebrate employees' significant milestones in life.

Honor employees' achievements in personal lives, such as acquiring an advanced degree or certification, marriage, childbirth, birthdays, buying a house, etc. Receiving a card, cake, flowers, or a personalized note thanking their family will help enliven their spirits and infuse a sense of belonging. 

10. Practice what you preach.

Supervisors and managers must lead the culture of expressing thanks or showing appreciation. Show your willingness to praise where it is due, despite how uncomfortable it may occasionally be.

11. Be frequent.

Follow the rule to be generous in giving praise and frugal in criticism. As per the general rule of thumb for high-performance cultures, praise should be given five times to every criticism.

12. Get everyone involved.

High-performing culture enables every team member to participate in building and sustaining a culture of recognition. A culture of recognition might be leader-driven, but it grows only through peer-to-peer recognition.

13. Utilize technology.

Digitize and automate your employee rewards and recognition for ease of use and broader outreach to a distributed workforce. For instance, social and gamified rewards and recognition programs can help attain sustainable results, especially in hybrid workplaces.

Setting up the Recognition Process

Putting a recognition program together is crucial to send out the word that a culture of recognition is a priority in the organization. A well-defined action plan enables employees to know the types of appreciation that are meaningful to their peers.

First, prioritize helping others. Find out what your employees consider to be meaningful appreciation in order to put them first. Do not presume you are aware of their desires.  Create your departmental recognition program based on their input. If you currently have a program in place, take their suggestions into account while making new efforts.

Send a communication to your staff outlining your plans to enhance or launch a new recognition program.

See. Employee Recognition Profile

Second, acknowledge publicly. Making public mention of employee accomplishments demonstrates your dedication to the program, which is essential to its success.  Look for venues such as the company's periodical (newsletter), website, or social platform for publicizing employee awards, contributions, and achievements. By publicly appreciating your employees, you encourage peer-to-peer recognition.

Third, the communication of thanks and congratulations shouldn't only be top-down. The parallel flow of recognition activities is equally important. Consider innovative ideas for employees to share words of thanks or congratulations with each other. Leave a stack of note cards in the common area in your workplace, for instance, and encourage staff members to use them to write a quick thank you note for a co-worker.  

ROLES OF VARIOUS EMPLOYEE GROUPS IN DRIVING RECOGNITION CULTURE

Role of the Top Management

Top management must ensure that their leaders know they are expected to support and spend time and resources recognizing employees. The management can incentivize leaders to align their teams with the recognition practices and help build a culture of positive and regular appreciation.

Role of Leaders and Managers

Leaders and managers are responsible for driving recognition initiatives and exemplifying the culture of recognition. Though acknowledging the contributions and achievements of peers is an essential component of every employee's role, leaders set the tone and lay the groundwork for doing so.

Lead by example to enforce in-the-moment recognition by noticing and applauding their team's efforts towards it. Give employees easy access to recognition tools and templates, thus simplifying their way.

Knowing your recognition style and fine-tuning initiatives accordingly is a great way to start a sustainable culture where every effort gets noticed. This helps leaders and managers understand their team members' recognition preferences and adjust their approach to resonate with them.

See. Questionnaire for Leaders: Know Your Recognition Style

See. Self-Survey- Assess Your Recognition Practice

Role of Peers

Behind-the-scenes contributions are often left unnoticed, even in the most employee-friendly cultures. Employees are often privy to each other's minutest but significant contributions and milestones. This is where peer-to-peer appreciation plays a vital role in recognizing co-workers, which otherwise might go unnoticed by the leaders or the managers. If probed well, employees are also an excellent source to collect recognition preferences of their colleagues and mark important dates and occasions.

Role of Human Resources

HR folks are crucial to integrate the efforts of the leaders and team members and sensitize them to the positive impact of having a culture of recognition. They are responsible for empowering people by creating tools and resources to recognize employees in innovative ways. They also play an essential part in encouraging informal recognition practices at the functional levels and organizing formal recognition events.

Final Thoughts

Recognition practice in an organization is the glue to retain top-performing employees and a magnet to attract top talent. A sustainable culture of recognition stems from building habits to appreciate and applaud peers and co-workers. Building habits to recognize requires a dedicated leadership team that is sincere and frequent with employee recognition, ensuring their team members know they are appreciated for their sincere efforts.