To say that the last couple of years have been rough is an understatement of epic proportions, but finally, we seem to be starting to put the pandemic behind us.
Even so, the future of work in these United States has probably changed forever. If the pandemic has proved anything at all, it is that we don’t need the conventional office nearly as much as we used to. Technology has advanced to the point where working from home is a real possibility, at least for some employees.
One thing that hasn’t changed though, is the value of an employee recognition program.
It used to be the case that if you wanted to improve productivity in the workplace, you simply paid your employees a bit more. A nice raise and you were basically done.
Today’s employees, however, are looking for more.
The two big things they want are recognition and autonomy. If you can give them one or the other (or ideally, both), you’ll be miles ahead of companies that aren’t positioned to give them either.
The good news is that employee recognition programs are incredibly easy to set up and keep running. In fact, the best and most successful recognition programs are designed and managed by the employees themselves, so if you haven’t started one yet, your first step should be to form a steering committee from the ranks of your own employees.
Let them work out the specific shape of the program, designed around the parameters you give them.
Establish a budget and let them work out what specific gifts and awards to buy, and when they should be given—and to whom, again, using your parameters as a guideline and starting point.
This is not to say you can afford to be completely hands off when it comes to your recognition program. You absolutely should be involved and your management team should line up behind the idea and embrace and support It, but as much as possible, let the employees drive the process and give them the ability to help select which employees are most deserving of recognition.
Once the basics are worked out and you actually start using it month to month, or at whatever interval you’ve deemed most appropriate, it’s important to remember that your remote employees deserve recognition too!
This sounds obvious but it’s all too easy to overlook the employees you’ve got working from home. It’s not an intentional slight, more of an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ type of thing, but it is a trap you don’t want to fall into, because if you’re not recognizing your remote employees, then your program simply as effective as it might be.
Study after study has shown that a well-run, well managed employee recognition program will increase employee job satisfaction, reduce turnover rate, and increase productivity. That’s the trifecta. The Holy Grail of improvements, so if you haven’t started a recognition program yet and you’re looking for a way to take your business to the next level, now is the time.