We know there is an overwhelming amount of material available about employee recognition, and it’s easy to feel as though you’ve stumbled into a Netflix-themed employee recognition world with new content added almost daily.
This guide will help you to cut out all the noise and focus on getting your employee recognition program up and running, successfully and in no time.
This guide has been specifically written for any and all managers who are faced with the constraints of budget, time and resources and are not quite sure how to gain C-Suite buy-in for such a program.
Together with our partners and their almost 40-year track record of designing employee recognition and human performance solutions, we’ve written this guide to help you get out of the starting blocks and into the recognition race.
When done right, employee recognition leads to a stronger emotional and psychological commitment from the employee to the company. From increased productivity and collaboration to a deeper level of employee engagement.
Employee recognition is a critical tool when it comes to talent management and the creation of an empathetic, inclusive and purpose-driven company. It helps reduce employee turnover, absenteeism and is ultimately able to drive company success.
With this
For the purposes of this guide, we’ve decided to define it as follows:
Employee recognition is a timely acknowledgement, informally or formally, of a person’s actions or behaviours that are above and beyond standard performance and support a company’s values and goals.
This can be expressed in various ways such as emotional, intangible, symbolic, or a tangible award or reward.
For companies, it helps to create a high-performance culture by aligning their employees to their strategic plan. There is a strong focus on driving innovation and
To feel appreciated is one of the most important human needs. It shows that our work is valued and when this happens we are motivated to repeat positive behaviours to retain this sense of value or go beyond that last performance.
Can you remember how you felt in school when a teacher praised you for doing good work? Do you remember the sense of accomplishment in receiving that exclusive gold star? For your classmates, it became a driver to attaining a gold star themselves.
It’s no different in the workplace. Employees want to be acknowledged for their contribution and saying ‘thank you’ when it matters can mean the difference between an awesome company culture and a broken one.
When employees feel appreciated you’re essentially investing time into their existence, and by virtue of that, they’re going to invest in you. This can take the form of increased teamwork or collaboration, that leads to a better employee experience that ultimately leads to a better customer experience.
This creates a positive and productive work environment in which your employees will want to put in discretionary effort to assist the company in realising it’s goals.
Recognition satisfies a person’s desire to feel valued and motivates us to repeat a behaviour where acceptance is high. In the workplace, recognition provides employees with the dots to connect their contribution with the company’s vision - the bigger picture.
For an employee recognition program to be successful, there are a few must-haves that should be met;
When you recognise your employees it’s important to be specific about what behaviours or actions are being appreciated and rewarded.
This is the key to ensuring repeatable positive actions and behaviours that you want to reinforce.
The more specific you are with what you desire to see from them, the easier it is for your employees to understand which contributions are valuable to you and will help you align their behaviours accordingly
Short story:
Krista is a contact centre operator and she noticed that a client was being charged for a service that she wasn’t getting and reversed the billing transactions, much to the client’s delight. As her manager, you could send her a quick thanks: “Hey Krista, great job with the client last month.”
While this acknowledgement is definitely valued, something specific could have more impact e.g.: “Hey Krista, great job catching that billing error and resolving it so quickly. Our contact centre needs more efficient employees like you.”
This style of recognition details to Krista exactly what matters to her manager in terms of her performance. Now that she is aware of this, she will actively search for opportunities to repeat this type of behaviour
We know that work and life
It should be given as soon as you observe an employee display a positive action or behaviour towards reaching team and company goals. Recognition that’s infrequent increases the possibility of employees feeling unappreciated.
To help with frequent recognition, many companies today are implementing employee recognition technology, like bountiXP, to make it easier for employees and managers to recognise other employees’ contributions as it happens.
Short story:
Desmond is a hard worker, he’s always timeous, he delivers on whatever task he’s assigned, consistently throughout the year. Each year at the company’s quarterly awards gala he is recognised as a conscientious worker and awarded in front of his peers. While it’s great that Desmond’s employer recognises him at the quarterly awards gala; is Desmond motivated to continue to be a top performer every day?
Not really because there’s no driver to keep him performing on that level if he’s only recognised for that one thing, that one time.
Imagine if Desmond’s employer recognised and/or rewarded him each time he delivered during that quarter.
Do you think Desmond would feel valued?
On-the-spot rewards and real-time recognition encourages intrinsic motivation.
It also helps Desmond understand what behaviours you really value, and how that was able to lead him to continue going above and beyond a standard work performance.
If you want effective, impactful employee recognition it must be timely.
Timely recognition has the most impact! With each day, week or month that passes, employees forget the context of the recognition, causing less impact and meaning.
