Individuals often ask me what I recommend for them to do to become a great recognition giver of the people around them—whether at work, home, or play.
The following is a short list of things I suggest you get into the habit of doing.
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You know your organization has an employee recognition problem.
The last employee engagement survey showed an average of 64 percent for all the recognition statements on the survey. Participation levels with the usage of your online recognition programs are inconsistent with leaders and employees across the organization.
Open-ended feedback from employees tells you that many employees just don’t feel valued and appreciated.
Something has to change. Where do you begin?
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I conducted research a few years back on employee recognition across the public sector in North America, for both the U.S. and Canada. This Survey Findings of the Effectiveness of Employee Recognition in the Public Sector revealed some interesting insights on the role leaders have with recognition programs.
Nothing drives cultural practices better than exemplary leadership from the top. Managers who responded to the survey said that 93 percent of them reported senior leader involvement in recognition programs was very or extremely important. The large majority, or 75 percent, said they were extremely important.
As to the actual involvement of senior leaders, only 21 percent were very involved, with another 53 percent being somewhat involved.
One could surmise leaders play an important role in recognition programs. Yet, what exactly can they do that makes such a tremendous difference?
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Online recognition programs are websites acting as a central platform for a variety of recognition and reward programs. They allow everyone in an organization to express their appreciation, say thanks to folks, and give recognition for the great things people do at work every day.
Those with permission can also give people rewards, whether tangible, monetary, or experiential. You give rewards to people for going above and beyond normal work expectations and when excellent performance occurs.
What can your recognition programs tell you that you’re not tapping into?
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Too often we rely on lines from Hollywood movie scripts that say things like, “If you build it, they will come.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t work very well when it comes to recognition and reward programs.
Look at the following ideas to consider when you want to engage all, or more of, your employees in using your recognition programs.
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It seems not enough organizations hold their leaders and managers accountable for giving meaningful and effective recognition to their staff.
These same organizational leaders ask why responses to recognition questions on the last engagement survey did not turn out so well. It is as if it surprised them to see these low numbers. Surely, they would have expected these numbers if leaders regularly connected with their direct reports.
Their problem was they did not hold leaders and managers accountable for recognizing their employees.
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Leaders often barrage their managers of recognition with criticism over a lack of participation and usage of their organization’s employee recognition programs.
Naturally, not all organizations have participation problems. Some are exemplary. They have fought hard for that position. It did not come about easily, nor did it happen overnight.
But never let those who do not understand the intricacies and gifts of what it takes to make recognition happen, believe that they are the “real” recognition givers and know exactly what it takes to get full participation with recognition programs.
Instead, remind them that first things must come first. Teach them how to give recognition one-on-one, whether in person, or by all the communication methods available to them
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Do you have leaders in your organization who can inspire others to be a great recognizer of the people they work with?
It makes such a difference when an organization has at least one inspiring leader.
I am going to share with you tips and ideas for helping your leaders inspire their direct reports to become better recognizers of their employees.
You might use these ideas as recommendations to share with leaders, as content stimulators for articles you write, or as objectives for educational content.
Dive into inspiring others to become better recognition givers.
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Holding people accountable for giving effective and meaningful recognition brings together something good—recognition—with something uncomfortable, like, accountability.
It takes courage to deal with the conflict of holding people accountable. And courage is exactly what good management requires.
Follow these accountability steps to move the dial on recognition giving.
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This post was originally written for Incentive Magazine back in 2010. It’s amazing what can happen in a decade, with so many work from home employees due to the pandemic. Naturally, this only applies to knowledge workers, certain professionals, information technology, and other office workers able to perform most of their job functions at home.
Addenda are made when needed to comply with our current pandemic health prevention or restrictions.
Managing people who work at a distance from a company office is a far different situation than managing those we work with in person. Rather than trying to manage a remote worker the same ways as you would someone in the next office, try these top 10 ways to build trust, inspire confidence and recognize your remote employees.
Recognition Reflection: What practices have you started doing to better appreciate your new “work from home” employees?
Roy is no longer writing new content for this site (he has retired!), but you can subscribe to Engage2Excel’s blog as Engage2Excel will be taking Roy’s place writing about similar topics on employee recognition and retention, leadership and strategy.