Employee recognition strategies are key to developing a motivated and engaged workforce.
As we move forward in our fast-paced business environment and compete for talent, an enticing salary and benefits package are only the beginning.
Employee recognition and rewards have become critical for retaining employees, developing a culture of employee engagement, and motivating performance. However, employee recognition is not one size fits all. In today's business environment, organizations must deploy recognition strategies that are deliberate, corporate, and socially based to transform workplaces into employee communities and create a culture in which employees feel valued and connected.
Social-based recognition is more than just another reward system. Social recognition fosters peer-to-peer recognition and appreciation, collaborative practice, shared allegiance to workplace relationships, and a common cause.
It is important to remember that effective implementation of recognition strategies improves job satisfaction, performance, and loyalty.
The sections in the article outline the many forms of recognition programs, their best practices and strategies employed, technology-based applications of social recognition, and case studies of US company recognition strategies.
If you are a corporate leader, human resource professional, or manager charged with developing an engaged workplace culture, these strategies will assist you with developing a culture.
A culture that is both the attraction and retention of talent, for the ultimate success of your organization's long-term focus.
Comprehending Recognition and Rewards: Definitions and Relevance
Employee recognition and rewards play a vital role in creating a positive workplace culture. Many organizations today do not clearly understand the difference or the importance of these terms. Before we go through their uses, first, let us establish what they mean and their relevance to business in the US today..
Employee recognition is looking upon and being grateful for an employee's work, accomplishments, or actions. Recognition can be:
Formal recognition: awards (monetary & non-monetary, certificates, or company-wide announcements
Informal recognition: a simple greeting like "thank you" works as a recognition.
Formal and informal recognition serve as motivators and build credibility.
Rewards are benefits given to employees for their work or contributions. Rewards can be:
Monetary: bonuses to employees, raises to employees, or gift cards
Non-monetary: extra time off, training opportunities, or publicized recognition
Rewards motivate employees to continue performing.
Social recognition is on the increase in US businesses. Social recognition is all about recognition of peers, not just a manager recognizing employees or their team members.
Social recognition helps to build relationships, enhance collaboration, and create teamwork. Many businesses use digital social recognition tools that make social recognition easy, visible, and social.
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, famously said,
“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”
In the US, businesses are faced with unique workforce challenges, including varying employee expectations, competitive talent markets, and evolving workplace dynamics.
Businesses are utilizing targeted recognition and rewards strategies that have been shown to be effective in recognizing employee efforts, as well as fostering employee engagement and retention as a result.
Below are examples of approaches utilized in the context of US businesses:
Companies in the US have effectively implemented recognition that puts power in the employees’ hands for them to recognize one another.
Leveraging social recognition allows collaboration and a positive team culture.
Example:
Zappos employees use a digital platform to send "bonus points" or shout-outs that they can redeem for rewards. This peer-to-peer recognition helps bolster morale and creates additional daily opportunities for recognition.
Practical Tip: Use user-friendly digital recognition tools like Bonusly or Kudos, which seamlessly integrate with popular communication platforms such as Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Benefits: Appreciation/recognition culture leads to increased employee engagement, more than just through traditional management-approved channels.
A simple, effective, and attractive workplace in America is not a simple, one-size-fits-all approach. Appreciating differences as a result of a diverse workforce allows us to suggest rewards with an agreeable endpoint that is responsive to individuals' personal preferences.
For example, Salesforce allows employees to choose monetary bonuses to receive extra vacation days or donate to charity! In this way, it is respectful of fellow employees' own personal values or life situations!
A helpful suggestion here is to survey employees to find out which rewards they happen to care about most. Take that data and, as an example, offer a menu of reward options!
The benefit of offering customizable reward options is that it maximizes the perceived value of the rewards and helps to strengthen positive employee attitudes.
Companies in America are not merely recognizing employees separately from formal performance management systems. Companies in America are also merging recognition with "at performance management" systems as an approach to building employee performance.
For example, Adobe replaced 'Annual Reviews' with "check-ins," which allowed managers to provide informal feedback and recognition in connection with specific goals regularly.
A helpful suggestion is to prepare managers to recognize mini-wins (even small) and provide immediate feedback in one-on-one meetings, team huddles, etc.
The benefits of inclusion of recognition into performance management are that it continues to reinforce positive behaviors, not just the development of employees.
Recognizing an employee's accomplishment in company communication signals what the company values and allows the employee to inspire their peers.
Example:
HubSpot recognizes an employee's accomplishments in their monthly newsletter and social media, providing employee eyeballs and employee pride.
Practical Tip:
Develop a place in company emails or intranet sites to recognize employee milestones and contributions.
Benefit: Provides more transparency and increases a sense of belonging.
In the United States, work-life balance is paramount. Experiential rewards that support work-life balance are growing in popularity.
Examples:
Google allows ‘20 percent time’ where an employee may spend a day per week working on projects they are passionate about, while other companies offer wellness stipends or sponsored group meals.
Practical Tip:
Be open and flexible to flexible working hours, remote work, and wellness programs to the reward mix.
Benefit:
It gives a feeling to the employee that the organization thinks about his/her well-being and reduces burnout.
How Zappos Increases Engagement Through Peer-to-Peer Recognition
Famous online retailer Zappos has created a thriving culture, putting employee recognition squarely in the hands of employees.
Their peer-to-peer digital platform enables employees to send "bonus points" or shout-outs to each other for going above and beyond. Employees can then successfully redeem these points for great rewards, creating a circle of social appreciation as well as motivation, and it is ongoing.
Here is a summary of Zappo's unique approach:
Gives employees the power and independence to recognize their peers more frequently.
in their daily work, not just managers recognizing teams.
Integrates seamlessly into every employee’s daily workflow through digital platforms.
Allows points to be redeemable, which brings physical value to a recognition.
Visible recognition helps team building, morale, and employee engagement.
This approach creates peer-to-peer recognition as a social practice, an ongoing practice that increases intimacy between employees and support for positive culture.
For more information about Zappo's recognition culture, please check out Terryberry and Rebel Playbook.
Employee recognition and rewards are critical to talent retention, engagement, and performance in US companies.
Recognition can be formal or informal, monetary or non-monetary, and there is a significant growth in social recognition and peer-to-peer appreciation.
Social recognition creates social collaboration and builds a positive organizational culture, particularly important in diverse and hybrid organizational structures.
Customization of rewards considers individual employees' wants, which ultimately creates a higher perceived value and motivation.
Recognition can be integrated into performance management systems to effectively and consistently reinforce positive behaviors.
Public recognition through organizational communications can cultivate communication transparency and evoke pride in employees.
Experiential rewards where time off is involved help encourage a healthy work-life balance, but also ultimately reveal a company’s desire to help mitigate burnout and make an investment in the employee’s well-being.
In the competitive workforce of the US, organizations must build an effective recognition and rewards strategy to develop and maintain a high-performing, engaged, and loyal workforce.
Organizations can build such a culture by adopting social recognition, customization of rewards, and integrating recognition into a process of performance management to help create a culture of ongoing motivation to be engaged in the workplace, while also driving unique employee satisfaction and business performance outcomes.
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