Delayed recognition also results in employees not fully understanding how consequential their actions were.
In acknowledging your
Short story:
Jill is an events manager who has a big event with complex logistical requirements to pull off in record time. For weeks leading up to the
The day of the event everything goes according to plan and is dubbed the event of the year!
At the event and the following day at the office, Jill’s manager doesn’t say anything to her except for: “Jill the client has just briefed in another event, we can brainstorm about it later.” A week goes by, then a month and Jill is already juggling three more events and still no ‘thank you’. One of these three events Jill is planning is the company year-end function. The event is going swimmingly and to Jill’s surprise, she is awarded
For months poor Jill has been agonising over not been thanked by her manager, to the point of re-subscribing to job portals. Whilst she was certainly appreciative of the big, unexpected performance bonus she received, the undervalued feelings she felt resulted in her disengaging from her company over that period.
Ever gone into a manager’s office and he/she expressed thanks for a job well done only to relay the story to your nosy colleagues who were prodding,
It always turns out to be a ‘you-had-to-be-there moment’ because you can’t describe your feeling valued and they weren’t there to soak up the recognition with you. So it just becomes a ‘you’ moment, not a shared one.
Recognition done privately is effective but recognition done in a public setting amplifies its impact. It gives other employees the opportunity to understand what behaviours employers value, it allows them to engage in the recognition conversation and motivates them to act or behave in the same way in order to receive this recognition for themselves.
Short story:
Justin is a web developer at an agency who has just launched a ‘bright ideas’ campaign to all employees to drive innovation
Justin thinks it’s a great opportunity to brainstorm ideas to automate processes for greater efficiency. He comes up with an idea to automate a component of his company’s contact centre client interaction process.
His idea is chosen and as a direct result, he saves customers several on-hold minutes waiting for an operator by directing them to self-service options.
Justin’s manager calls a staff meeting and thanks him publicly for his forward-thinking idea and details its impact on the company’s customers and in the broader scope on the company
This does two things: Justin now knows his idea was valued and his colleagues’ are prompted with an opportunity to innovate themselves.
That being said, consideration must be given to different employee personality types: extroverts and the introverts.
Introverts and extroverts operate differently in almost every setting and the workplace is no different. Extroverts thrive on open plan office layouts and face-to-face meetings while introverts prefer a desk in the furthest corner and prefer email or Slack as their go-to ‘online meeting’.
Now just as these personality types have different approaches to work, the way they want to be recognised differs too. Extroverts will relish public recognition while introverts might prefer a quiet one-on-one discussion with their manager for a job well done.
To this end, it’s important to understand that public recognition isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach and should be carried out with discretion and careful thought.
Top tip: Values-based, employee recognition platforms, like bountiXP, are perfect for both extroverts and introverts. For extroverts it’s like PDA (Public Displays of Affection) at work - everyone can see it and they’ll love you for ‘calling them out’ for doing great work. For introverts, employee recognition platforms work well because, although they’re being recognised publicly, the message is sent via the platform making it more private and there’s less on-the-spot pressure than a public ‘thanks’ in front of a group of colleagues.
We have covered a lot about employee recognition; so where do incentives fit into the scheme of things?
Let’s compare the two and see if we can clarify this for you:
| Recognition | Incentives |
|---|---|
| After the fact | Before the fact |
| Objective and subjective behaviour and criteria | Objective targets and measures |
| Ongoing, long-term initiative | Time-bound |
| Element of surprise | Known reward |
| Unknown and known frequency | Known frequency |
| Frequent | Infrequent |
| Emphasis on psychic value | Emphasis on tangible value |
| Intangible reward primary | Tangible reward primary |
| Tangible reward secondary | Intangible reward secondary |
| Values-based and results-based | Numbers-based |
| Focused on many | Focused on elite few |
| Cause and effect link more removed | Direct cause and effect link |
| Value through cultural impact and employee engagement | Objective value through improved performance |
are more applicable in instances when we want to encourage specific sales goals, for example. Its limited to a group of people and happens less regularly than recognition.
is meant to include everybody and doesn’t only focus on a select few individuals or departments.
It focuses on everyone’s contribution and creates a recognition culture rather than a
Did you know companies that excel in employee recognition are 12 times more likely to have strong company outcomes?
Global recognition reports, employee recognition studies, motivation theories, behavioural science - whichever of the evidence you choose to consult, the link between employee recognition and company performance has been proven!
No matter what on-trend term is used to explain employee recognition, we’ve known for years that how we treat people will set the tone for how they treat you and your customers.
