Recognizing the hard work of your employees is a crucial step in making sure that your employees remain engaged, motivated, and inspired. Unfortunately, a lot of companies and managers are either not giving their employees any recognition, or they are not giving the type of recognition that employees find meaningful.
This means recognition is not having the impact that managers and companies think it will. In this post, I will share with you some of the top do’s and don’ts of employee recognition so you can make sure your recognition efforts are keeping your employees engaged, energized, and inspired.
Many managers arbitrarily choose recognition activities such as ‘Employee of the Month’ and decide on their own how they are going to recognize their employees.
The first thing that you need to know about impactful employee recognition is that you must ask employees how they want to be recognized. Many managers arbitrarily choose recognition activities such as ‘Employee of the Month’ and decide on their own how they are going to recognize their employees. The problem is, if you haven’t actually asked employees how they want to be recognized, your recognition activities might not have the impact that you want or expect them to have. Some employees might value public recognition like ‘employee of the month’, but others may be embarrassed by that type of recognition.
When I work with companies on engagement and culture building strategies, I advise my clients to always do a short pulse survey. A pulse survey is a two-question survey where you can ask employees questions such as ‘How do you want to be recognized for a job well done?’ Another question I often ask is ‘What type of reward would you value?’
You will likely be surprised by the type of answers you get from these pulse surveys. Often, the recognition is something simple such as heartfelt Thank you that does not cost anything.
Which brings me to my second ‘do’- Something that all managers must do is to keep a running list of how each of your employees wants to be recognized. For recognition to be meaningful, it has to be personalized. So, if you are going to do a pulse survey where you reach out and ask employees how they want to be recognized, it’s important for you to keep track of those results. The more personalized the recognition is, the more effective it will be inspiring and engaging your employees.
Here are the don’ts of employee recognition. Don’t do a big one-time recognition event and think that it will be enough to keep your employees engaged and motivated. I am not going to say that you shouldn’t do a one-time event, I’m just saying that you’re also going to need other personalized recognition activities throughout the year. You can have a big appreciation party where you can bring in the ice cream truck but know that it won’t be enough to sustain recognition all year round. Because for recognition to be effective, it has to be personalized and meaningful to that individual employee.
Another important recognition ‘don’t’, is to give generalized or vague, empty praise. Employees can always see through empty praise from their manager. ‘Good job’ or ‘Wow, look what you did there’ will not help employees feel valued. When you say, ‘thank you’, ensure you describe the impact the employee’s performance had on the team, customer, and company.
Consistent recognition strategies are an essential component to keeping your team engaged and energized. The more engaged your employees are, the more inspired they will be to strive for higher levels of performance. Recognition is also important because it can boost morale and energy which will also help employees deal with work-related stress.
Recognition is a powerful tool any manager can use to keep your team inspired and engaged, but there are specific ways to do it to ensure recognition is effective.