As a business owner, if your focus is not employee recognition, it’s important that you start working on it. According to studies, 82% of employees rank employee recognition very highly. Recognition can be very positive in improving productivity. It has also been proven that employee recognition is a highly effective method of increasing engagement.
About 58% of employees have agreed that recognition has helped them become more engaged. Not to mention, companies that focus on recognition have had less turnover by the employees. These are all the things that a company needs to perform at its best. Therefore, business owners can leverage greatly from setting up an employee recognition strategy.
Create an Employee Recognition Strategy
When setting up a recognition strategy, you need to first determine why your business needs employee recognition in the first place. The answer to this question will vary from one business to the next and will reflect what each company is trying to achieve in order to move forward. Often, companies will use a variety of reasons when creating a strategy.
For instance, your business is most likely going to benefit from increased productivity. On the other hand, your business may also be trying to incorporate company values in the workforce. Overall, an employee recognition strategy is essentially appreciation and reward. The type of appreciation and reward will vary regarding what you want to achieve.
Build an Employee Recognition Program
The best ways business owners can reward and appreciate their employees is by setting up an employee recognition program that sheds the limelight on recognition. Integrating a program requires you to set up positive reinforcements for the specific employee behavior which contributes to the target you want to achieve.
Think of an Olympic athlete. A huge part of their work revolves around the excitement and recognition they will achieve from winning a medal. This can work the same way for employees. Make sure that you applaud them in ways that helps them get a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Thank Your Employees
Gratitude can be as simple as thanking each employee for the job or outcome they have produced for your business. Implementing gratitude is not only beneficial for your business, but it is also very positive for the employee’s life. These benefits include a boost in confidence, less stress, the feeling of good camaraderie, and employee engagement.
Employee engagement and interest work hand in hand with productivity and this will lead to more success for business owners. When employees know that someone is taking notice of the great work they are doing, they will use this positive reinforcement to produce even better work. Even something as simple as a “thank you” can be huge for employees and helps them stay within the organization.
Recognize Quick
As a business owner, when recognizing your employees, make sure that you are rewarding them in the specific way that they like. Additionally, you also have to make sure that you recognize them right after they have done a task worthy of recognition. If you take notice and leave it for later, then you run the risk of forgetting about it.
Additionally, recognitions are much more tasteful and better right after the employee has performed them. It fills them with a sense of instant gratification and encourages and drives them to achieve even more.
Send Out Questionnaires
Before you set up systematic recognition programs, you need first find out about how your employees like to be recognized. This is a very important question and you can find out about this by sending out a questionnaire to each employee. In the questionnaire, you can get great insights on your employee. It also helps you show genuine concern for the employee, which can help the employees boost their morale.
Questionnaires will also help you identify the comfort level of each employee. Each individual is different. Some like to be recognized publicly, while others are more comfortable with getting private recognition. Once you have figured out the preferred method of recognition, you can better formulate the reward system to implement inside your business.
Recognize them for Personal Achievements
By appreciating employees for their achievements outside the workspace, you end up proving to them that you really care about their wellbeing and happiness. By doing so, you can retain employees and keep them from shifting over to another business even if they come across a better opportunity.
Oftentimes, business owners will try to separate personal life and work life, which is important and you need to set boundaries. However, when you are leading people, you need to realize that your employees are humans and not robots, with lives beyond the office premises.
Final Thoughts
Overall, it is important to tailor your employee recognition according to the employee. Be specific about what you are recognizing, and make time for employee recognition. If your employee recognition revolves around the above mentioned tips, your business will reap instant rewards.
Great and concise summary, Margarita. Keep them coming.