How to Improve Employee Recognition: The Complete Guide for Businesses
How effective is your business’s employee recognition program?
Human resource leaders agree that employee recognition increases employee happiness, productivity, and loyalty. As a small business owner, you certainly know this as well, but when did you last take steps to improve employee recognition?
It’s commendable that your business already recognizes its employees. But if a recognition program isn’t updated from time to time, it can lose its effectiveness or purpose.
Improving employee recognition programs can be easier said than done. This is why we’re sharing a couple of strategies you can use to enhance how you recognize your workers.
Audit Your Current Employee Recognition Program
You can only improve something if you know its weaknesses. As such, the first step to improving employee recognition is to audit your existing program and find its flaws.
There are a number of approaches you can use, but the most effective is to conduct employee satisfaction surveys and gather their feedback. Anonymous questionnaires are highly effective in this context.
Ask them what they don’t like about the current program, for example. Is there something they’d like to see?
Another approach is to establish what high-performing competing organizations are doing in terms of recognizing their employees. You can copy a few elements of their recognition programs and incorporate them into yours.
Get More Creative with Rewards
Words of recognition from an employer to an employee have a positive impact, but they can only do so much. Rewards are the cornerstone of any recognition program. Nobody looks forward to being recognized as the employee of the month if there’s no tangible reward involved.
If your recognition program includes rewards, thumbs up! However, it’s prudent to ensure the rewards are beneficial to your employees.
Rewarding an employee of the month with company merchandise such as a branded water bottle or t-shirt is much better than nothing. But how many pieces of company merchandise is an employee going to receive before it’s too much?
Get creative with your employee recognition rewards. Go custom if possible. The idea is to give rewards that are meaningful to your employees.
For example, if an employee could do with a couple of days off on top of what they’re entitled to, rewarding them with time off will have a bigger impact than some randomly-selected reward.
Leverage Technology
The right technology can help you improve your employee recognition practices. There’s recognition software that will enable you to automate various parts of your recognition program while keeping your employees involved in the process. Look here to learn more about what an employee recognition platform can do for your business.
Improve Employee Recognition Starting Today!
Employees, just like everyone else, thrive when recognized. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to design and implement a recognition program that will make your employees happier and more satisfied. Use these tips to improve employee recognition in your organization.
Browse our blog for more workplace tips and advice.