The reason for this is simple... Employees are people, they’re human and as
Even if you haven’t ticked all the employee recognition boxes in your company yet, don’t worry, the fact that you are reading this guide means you have made a start, and that’s the key.
Too often companies become so consumed by the fact that they have an engagement problem, that what they haven’t realised yet is they really have a culture problem.
Employee engagement is not a destination. It’s a journey.
On this
Companies can’t function without the emotional and psychological commitment of its employees. Much like companies appraise employee performance, employees appraise the companies’ performance. If companies don’t meet the employees’ basic human need - to feel appreciated - they risk being ‘fired’ - with all costs for the organisations’ account.
Many companies have been using employee recognition for years but generally only celebrating tenure in the form of work anniversaries.
To really drive company results; it’s important that companies not only recognise employees for ‘hanging around’ but to start building a culture of recognition where employees are recognised and rewarded for values-aligned behaviours that translate to meaningful contributions towards company success.
In the midst of the disruption, companies are hastening to find the route to employee engagement, because inch-by-inch, day-by-day they’re starting to realise that their employees are in fact their customers, and demand to be engaged.
The benefits of an engaged workforce cannot be overstated.
Employee engagement is positively correlated to core company results and continues to be linked to critical company outcomes such as profitability, productivity, employee and customer retention, quality and safety. We can’t think of a company that wouldn’t want to improve those key goals.
Recognition is highly correlated
Other studies conducted, support these findings, indicating that companies with active employee recognition programs have more engaged teams with lower voluntary turnover and experience positive increases in customer satisfaction!
Fact: Employee recognition catalyses employee engagement to drive company performance.
Even if you’re an employee recognition
In its most basic sense, employees don’t feel valued. They are disconnected and misaligned from their employers’ vision and values, and as a result, are not motivated to do their best work.
You’re paying for this lack of commitment, every day!
Each day that you don’t recognise and reward your employees for exceptional performance, you miss the opportunity to innovate and compete with industry players.
You lose the chance to benefit from the discretionary effort made possible by engaged employees. As a result, you could witness a decrease in customer satisfaction, sales and a staggering increase in employee absenteeism and turnover.
Recognition is considered to be one of the most impactful drivers of employee engagement. In these times of instability, disruption and automation, business leaders are realising that having a high-performing, results-driven workforce is critical to their success.
While gold watches worked in earlier times today’s multi-generational workforce demand an in-the-moment acknowledgement of their efforts. They want the recognition and they want it now; favourably full-feature platforms such as bountiXP can do that in real time.
| Generations in the workforce | |
|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 |
| Generation X | 1965-1981 |
| Generation Y (Millennials) | 1982-2000 |
| GenZ | 2001 - TBD |
Recognition is a fantastic way to show your employees that you care about them and value their hard work. It boosts confidence and a willingness to collaborate and evokes feelings of pride that turns them into brand advocates.
This, in turn, is great for your employer value proposition; particularly when you need to attract and retain top talent. For your company, it results in decreased absenteeism and turnover (and the costs associated with hiring and training new recruits) and increased innovation, productivity, teamwork and bottom-line results.
Now that we’ve established the wins for your company and employees when you implement a recognition program, what are some of the outcomes that you want to achieve from this program?
According to a
Other goals in the survey included overall drivers such as: encourage employee loyalty, support a culture of change, provide
Now you understand what recognition is all about and how it translates to business performance and why it’s necessary to build a high-performing company.
So how do you choose an employee recognition program that suits your company and its goals?
Don’t fear we have you covered.
Companies need to design recognition and reward programs that appeal to a multi-generational workforce... We hear you, ‘it’s those Millennials again…” The fact is that Millennials are disrupting things at the office but the truth is your boomers are retiring, so incorporating Millennials is crucial.
It isn’t difficult to cater to
We know what you’re thinking…
It must be easy to administer,
But there’s more, so let’s add to that
A strategic employee recognition program is built around elements that are proven to achieve great business results.
It can be used as an effective leadership tool and to align employee performance to core company values through the reinforcement of positive behaviours that support your company goals.
Recognising employees is a great way to really live out your company values.
The key to a successful employee recognition program?
To have values that encourage positive actions and motivate your employees to perform in alignment with those company values.
Companies speak toward values, but often they never really define them adequately. They express belief in their values, but their employees never really know what the old “values wall” in the boardroom means.
If you want your employees to behave in ways that support your company’s overall goals then you need to help them truly understand what your company values are and what they mean on a daily basis.
