Tips for Effective Employee Recognition

Prioritize employee recognition and organization can ensure a positive, productive, innovative organizational climate. Provide employee recognition to say “thank you” and to encourage more of the actions and thinking which will make organization successful. People who feel appreciated are more positive about themselves and their ability to contribute. People with positive self-esteem are potentially best employees. These beliefs about employee recognition are common among employers even if not commonly carried out. Why then is employee recognition so closely guarded in many organizations?

Time is an often-stated reason and admittedly, employee recognition does take time. Employers also start out with all of the best intentions when they seek to recognize employee performance. They often find their efforts turn into an opportunity for employee complaining, jealousy and dissatisfaction. With these experiences, many employers are hesitant to provide employee recognition.

Many experiences show that employee recognition is scarce because of a combination of factors. Organizations don’t know how to provide it effectively, so they have bad experiences when they do. They assume “one size fits all” when they provide employee recognition. Finally, employers think too narrowly about what people will find rewarding and recognizing. These guidelines and ideas will help effectively walk the slippery path of employee recognition and avoid potential problems while recognizing people in work place.

Guidelines for Effective Employee Recognition
Decide what organization wants to achieve through employee recognition efforts. Many organizations use a scatter approach to employee recognition. They put a lot of employee recognition out there and hope that some efforts will stick and create the results they want. Or, they recognize so infrequently that employee recognition becomes a downer for many when the infrequent few are recognized.

Instead, create goals and action plans that recognize the actions, behaviors, approaches, and accomplishments organization wants to foster and reward. Establish employee recognition opportunities that emphasize and reinforce these sought-after qualities and behaviors. If one needs to increase attendance in organization, hand out a three-part form, during Monday morning staff meeting. The written note thanks employees who have perfect attendance that week. The employee keeps one part; save the second in the personnel file; place the third in a monthly drawing for gift certificates.

Fairness, clarity, and consistency are important
People need to see that each person who makes the same or a similar contribution has an equal likelihood of receiving recognition for their efforts. It is recommended that for providing employee recognition, organizations establish criteria for what makes a person eligible for the employee recognition. Anyone who meets the criteria is then recognized.

As an example, if people are recognized for exceeding a production or sales expectation, anyone who goes over the goal gets the glory. Recognizing only the highest performer will defeat or dissatisfy all other contributors, especially if the criteria are unclear or based on opinion.

For day-to-day employee recognition need to set guidelines so leaders acknowledge equivalent and similar contributions. Each employee who stays after work to contribute ideas in a departmental improvement brainstorming session gets to have lunch with the department head.

This guideline is why an “employee of the month-type program” is most often unsuccessful. The criteria for results and the fairness of these criteria are not clear to people. So, people complain about “brown-nosing points” and the boss’s “pet.” These programs cause discontent and dissention when the organization’s intentions were positive.

As an additional example, it is important to recognize all people who contributed to a success equally. A CEO may perpetually announced employee recognition for major projects at the company holiday celebration. Without fail, he may miss the names of several people who contributed to the success of the project. With the opportunity for public recognition past, people invariably felt slighted by the post-banquet thanks.

More Ways to Provide Effective Employee Recognition
Employee recognition approaches and content must also be inconsistent
Contradictory? No, not really. Organization wants to offer employee recognition that is consistently fair, but it also wants to make sure that employee recognition efforts do not become expectations or entitlements. As expectations, employee recognition efforts become entitlements. Bad news.

As an example, a company owner provided lunch for all staff every Friday to encourage team building and positive work relationships. All interested employees voluntarily attended the lunches. He was shocked when a group of employees asked him for reimbursement to cover the cost of the lunch on days they did not attend. The lunches had become an expected portion of their compensation and benefits package. Sincere recognition had turned into entitlement.

Inconsistency is encouraged in the type of employee recognition offered also. If employees are invited to lunch with the boss every time they work over-time, the lunch is an expectation. It is no longer a reward. Additionally, if a person does not receive the expected reward, it becomes a dissatisfier and negatively impacts the person’s attitude about work.

Be as specific in telling the individual exactly why he is receiving the recognition
The purpose of feedback is to reinforce what organization would like to see the employee do more of; the purpose of employee recognition is the same. In fact, employee recognition is one of the most powerful forms of feedback that can be provided. While “you did a nice job today” is a positive comment, it lacks the power of, “the report had a significant impact on the committee’s decision. You did an excellent job of highlighting the key points and information we needed to weigh before deciding. Because of your work, we’ll be able to cut six percent of the budget with no layoffs.”

Offer employee recognition as close to the event as possible
When a person performs positively, provide recognition immediately. Likely the employee is already feeling good about her performance and timely recognition of the employee will enhance the positive feelings. This, in turn, positively affects the employee’s confidence in her ability to do well in organization.

Specific Ideas for Employee Recognition
Remember that employee recognition is situational
Each individual has a preference for what he finds rewarding and how that recognition is most effective for him. One person may enjoy public recognition at a staff meeting; another prefers a private note in personnel file. The best way to determine what an employee finds rewarding is to ask.

Use the myriad opportunities for employee recognition that are available
In organizations, people place too much emphasis on money as the only form of employee recognition. While salary, bonuses and benefits are critical within employee recognition and reward system - after all, most of us do work for money - think more broadly about opportunities to provide employee recognition. There are few categories of employee recognition which can be used to thank employees for their contribution.

Examples of items which can be used for Employee Recognition
Employee recognition is best approached creatively. While money is an important form of employee recognition, ideas for employee recognition are limited only by imagination. Use the following ideas as approach for providing employee recognition.

Money
• Base salary
• Bonuses
• Gift certificates
• Cash awards

Written Words
• Handwritten ‘Thank you’ notes
• A letter of appreciation in the employee file
• Handwritten cards to mark celebratory occasions
• Recognition posted on the employee bulletin board
• Contribution noted in the company newsletter

Positive Attention From Supervisory Staff
• Stop by an individual’s workstation or office to talk informally
• Provide frequent positive performance feedback – at least weekly
• Provide public praise at a staff meeting
• Take the employee out to lunch.

Encourage Employee Development
• Send people to conferences and seminars
• Ask people to present a summary of what they learned at a conference or seminar at a department meeting
• Work out a written employee development plan
• Make career development commitments and a schedule

The Work Itself
• Provide cross training opportunities
• Provide more of the kinds of work the employee likes and less of the work they do not like
• Provide opportunities for empowerment and self-management
• Ask the employee to represent the department at an important, external meeting
• Have the employee represent the department on an inter-departmental committee
• Provide opportunities for the employee to determine their own goals and direction
• Participation in idea-generation and decision making

Gifts
• Company logo merchandise such as shirts, hats, mugs, and jackets
• Gift certificates to local stores
• The opportunity to select items from a catalog
• The ability to exchange "positive points" for merchandise or entry into a drawing for merchandise

Symbols and Honors
• Framed or unframed certificates to hang on the wall or file
• Engraved plaques
• Larger work area or office
• More and better equipment
• Provide status symbols, whatever they are in organization

Benefits
Make employee recognition is a common practice, not a scarce incidence, in organization. With these ideas, one may have many ideas that will help to develop a work environment that fosters employee recognition and hence, employee success.

Motivated employees do a better job of serving customers well. Happy customers buy more products and are committed to use services. More customers buying more products and services increase profitability and success. It's an endless circle. Hop on the employee recognition bandwagon to keep the circle spinning.