Your recognition program has just gone live. But
for how long will it last?
How do you make recognition programs last?
Making recognition and reward programs last over the long term requires an
open-mindedness to the ongoing transformation of your programs.
It’s about looking for ongoing change and
constant quality improvement. Maybe breaking things even when they’re not even
broken.
But foremost, it’s about creating the future and
meeting the ongoing demands of managers and employees and evolving the
recognition experience.
Whether approaching the end of a calendar year
or a time to consider a refresh of your recognition practices and programs, it
is important to ask yourself as the recognition owner in your organization,
“Where do we most need to improve recognition?”
Often this whole question of improvement
follows the review of your annual employee engagement survey. Right off
the bat I can tell you that if the average score of your recognition related
questions on your survey is less than 65 percent, then you are dealing with
issues with your daily recognition practices of everyday recognition.
Looking at everyday recognition, you know this
should happen on a daily or weekly basis and impact between 80 and 100 percent
of your employees. This is a great opportunity to work on.
Where else can you improve recognition at your
organization? What are some practical steps you can take?
Sometimes
companies launch recognition programs and they don’t exactly light up the sky
and shine, as they should.
For a variety of
reasons you might not have gotten the engagement and traction you thought you
would when you designed and developed your organization’s recognition program.
You thought you got everyone’s input and their buy in, and
then… pfft!
Lots of
foundational things can stop recognition program engagement whether it’s access
to technology, the nature of the work of most employees, or simply a
lack of respect thinking employee recognition is unimportant.
But let’s look
at what needs to be in place to engage your managers and employees with your
employee recognition programs.