How many of your employees know or are able to list your values?
The word ‘value’ means worth. For companies - some value creativity over accountability, others value safety over results. A Google search will tell us that values are:
A set of
“...beliefs of an individual or group in which they have an emotional investment, for or in favour of something…”
Are you starting to see why it’s important to have defined values for your company?
In your workplace, it should provide a framework that guides you in your daily contributions and to ultimately satisfy your company’s needs.
Even if your company’s needs differ for all its stakeholders - shareholders, customers, clients, employees. This then ties back to the fact that the needs require an understanding of people, and people are human. How they behave = human behaviour. So central to developing a differentiated set of values for your company is the understanding of human behaviour.
Values are able to justify these needs for individuals and companies. For companies, it could be defined as a need for sustainability, competitiveness and profitability, but that won’t motivate your employees will it?
However, when employees behave in alignment to those core values where timely, detailed recognition is given publicly, your employees are able to connect with these values and understand what behaviour is needed to attain that.
Just in case you were wondering... ethics aren’t values and values aren’t ethics.
Values provide strategic direction to help stakeholders understand how things are done. Ethics offer a system of morality - the what’s right and wrong parts of your ecosystem.
Recognition that’s linked to your core values will ultimately drive the right employee behaviours. That’s why it’s imperative to have a values-based recognition program to ensure you can measure how your employees live the values, the culture and display positive behaviours. A recognition program that’s not linked to those values can be a wasted opportunity to engage.
Values are powerful, they are the true way of defining positive behaviour. As humans we have fingerprints, companies have values, which are unique only to your company.
A mission statement answers, “What are we doing today?”.
The vision statement answers, “Where are we going?
The values answer, “How do we behave around here?”
Did you notice that the answer to the values question could mean that if your employees don’t understand this, they’re less likely to perform as you would expect them to?
It’s therefore crucial for you to define your company values and spend some time aligning this to specific behaviours (we touch on some behavioural ideas a little later).
Companies are considered to be aligned when strategy and culture underpin each other. This ensures that the values mutually relate to the company goals and your employee's actions complement their tasks.
Short story:
The role of connectedness in motivation
Are you building a cathedral or laying bricks?
There’s an old story about three bricklayers, each one of them was asked by a passing tourist what they were doing...The first bricklayer answered slightly agitated, “I’m laying bricks’. The tourist proceeded to ask the second bricklayer what he was doing to which he replied: “I’m erecting a wall.” The tourist then moved on to ask the third bricklayer what he was doing. The third bricklayer beaming with pride eagerly answered, “I’m building a grand cathedral.”
The message in this story can be carried out in companies today.
Alignment with company vision, being connected to a bigger purpose motivates employees to perform above and beyond.
Because the bricklayer was able to see the bigger picture, he was motivated to continue and inspired to find solutions to any obstacles that he was presented with. Employees who are aligned to a company’s values, vision and mission enable them to foster deeper connections with their peers and the company at large.
To inspire exceptional performances, collaboration and engagement amongst your employees, you have to develop a solid recognition strategy for your company. This strategy needs to clearly communicate the objectives for all of your company’s recognition initiatives.
A recognition strategy that’s meticulously mapped out will help you to easily assess the effectiveness of your program. This will also help you to better align your employee recognition and rewards efforts with your strategic business objectives and, of course, employee expectations.
When you create your recognition strategy you’ll need to identify program objectives that provide various opportunities for your employees to be recognised and rewarded.
A well-documented recognition strategy starts with the end in mind.
Once you understand what your employees need and want you’re able to define the goals and performances you desire.
When you create the link between recognition and results it becomes easier to obtain top management buy-in and support. This will go a long way to help you drive your company along this recognition journey towards success.
At the heart of every successful employee recognition program is a refined strategy. This forms your blueprint and determines the style of
It will determine the core purpose for you
We’ve put together some questions to help you along this process;
– Why is your company wanting to implement a recognition program?
Take a look at the shortlist of recommended best-practice strategic recognition goals to help answer this question:
– Begin with the company’s vision and values – what does your company want to achieve or accomplish?
– Which business drivers is your company trying to impact? (e.g. employee engagement, retention, alignment, performance, values/
– Which company objectives should be supported through your recognition program? This could be things like operational excellence, quality, safety, innovation, customer service and so on.
