Why You Should Still Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day

Yep. It’s a week away.

We deem the first Friday in the magnificent month of March each year as Employee Appreciation Day.

Those with a cynical point of view believe organizational leaders only do something “cool” for employees on this day to serve their own needs.

That’s why people have asked whether organizations should still celebrate Employee Appreciation Day? 

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Top 10 Ways To Increase the Frequency of Employee Recognition

If there is one thing that will improve the effectiveness of recognition in your organization, it’s certainly giving recognition to people more often. Put the following practices into place so you increase the number of times recognition happens in the lives of your employees.

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How Your Leaders Can Be More Involved With Recognition

As a member of Recognition Professional’s International (RPI) for over 15 years, I have been able to learn from, and share insights observed from clients about making recognition happen the right way, with other recognition professionals. 

One concern a lot of recognition program managers have is getting the personal commitment and support from their senior leaders.

That’s why I’ve always liked a five-step set of principles from one of RPI’s courses that I think will help you. 

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Things I Wish I Had Known About Recognition As A First Time Manager

Do you recall when you were first hired or promoted to the position of manager or director of a department? I know I do. It was about three decades ago now. 

There were a lot of new tasks to perform. Many meetings to attend. Several HR functions to complete, such as submitting attendance reports for payroll. Reports of performance metrics to show productivity and efficiency.

Yet not one person instructed me on how to recognize the staff I now managed. Just recently, I was one of them. I had no clue about managing and leading people. I gave my best answers in the interview and they picked me. 

Things I wish I knew about recognition as a first-time manager were some of the following.

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How To Turn Your Career Milestone Event Into Something Memorable

An employee’s career milestone, whether in person or virtually celebrated, is a special event and very important to them. You need to show staff that this is a big deal to everyone else as well—their immediate manager and senior leaders alike.

Celebrating an employee’s work anniversary should be something that is easy to acknowledge. After all, you are thanking them for their length of service with the organization and expressing appreciation for their contributions. 

I will lay out for you the 4 P’s you need to follow so you will honor every employee’s career milestone the right way.

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How To Use Leading Indicators to Boost Usage of Your Recognition Programs

Recognition program metrics are old news by the time you get them.

And that “old news” element makes these numbers from the past called lagging indicators. They are a lagging indicator because we observe these measures after, or lagging after, any change has occurred. 

These lagging indicators create a conflict for you as the recognition program owner. Outcome measures from your programs are easy to measure. But you can’t do much to change them once you get them. 

My recommendation is to supercharge your programs by using leading indicators as well. 

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What Do Your People Believe About Employee Recognition?

One problematic area to deal with in organizations is the beliefs people hold about employee recognition.

I have long held a three-block process model in my mind. It starts with a block on the left labeled Beliefs. A labeled a middle block called Behaviors. And a last block on the right labeled Results.

It impressed me that to get the results we desire, such as meaningful and effective recognition of employees happening, it all starts with having the right beliefs in the place first.

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