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A quick summary:
Today’s workplace is nothing short of competitive, especially in acquiring and retaining talented employees. Because of this, employee recognition programs, schemes and platforms have emerged as a powerful tool! Giving leaders the opportunity to reward their team members for their hard work.
But how can your business really supercharge employee recognition for success and progress? Here, we’re looking at a number of ways, from creating a robust recognition strategy to measuring the success of your efforts.
Why is employee recognition so important?
As we’ve already said, the modern workplace demands a certain level of competition from businesses. And that’s not to win, but to simply stay afloat. That’s because companies are getting more and more creative with how they build their workforce.
What’s more, employee needs are forever evolving, and in the aftermath of a global pandemic, there’s this sense that more needs to be done and employers must play a bigger role in the health and happiness of their staff.
Whilst most businesses have invested in some form of mental health support or made a small injection of wellbeing perks, it isn’t enough. With trends like the Great Resignation, it’s clear employees are prepared to leave in their droves.
The solution? A robust employee recognition strategy is required. One that is personalised to employee needs, meaningful and has the potential to add value to your overall employee experience.
Create a robust employee recognition strategy
To kick things off, let’s talk about the need for an employee recognition strategy. This is quite possibly the most obvious of this list. Without a solid strategy, it’s hard to know whether you’re coming or going with employee recognition.
Nothing is as streamlined without a plan of action, and that’s exactly what this point is about. To put it simply, by developing a strategy for recognition in the workplace with your senior colleagues, you’re able to achieve the following:
- Create a recognition program that employees actually want
- Avoid burning through budgets and wasting cash
- Delegate strategy responsibility amongst a leadership team
But what elements should be included in a strategy? Well, to keep things easy, we recommend including how you intend to reward employees for their hard work, the budgets available when you will recognise employees and how you can make your recognition program a genuine value add to your employee experience.
By answering these questions, you’ll be well on your way to achieving an employee recognition program that works for everyone.
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Measure specific metrics
Next up, it’s important you always measure the results of your employee recognition strategy. This means determining whether recognition and reward efforts are actually making a difference. Not just to your employees, but to the business as a whole.
Think about it, how can you understand the impact you’re making, without deciding on what you originally wanted to achieve with employee recognition? Measuring results goes hand-in-hand with our last point on developing a strategy.
We recommend tracking metrics like employee turnover, employee engagement, workplace performance and productivity. These are the indicators that your recognition efforts are working.
And if these appear to have fallen since implementing a recognition program, platform or scheme, it’s time to change things up a bit. Consider a total revamp of reward and recognition initiatives or the frequency of said recognition.
Ultimately, there’s something not quite right with your current strategy. But with a little bit of digging you can find the culprit and get back on track with creating a more engaged workforce. After all, that is one of the biggest benefits of a recognition program.
Create a workplace culture of appreciation
Finally, let’s not forget the importance of a culture of appreciation. Like any change to workplace culture and behaviour, we believe it’s the quality of appreciation that can really help you develop better employee recognition.
In an environment where everyone feels supported, and where everyone is appreciated, recognition can be contagious. You cannot recognise everyone all the time, without it becoming somewhat meaningless.
But being able to instil appreciation as a quality throughout your workforce, gives you the chance to ensure everyone feels recognised. Whilst this isn’t a direct tip for your strategy specifically, it’s a great way to improve recognition indirectly.
Final thoughts on employee recognition
That’s all we have time for! As you’ve learnt, employee recognition is quite literally essential to a successful business. If you want to become a better company, one built on a healthier, happier workforce, it’s important to recognise employees for their hard work.
Talented employees are more than ready to jump ship if they feel undervalued or unhappy, and recognition can help steer that same ship to better retention as a business.
Want to find out how you can reward employees with workplace wellbeing perks? How about more than 3,000 of them? Heka is an employee wellbeing platform built for businesses just like yours!
How do we know? Because you have read this far down, and we just know you want the best for your employees! Speak to one of our wellbeing experts today.