– What will the specific objectives of your program be?
| Goal | Objective |
|---|---|
| To create a culture of recognition | 70% of managers participating in the program need to successfully recognise employees by the end of the first year of the program. |
| 80% of employees have received recognition by the end of the first year of the program. | |
To illustrate the positive impact that employee recognition has on management and employee perceptions on:
|
|
| Improve employee engagement | To realise a positive correlation between recognition and improvement in employee engagement scores |
Program participants’ eligibility and roles will differ according to the different types of recognition that you will implement. For example, who can recognise versus who can be
Here are some great questions to ask in determining eligibility for your program as well as which teams or individuals will be included or excluded from the program:
– Who needs to participate in the program in order to achieve the strategic goals and objectives? This may vary according to your already defined goals.
– Is this an enterprise-wide program or is it for a specific department of your business?
– Should any employees be excluded? For example; how should suspended employees or employees undergoing disciplinary action or freelancers be included or excluded from your program?
– Are there restrictions in terms of whose
– With the gig economy on the rise, it is important to determine if non-permanent employees will form part of your program or not.
It’s important to mention that employee recognition programs, like bountiXP, are culture-changing and should be viewed as a medium- to long-term initiative for your company. It’s a process that requires, according to research, no less than three years in order to become a critical facilitator of change as it relates to the company culture.
In some instances, it can take up to six years for recognition to become fully entrenched and integrated within an organisation! To this end, your program can (and should) be adapted to suit the changing needs of your company.
Central to the success of your recognition program is to determine how it will be resourced. Don’t let this part scare you! You’re serious about driving change, so let’s do this!
It’s important to understand that in order for your program’s goals and objectives to be achieved, the resources and financial requirements need to be met.
The international guidelines or trends for recognition budgeting and spend as part of a total rewards strategy are as follows:
– According to research done by
» average is 2% of payroll
» the median budget is 1%
» the mode (
Our recommendation is between 1% and 2% of payroll; if extrinsic rewards are included. However, if intrinsic rewards or competition-rewarding methods are used (i.e. a limited number of winners versus everyone has an opportunity to be rewarded), then the recognition budget can be reduced to 0.75% of payroll.
As previously highlighted, recognition programs take a while to become fully integrated into a company and the budget uptake can be a few years.
This is the reason that subsequent years’ budgets shouldn’t be based entirely on the previous
To put this into perspective, a Stanford Business School case study showed that it took a company six years before the full 1% of payroll was being utilised!
Determining your investment
Here’s an example based on 1 000 employees located in a region such as sub-Saharan Africa.
| Average employee annual earnings (ZAR12,500 pm) | ZAR 150 000 | |
| Minimum motivational award (% of annual earnings) (after tax) | 1.0% | ZAR 1 500 |
| Suggested minimum annual awards budget (pre-tax) | R 1 500 000 | ZAR 1 500 000 |
Here’s an example based on 1 000 employees located in a region such as the U.S.
| Average employee annual earnings (USD 3 750pm) | USD 30 000 | |
| Minimum motivational award (% of annual earnings) (after tax) | 1.0% | USD 300 |
| Suggested minimum annual awards budget (pre-tax) | USD 300 000 | USD 300 000 |
According to the Incentive Research Foundation, approximately
Remember, it’s equally important to understand best-practice recognition budgeting as it is understanding why it’s critical, particularly in a disruptive business climate, to invest in your employees.
Reduce costs with an integrated recognition platform: Disparate employee systems and programs
Consider the taxes and beware of hidden costs. Many platforms load expensive registration, onboarding and set-up costs, so find a platform like bountiXP that offers free and easy set-up with a learning centre to self-service your way to recognition prowess. When budgeting for recognition programs please consider the taxation implications for your company and the employee. Taxes will always need to be budgeted for - either within the rewards portion of the program or as an additional provision. As a rule of thumb, we recommend that it be assigned as an additional provision held back by your company and managed on behalf of your employees to alleviate additional taxation burden.
Adhere to best-practice recognition standards. If there are challenges to
Above, all make sure that with every activity and/or interaction you’re building a positive company culture that will drive engagement.
For
With this in mind take the time to really think about the blend of awards and rewards you’d like to implement for your employees. Make it as fun, meaningful and rewarding as possible!
Keep in mind that you’re trying to engage, motivate and reward multiple generations of employees so it must also have intrinsic and extrinsic appeal.
Consider the user experience when designing the redemption process as well and ensure that you detail precisely how the program users can redeem their recognition awards/rewards. When implemented correctly recognition and reward strategies can become powerful engagement enablers that lead to really positive business results.
Not all rewards motivate people in the same way and that’s why we suggest the implementation of both “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation.
