Employee recognition happens when an employer acknowledges its staff for exemplary performance. Fundamentally, the aim of employee recognition is to strengthen particular behaviors, activities, or practices that result in profitable results and better performances.
Why Employee Recognition is Important
Recognition is a key element of any company’s success. When an organization fails to appreciate the efforts and hard work put in by their employees, outcomes such as de-motivation and sloppy processes are bound to take place within the workplace. Acknowledging and rewarding your employees can help you create stronger and long-lasting emotional ties with your employees.
Let’s find out more about how employee recognition can benefit your business and how you can include recognition packages in remote working situations.
Benefits of Employee Recognition
Makes Employees Happy
Employee recognition programs acknowledge the efforts your team makes to help your company grow and achieve financial goals. Hence, the more your employees work, the more they achieve and the happier they become as your company rewards them for their constant efforts.
Typically, an employee’s manager, supervisor, or leader appreciates the performance of employees working under their supervision while HR professionals design a transparent and efficient employee recognition system.
Boosts Employee Retention
Recruiting the right employees or training your teams is not enough to ensure a low turnover rate. Mentoring your employees and motivating them to perform better is the key to a loyal and committed workforce.
Employee recognition and incentive programs can help your organization retain the top and most productive employees. Rewards can be in the form of service awards, financial rewards, or bonuses. Most companies offer personalized recognition gifts to their most productive team members as a token of gratitude. For instance: a gift card from their favorite clothing brand or a voucher to enjoy a free meal at a local restaurant. Personalized rewards like these are small but go a long way to build strong relationships with your employees.
Develops a Culture of Self-improvement
A workplace that rewards its employees for being proactive and brainstorming out-of-the-box ideas believes in a culture of self-improvement. Through employee recognition rewards, your company can provide your staff to develop themselves into successful future leaders by making themselves better at what they perform. Introducing training and development programs can help your employees become better and more productive at work.
Boosts Morale
When an organization’s leaders motivate and encourage their employees to think and act forward, the employees are not afraid to push their comfort zones. Allowing your staff to know that their efforts and hard work are not going unnoticed encourages your employees to bring innovation.
Examples of Employee Recognition
Now that you know the importance of employee recognition, let’s find out a few ways to implement employee recognition within your workplace culture.
Recognition has many forms, but the best approach to take is to focus on the most valuable areas of your team. With that in mind, here are some of the most powerful and popular employee recognition programs you can offer to in-house as well as remote employees.
Digital Rewards
Not only are digital rewards mobile wallet-friendly, but they are also increasing in popularity since last year. Unlike traditional reward systems, digital rewards involve contactless methods, and the recipient can spend them quickly. Employers can offer a versatile mix of physical and digital rewards to satisfy Generation X, Y, and Z employees.
Digital rewards are uploaded into mobile wallets, and your employees can redeem them almost anywhere where major cards are accepted. Most of today’s top brands and stores offer digital gift cards and coupons that your employees can spend offline, online, and making in-app purchases.
Appreciation Events
Like your official events, appreciation events can take place whenever your team achieves a milestone. Whether you appreciate an individual employee or a team for its efforts, praising employees and rewarding them for their performance will set a benchmark for future employees.
Receiving appreciation in front of several colleagues boosts the self-esteem of your employees and boosts their loyalty.
In addition to that, here are some more popular appreciation event ideas:
Official outings: When a department or team has delivered good work, you can recognize their efforts by taking them out to a fun outing or lunch.
Surprise celebrations: When your employees perform exceptionally well, giving them a surprise gift or a note of thanks in a small appreciation event is a great way to recognize their efforts.
Vacation packages: Many established businesses reward their top-tier employees by gifting paid vacations so they can recharge their batteries and become even more productive.
Set up an Employee Recognition Wall
Your company can set up a board or a dedicated wall where your entire team can share messages of appreciation for a certain employee. You can set up a digital bulletin board for remote employees.
Applaud on Social Media
Honoring your most dedicated employees’ services and performances on your social media profiles is just another way to recognize your team’s efforts. The message can be as simple as posting a picture of them with a brief introduction or filming their professional journey with your company. The purpose is to recognize their services in the best way possible. List their contributions and accomplishments they achieved that helped your business attain short-term or long-term goals.
Monetary Rewards
You don’t have to offer exuberant monetary rewards to your employees. Such rewards can be as small as a $100 gift card and as big as a paid vacation to your employee’s dream destination.
Here are some of the best types of monetary rewards you can offer to your in-house and remote employees:
- Bonuses
- Gift cards
- Paid vacations
- Gift cards
- Paid training opportunities
- Free meals
Final Thoughts
Now that you know what employee recognition is and how it works, don’t forget to implement these ideas into your workplace. The more satisfied and happy your employees are, the more productive they will become to serve your organization.
