Appreciation and recognition are fundamental needs, businesses must acknowledge its impact and should consider using a recognition platform to execute the following employee recognition best practices.
As a child, what was the main reason you’d want to continue playing a sport? Or, what was your motivation to focus more on a particular subject at school?
Whatever the activity was, you’d likely focus more and work hard at doing it because you were good at it. And, at times, you’d get validation on how good you were at it from your parents, your superiors, and other kids around you. That support and recognition helped drive you to do better and focus as much as you could to excel. You’d want to pursue it more because you’re good at it, and eventually you’d enjoy pursuing it even more because you’d get recognized for being so good at it.
Appreciation is a fundamental human need and this basic logic is why employee recognition works.
Acknowledging achievement can give businesses 50% higher productivity and as much as a 20% increase in business outcomes.
Employee recognition of all kinds and rewarding them for their achievements motivate them to strive to do more and achieve more. Here are some employee recognition best practices businesses can execute on a employee recognition platform to help boost employee productivity which will inevitably result in supporting the organization’s goals and values:
a. Points-Based Reward System
A points-based system encourages employees to reach their goals, small steps at a time, and keep track of their progress. Higher management has the opportunity to recognize their subordinates by awarding them points for going the “extra mile”. In fact, recognition can go up the ladder, down the ladder, or even at the same level.
Activate the gamification elements within your recognition platform aligning it with your employee engagement strategies and base it on a points-based reward system. To continue the flow of engagement you can also add a subtle points system (5-10 points) for smaller engagement activities such as liking or commenting on a colleague’s recognition.
b. Monetary Recognition
This tactic is not for every business but it can be done at different levels. Monetary recognition can be given when much larger goals are achieved. Let’s say for maintaining an increase of 20% productivity every month for the whole year.
Interconnect it with the previous tactic, rewarding monetary recognition for achieving 10,000 points within a year. Along with adding a points-based system via your recognition platform, you can have employees exchange the points they’ve collected for monetary compensation.
c. Personalized Recognition
Take it one step further and make it beneficial for both parties. Instead of giving money directly, offer to fund an educational endeavor or something that helps to improve their health. Invest in improving your employees’ skill set that will benefit the business. Offering personalized and experiential rewards are more impactful and more appreciated. This helps to drive long-term engagement and employee retention.
Keep track of educational benefit requests through your recognition platform. Create forms for employees to fill in their necessary details on the platform itself so you can maintain as much automation as possible.
d. Social Recognition
Promote an environment of recognition within the internal social platform. This will cultivate comradery between employees no matter what level. Higher management generally recognizes subordinates, a social platform will promote recognition top-down, at the same level (between employees), and bottom-up. Invest in a good social platform that allows employees to award points to others as a form of recognition instead of just management giving it to employees. This way no achievement goes unnoticed no matter how big or small.
e. Contests, Events, Charities, and Sports
A great way to supercharge each employee’s will to achieve a goal is by adding a competitive element to the mix. Contests, quizzes, and sports are a great way to get their blood pumping enough to charge towards winning. Winning a trophy or a large prize always works as an effective motivator. It also promotes teamwork and team building.
Create custom quizzes and automate the distribution of the quizzes and contests via your recognition platform. You’ll be able to add gamification points upon completion of the quiz provided they answer all correctly.
Events and charities are a great way to get employees involved. Giving people a mission helps them feel like they are part of something greater, to be able to contribute to a greater good gives them a genuine push to do good for others and they develop a sense of self-accomplishment. There is reward in feeling like you have accomplished something by helping someone else. The reward is even larger when people have collectively achieved something brilliant like helping to feed a village in a developing nation overseas or even within the same rising country.
Create charity events or drives on your recognition platform that your employees can learn more about and sign up for as well.
Employees, teams, and management feel connected to their employer when they are recognized and appreciated for their contributions. This will help businesses supercharge their ROI. Take the time and effort to find the right employee engagement and recognition platform that will help you do it all without spending too many hours or resources in executing your employee engagement and recognition strategy.
HubEngage can help you custom make the right kind of engagement and recognition platform to suit your specific needs. Get in touch with us for a personalized live demo today.