Take a look at the below rewards continuum for intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. This is just an example, but take on the challenge of creativity here:
| Day-to-day recognition | Manager’s discretion | Gifts and tokens | Individual rewards | Group rewards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verbal Written Electronic Peer-to-peer Manager to staff |
Info and support Involvement and autonomy Flexible hours Manager time Learning opportunity |
Branded gifts Plaques Trophies Certificates |
Merchandise Individual travel Gift Card Experience awards Points-based |
Quarterly and annual awards Celebrations Parties and events Field trips Travel Team building events |
| Private • Intangible • Informal • Intrinsic |  |
Extrinsic • Formal • Tangible • Public | ||
Successful programs include a wide array of motivational mechanisms to encourage excellent performance and reinforce positive behaviours that align
To optimise motivational appeal you’ll want to consider including:
Intangible recognition: This can include anything from verbal or public recognition to a written sticky note saying “great work” or if you’re harnessing a recognition software platform, like bountiXP, be sure to include the ability to send a “Thanks” for a job well done as part of your requirement.
Tangible recognition: will form a part of your total rewards strategy. This could include rewards like gift cards, vouchers and even incentive travel.
While your budget may be limited, don’t let this restrain your creativity in driving employee motivation.
Every aspect of your recognition program needs to be well documented. This will be an ongoing process. You may want to consider using online documents that can be easily updated should a change be needed. Don’t forget to communicate this process. Just because you updated the recognition document, doesn’t mean your entire team knows this.
It’s important that you create a joint task team for your employee recognition program. This process will involve identifying suitable team members.
Once you’ve done this you will need to clearly define each member’s roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone is on the same page and implementing the program correctly.
Your recognition program will likely have several task teams to ensure its success. These task teams will be responsible for the implementation of your program. They will also be the custodians of the policies and guidelines to ensure that a fair and consistent approach is adopted throughout your company.
Your task teams should meet regularly. It’s recommended they meet once a month to discuss what’s been done and what’s to take place the following month. A process of ongoing analysis and optimisation is important to your program’s success.
There are a number of key stakeholders, including employees at all levels, whose input is required to ensure the success of your program. It’s important to remember this is a collaborative project with some of the role players including:
Behind every great recognition program is a great management team. A team who’s committed to ensuring the success of the program and to drive positive employee behaviours that align with your company’s values and support of its goals.
Through the empowerment of the right people, they should be able to actively manage, support and review the program and its effectiveness.
Some of the responsibilities of senior leadership and management could include:
To actively participate in the recognition program.
Commit to the granular details of program implementation:
You will need to ensure that appropriately skilled people are assigned to manage and support your recognition program.
Managers and business leaders play a significant role in ensuring that your recognition program is properly resourced and that their chosen task teams are empowered to apply their expertise in developing strategy, identifying appropriate goals, objectives and measures for the program.
Senior management will need to allow for enough autonomy to empower your program administrators and recognition task teams to administer budgets, arrange performance celebrations and team-building events.
Top Tip - Your program leaders and
Your recognition task team and management should fully participate and be responsible for the quality and delivery of the program.
They will also be responsible for your program’s continuous process improvement and have the autonomy to adjust the program
They will also be involved in tailoring aspects of the recognition program to meet the diverse needs of the changing workforce across the company.
It will serve you well to apply standard project management practices and methodologies when you’re busy implementing your recognition program.
Not only does this help to keep you organised, accountable and able to gain insights quickly, it also ensures program excellence.
How to effectively measure your recognition program. A statement
Many companies cannot wait to get their companies or various departments running on a recognition program.
Often they end up running with a program that’s not quite holistic and when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of the program, they are often at a loss as to where or how to get started on this.
So to avoid that moment of your heart sinking, because of the amount resources (time and money) you’ve spent to get this program off the ground, let’s get you started on some metrics that you need to be looking at in order to effectively measure both the successes and shortcomings of your recognition program.
Defining your objectives early
Objectives will help guide the specific measurements you need in order to analyse your efforts effectively at the various stages of implementation.
So let’s take a look at the different aspects of what you should be measuring the success of your program on:
Why do we measure program implementation?
This enables us to benchmark the probability of success of your program. The managers who will be directly involved in the running of your program need to have
If they don’t, the likelihood is that you won’t have any measurements of success and your organisation will have lost money in the process.
You will be able to measure the successful implementation of your program through the training that you have run with program managers, the implementation of your communication strategy (which we will help you develop in a bit) as well as the presentation of any awards, events and celebrations hosted as a part of your recognition program.
You could calculate implementation success by working out how many managers you’ve trained to implement your recognition program, how many awards have been handed out and if you’re using technology to aid employee recognition, you can calculate how many nominations and notes have been sent and received.
