Rewarding Reasons to Focus on Employee Recognition

Rewarding Reasons to Focus on Employee Recognition

You love your employees. They’re talented, amazing people that make your company a force to be reckoned with.

Want to keep them?

Not to scare you, but 51% of employees are currently looking to leave their jobs, and the likelihood of their leaving spikes significantly on work anniversaries. With important skills like business management, oral communication, and leadership in increasingly short supply, retention has become incredibly important.

Encourage Them to Stay

Some business owners dismiss employee recognition programs as too expensive, but studies have shown that most employees prefer thoughtful recognition to money awards. In addition, the cost of replacing a skilled and trained employee far outweighs the cost of a good recognition and reward program. The keys to good employee recognition are making it personal, timely and public. You want a good employee to know that you value them, appreciate what they have done, and everyone else should know so they can congratulate the employee as well.

Timely and Specific Recognition

Did you know: 63% of workers want their work praised more frequently. A manager who wanders through the office throwing out “nice job” and “way to go” indiscriminately actually demotivates their work force, so it’s important to offer specific and timely recognition and praise. If meaningful gratitude and praise isn’t something that comes naturally to you, here are some suggestions.

• Give a shout out to an employee for going above and beyond on social media or in the company-wide newsletter.
• Send them a thank you note for their money saving idea or making an ugly situation better for a customer – and then thank them in person.
• Celebrate an employee’s personal accomplishments, whether it’s a charity event they took part in, a college degree completed or a fitness goal met with an award like a gold star balloon they can show off at their desk.
• Provide a program for employees to recognize their co-workers’ strengths and show how much they value them for it.

Celebrate Milestones

Use employee milestones to bring your team together. Build excitement and engagement by celebrating their work life.

• First Day: when a new person joins your company, make them feel welcome by giving them a gift bag filled with useful items branded with your company name. They’ll appreciate the gesture and feel more valued.
• Years of Service Award: show you value the time they’ve devoted to your business by recognizing work anniversaries with a certificate or award.
• Celebrate Success: gamify work accomplishments to increase engagement and create excitement by handing out custom-made badges or buttons for hitting specific milestones or professional and safety accomplishments.

As an important side effect of celebrating an employee’s success, you build employee engagement, which is important for many reasons.

Highly engaged businesses experience:

• 10% increase in customer ratings.
• 20% increase in sales.
• 41% less absenteeism.
• 17% increase in productivity.

Sound good?

Making your employees feel valued, recognizing their accomplishments and celebrating the company’s success together builds morale, increases engagement and generates positivity. Currently only 13% of employees are engaged, but fortunately both positivity and negativity are contagious. With a good and thoughtful recognition program, you can create a positive company culture and give your employees reasons to love their workplace and be enthusiastic brand ambassadors.