Employee of the Month?
Many companies still use "Employee of the Month" programs as their core recognition solution. Using examples from industry expert insights, this post elaborates on how this is a dated method of employee recognition.
Recognition: An Extension of Human Behavior
Employee recognition programs, like social networks, should play out the same way. Even though some of the methods have changed, the basic human needs for recognition have remained. To improve performance, we've always wanted praise, recognition and incentives for the hard work that we do. These behaviors could be as small as getting taken out for dessert for completing a chore around the house when you were younger, to training in a sport hard for a long period of time to win a trophy, to now the more sophisticated incentive program for exceeding your company goals in your work.
You Don't Need Permission To Say "Good Job"
Implementing an incentive program in your company to help improve employee engagement around the office? Awesome! Laying the groundwork for engagement begins before your program officially starts. Fostering a culture of recognition doesn't soley rely on your pending incentive program.
Rewarding the Small Things Helps the Big Picture
One of the most effective ways to modify behaviors instead of just results is to make your program reward incremental achievements and focusing in on the small things that eventually create the big picture. When the smaller baby steps aren't being done correctly, the desired end result has a decreased chance of occurring. On Twitter last week, @Globoforce described this concept beautifully:
"Evaluating performance only once a year is the equivalent of letting students skip all the lectures and take the final."
Social Media and Employee Recognition Programs: A Perfect Match
The incentives industry is (or at least should be) very people focused. An incentives company shouldn't be solely interested in selling its product as much as it is about motivating and driving behavior. The best methods of influencing behavior are designed around what employees want. What makes them tick? What will motivate them to achieve greater results?
Use Social Media to Tell Employees How Awesome They Are!
This brought back the idea to me. Most companies restrict access to most social media sites. So that takes the idea out of starting off a program using things like Facebook and Twitter groups for workplace recognition. However, I realized that our place, along with several other offices that I know of, still allow LinkedIn access. So what's an easy way for recognition?
Employee Recognition is STILL Important
Several blog posts of late have discussed how employee morale is at an all-time low (EEA reports is staying steady). Just because the economy seems to gradually be getting back on track doesn't necessarily mean that employee motivation is on the rise as well. Satisfaction rates are down below 50%, which means a lot of workers want to jump ship at the next opportunity.