These metrics will give you a good indication of how successful your program implementation and adoption is working. Most importantly it will provide you with data that will provide insights for continuous improvements.
It cannot be overstated how much you need the right team and managers to implement your recognition program. You will need to ensure the constant training and upskilling of managers to ensure your program’s objectives are always on track to being achieved.
So you’ve started implementing your recognition program. This makes our hearts happy.
Program participation is another key metric on which to base your recognition performance metrics.
You may just be rolling out this program for a specific department, but you will need to know how this specific department is currently performing, before the roll out of your program.
Then once you’ve rolled your program out, measure how many people are actively participating in your recognition program.
How? Well, there are two elements at the crux of participation measurement:
How big is the department or organisation that you are rolling your recognition program out to? That’s exactly the baseline measurement of how many people should be actively participating in your program.
After you’ve begun, you should be measuring employee nominations sent and received, spot awards given and received and thank you notes posted on the bulletin board. You can measure this every 6 weeks or so, in which time you will be able to determine what percentage of the total program participants are actively engaging in the program based on the size of your department.
We will take the same approach
How many managers are sending out nominations, thank you’s or publicly recognising employees for a job well done?
You want this outcome to lie in the middle, you don’t want too many managers and too few staff participating, but you also don’t want managers to not participate at all. After all your managers set the tone.
These percentages will provide insights into the success (or shortcomings) of your program where you can then re-asses, ask questions and make adjustments to your program as you see necessary.
Let’s take a quick look at Disney, they created this thing called #CastCompliment. It works like this: if you’re visiting a Disney park, and have had a positive experience with a cast member, which is Disney’s term for an employee, you’re encouraged to tweet about it. The employee’s supervisor will then retweet the compliment, along with a picture of the employee. Such a great example of senior management implementing employee recognition!
Participation in your program should not be something that’s forced, but rather something that is nurtured from the top down. Your managers ultimately set the tone for how this program will be adopted and accepted.
If you are using recognition software, your managers will need to be the ones to get it started. So start sending out those “thank you’s” and get that live dashboard looking great.
In no time you will have your employees participating to see how it all works.
Measuring employee satisfaction allows you to really benchmark your recognition efforts. But how do you measure employee satisfaction?
Most commonly, organisations adopt the employee satisfaction index known as the ESI.
The ESI is primarily hinged on three essential questions that you need to ask your staff. Real back to the basics stuff. Simply asking.
These questions will need to be asked on a scale of 1-10, where 10 is perfection.
Once you receive this feedback. You will need to analyse this data to give you an accurate measurement of employee satisfaction within your organisation.
The following calculation is used; ESI = (question mean value/3) x 100. The results vary from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more satisfied the employee.
The limitations with the results from this specific methodology
This method, however, does provide baseline insights as to how healthy or unhealthy your levels of employee satisfaction are.
Many organisations use this methodology alongside a more in-depth employee satisfaction survey to yield greater results. These surveys are often used to measure your organisation engagement levels as well as to identify any challenges and/or opportunities within your organisation.
The key to higher success rates of these surveys is anonymity. Anonymous surveys are a great tool for gauging levels of engagement and workplace satisfaction. You will, however, need to make it known
Whilst you can conduct these surveys manually, you’re all about efficiency so check out tools like eValue; it measures workforce engagement and alignment in real time. It can even link questions in the pulse survey to strategic business goals. Tools like this allow for a shared view of your company’s culture, and you can instantly identify gaps in performance, which saves the slog of collating mounds of data manually.
Take a look at some of the survey questions Johnson & Johnson, a company that provides pharmaceutical products and medical devices,
They then use the feedback from the surveys to creatively overcome any major problems employees may be having. You can find 10 more highly engaging questions here.
If you are using these methods of measurement, it is recommended to conduct this survey at least every six months.
This close analysis will ensure your satisfaction levels are always on the up and up. If they’re not, you will at least have insights as to what may be wrong and the opportunity to fix them quickly. Enter pulse surveys.
A recent addition to the survey arsenal
It is short, approximately between 1 and 5 questions long, and is very specific.
Organisations can disseminate them regularly - monthly even weekly - to really zero in on specific areas of improvement within the organisation.
Twice daily happiness index: is used as a method of measuring employee happiness and satisfaction. This methodology uses a set of 1-2 easy questions, one that can be scaled, and one that is open-ended. Companies can tailor these questions to their specific ‘pain points’ or areas they want to zero in on e.g. measuring the success of an internal campaign or newly-launched recognition program.
