Understanding How To Use Your Social Recognition Program

Whenever you see something great happening on the job, besides thanking them directly face-to-face, you can also use a social recognition program to instantly acknowledge your staff online.

Social recognition programs are another tool in your toolbox to better practice giving recognition to your peers and employees. And they help spread the good news of all worthwhile actions happening to others in the workplace because everyone can use it.

Our social recognition program is a great way to acknowledge your staff whenever you see something great happening or when someone reports outstanding performance of a colleague or direct report.

Over 40 percent of companies now have social recognition programs in place. If you don’t currently have a social recognition program you need to get excited about them and become a leading company.

Here are some key points to effectively using our social recognition program:

1. The success of your social recognition programs is in learning to use it often.

2. Social recognition is a great tool for giving immediate feedback and recognition to people. Peers can also add their positive comments along with yours too.

3. Take 5 minutes and go online to acknowledge a few of your peers on your social recognition program to show your friends at work that their contributions are appreciated.

4. Start the ball rolling yourself by sending a genuine expression of recognition to one or two of your employees. Watch as fellow employees commend their colleagues after you’ve acknowledged them.

5. When you have your next staff meeting invite everyone to highlight a colleague online who has given significant help to a co-worker by expressing appreciation to them using social recognition.

6. Suggest employees consider recognizing their peers on a daily basis using social recognition.

Make sure you go on social recognition regularly and acknowledge your staff.

And don’t forget to add your comments and commendation to other people’s recognition messages too.

Recognize someone right now!

The Numerous Benefits of Using Social Recognition

There are many benefits from using a social recognition program.

Since employees work all over the company their actions can impact many but you might not see them right away. Using your social recognition program allows you to connect and communicate recognition as soon as you hear about an employee’s exceptional performance.

Consider the following benefits of using social recognition and what it creates for everyone:

1. It creates visibility for meaningful customer service and other positive actions you want to see more of on the manufacturing floor or in the office.

2. It takes less than a minute to give someone feedback or express appreciation on social recognition.

3. When you and others add comments to positive praise and feedback you multiply the effects of the original recognition message.

4. Social recognition is a great relationship builder and makes visible the wonderful things going on at work that are often hidden from people.

5. Using social recognition encourages staff to want to do better and provides a great lift in positive customer service attitudes and in elevating employee engagement.

6. Recognition is contagious and healthy. Expressing appreciation to others helps reduce stress and harmonizes healthy heart rates.

7. Social recognition programs have been shown to improve the number of recognition messages that employees give and share with one another.

8. Social recognition is a simple and easy to use recognition tool that allows others to comment on great things happening and raises employee morale and motivation.

How Everyone Can Use Social Recognition More Effectively 

Don’t hesitate to solicit your supervisors and managers for input on people going above and beyond with their work that merits recognition. In your regular telephone or group meetings find out who they’ve recently recognized and add your feedback via the social recognition feed.

Some basic advice for more effectively using your social recognition program is:

1. Go on your social recognition program first to establish a positive example for employees and other supervisors and managers.

2. Remind managers that by using social recognition they set an example for staff to use the program too.

3. Employees will more likely see the great things going on from one another more often than you will, so encourage them to recognize one another.

4. Consider how you are doing in both originating recognition messages and adding comments to acknowledge what other people have already posted in the social recognition feed.

5. Take 10 to 15 minutes at the end of each day to consider exemplary reports received or observed positive actions from employees and then acknowledge their contributions using social recognition.

6. Commend a peer on social recognition for how they made a customer’s day or how they lightened the workload for a peer.

7. Send a social recognition message just to lift a fellow employee who is going through a hard time.

8. Spread the recognition around to as many of your employees as you can.

9. Ask managers to express appreciation for staff’s great work and to specifically tell them how they are making a difference.

Your social recognition program succeeds when it starts with you using the tool to help people feel appreciated for who they are and recognized for what they do.

Make giving positive feedback and immediate recognition a part of your everyday actions.

Use your social recognition program every chance you can.

Question: What do you do to encourage greater usage of your social recognition program?

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.