Best Practices for Employee Recognition Programs

Saying “thank you” to employees, co-workers, customers and partners has new caché, especially when it comes to outperforming those who don’t.

For companies that believe in best practices, new research is recognizing “employee recognition” programs for their achievement in motivating people to do their best, no matter where they’re standing on the corporate ladder. Perhaps it’s because everybody loves a winner. Winning makes everyone happy and winners get to talk about it. So do winning companies. Which is why peer-to-peer thanks and recognition is piquing the interest of corporations today. Most of us want to be appreciated and need to belong, and regular kudos inspire us to do more:

• trust and engagement between bosses and employees increase
• employee morale and quality of service improve

In tandem with evaluation methods such as feedback, accountability and goal-setting, employee recognition helps drive the kind of performance that makes companies and their employees winners.

Modern day employee recognition programs have a few things in common:

1. Recognition is based on measured results and specific behaviors –and tied to company values or goals, which starts to create a corporate culture of right action in terms of customer service, innovation, teamwork and revenue.
2. Recognition is social, meaning anyone in a company can recognize anyone else –in a totally public way. In addition to top-down thanks, research shows that employees think peer recognition is a critical factor in corporate success, and can be more meaningful because it’s coming from your peeps in the trenches.
3. Recognition is shared in the monthly newsletter and company blog, creating an environment of encouragement and learning.
4. Recognition is easy to do and happens all the time. Many programs are implemented online, where employees can recognize each other using points and the transactions occur in seconds.

In the corporate world as in life, saying thank you to someone who deserves it gives amazing results. Just think what an award or a plaque might do!