People use to work for the company that offered them the biggest paycheck, but now there is much more that goes into creating the best working environment for employees. Employee recognition is a key component to creating a workplace that can recruit and retain the best people. In fact, 59 percent of employees prefer companies with a rich recognition culture to jobs with higher salaries that don’t give any recognition.
Here are three ways to help you create a culture of recognition in the workplace.
Make recognition personal AND personalize your gifts or rewards.
When recognizing employees for their efforts, it is important to be personal and specific. You should praise the individual person for what he or she did and include specific details. For example, “Thank you for helping out on that customer inquiry yesterday. I really appreciate the extra time you took to reassure the customer and how you did the extra research so you could answer her question.”
Also personalizing the recognition award is important and makes the recognition more meaningful to the employee. It can be as simple as knowing someone’s interest like do they prefer Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts coffee or treats and including a personalized handwritten card.
Recognition should be timely.
For the recognition to be genuine and impactful, it should be timely. This means recognition needs to be delivered close to the time the action that’s being recognized took place. Companies that have formal recognition programs in place can do this easily.
Praise those who are recognized in a variety of ways.
Verbal communication is the best way to recognize employees and receiving praise from an employee’s direct supervisor or manager is the most powerful. However, this should not be the only way employees receive praise. A good recognition strategy also includes recognizing people in more public ways like in company newsletters, at company meetings, on the intranet, or using other media. It’s also nice to have a written note or letter delivered to the employee.
A Great Place to Work cited some examples of how a few companies are creating a culture of recognition.
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A global hotel chain is making it easy for managers to recognize employees with an annual Recognition Calendar that highlights no- and low-cost, easy-to-implement ideas to thank employees for each day of the year.
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A professional services firm features employees who are mentioned in their client satisfaction surveys as having gone above and beyond so that other employees can see what kinds of behaviors are being recognized and also makes people feel appreciated.
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A healthcare system recognizes employees' years of service in five-year increments. After every five years of service, employees receive a customized yearbook that includes a personalized congratulatory message of appreciation from the CEO. The yearbook also includes “messages of thanks and appreciation from their manager and coworkers, and photos of the employee at work with their team, having fun, and contributing to the mission.”
These are just a few ideas to get you started. If you want to create a more comprehensive plan for recognition in your workplace, Incentra can help. Reach out to us today.