These questions should be asked twice a day, you can then collate and analyse these answers. Over time these answers should provide you with insights into any trends that may be impacting happiness in both positive and negative ways.
It is an easy, simple measurement method that works well for companies to garner intuitive analytics that can be used for strategic, actionable insight. Companies can gather workplace insights swiftly and identify primary ‘hot spots’ or trends that need addressing. It helps companies to respond quickly and stay ahead of any organisational challenges.
As with all surveys, it is important to ensure anonymity - employees need to feel comfortable sharing their feedback. Above all, share the results. Sharing the results ensures inclusivity - a problem shared is a problem solved.
Tracking the levels of productivity from before the implementation of a recognition program to the levels of productivity you are experiencing during the implementation period, will be a primary metric to understanding all your recognition efforts.
Once you know those statistics - measure them again six months after program launch.
You may consider sharing these metrics with your recognition program management team, so there’s a big picture understanding of where the organisation currently is, which also then as a by-product informs the ‘why’ of the program.
Then reconvene every quarter with the same data and discuss what the differences are with the program in place. These metrics will enlighten management to the
Your program budget is a pre-determined amount per employee. These amounts (USD, British Pound, ZAR - depending on the geographic territory you find yourself in) will be rendered into the relevant recognition currency - points are the recommended currency for your recognition program.
As so often points have the ability to remove any monetary interpretation from your program. Your points can be measured through a metric called a redemption rate. And as such non-redemption of points must be a consideration when budgeting for a points-based program. Remember, not all points issued are used to redeem rewards. Different recognition partners also bill on either a points-issued or points-issued model so it is good practice to fully understand the cost implications and benefits of both points pricing models as well as its impact on your recognition budget.
The redemption rate will enable you to track your program’s performance by understanding whether or not points are being redeemed. If your program participants are actively engaged in your program you should see a rise in your redemption rate as a result.
This should also form a part of your assessment and analysis. It will allow you to better allocate funds and resources for different elements of the program going forward should it be needed.
Interpreting the data from your areas of measurement needn’t be difficult, but it is absolutely crucial to understanding where your program is currently positioned and what your recognition goals are.
If you are using recognition technology, such as bountiXP to help you collate all these metrics, then simply use your available dashboard to frequently keep yourself and all your managers up to date.
So what do all these metrics have in common?
They are all used to determine the effectiveness of your program. Yes.
But what they also have in common is how your organisation can harness the measurement of data effectively to be able to quantify all of your organisation’s recognition efforts as well as determine the effects on turnover, retention, engagement and happiness that it may have had.
Accenture reported that the largest driver of employee disengagement was a lack of employee recognition, as cited by 43% of respondents!
That’s an astounding number. And you don’t need us to tell you what a disengaged workforce does to your bottom line either.
“Train people well enough so they can leave; treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” -Sir Richard Branson, Virgin founder
Zappos runs a number of activities to ensure their employees are always engaged. For example; they have the “Grant-a-wish” program which allows employees to suggest and grant wishes for fellow employees, from help with a website build all the way through to a co-worker looking for a tutor for their child.
An initiative like this allows employees to actively be recognised and rewarded for great work and motivates an increase in productivity.
Now we know how to measure our program, let’s head to how we can develop a communications strategy that won’t let us down.
So you’ve been able to get through the heavily anticipated process of stakeholder buy-in, you’ve worked out how to measure your program as well as creating a brand identity for it.
But, your next challenge awaits you in the area of communication. How are you going to strategically communicate and position your program toward your participants? We get it…
That’s why we’re writing this guide. So let’s dive into building an epic communication strategy for your brand:
Depending on your choice of
The goal with your communication plan should be to communicate the benefits of the program and set out the expectations of participation
It’s important for your recognition program to align itself closely to your organisation’s core company values. This is always a great place to start. Your organisational values form the foundation of your company and the culture that you have subsequently created from that point...more on this in a bit.
Let’s take a look:
The purpose behind creating a brand identity for your program is to ensure that it’s not something that’s easily forgotten.
Start by giving your program a name, you can be as creative as you like here; brainstorm a couple of names, have a logo designed, add the logo to any recognition technology like bountiXP that you may be using, place the logo on your internal emails and any other print you may need as a part of your communication strategy.
This is done to give your program a clearly defined identity that will ultimately create awareness, understanding, adoption and participation.
This brand identity will aid in creating the culture of recognition you’re aiming to achieve within your organisation. This program identity is meant to weave itself into the very culture of your organisation, so don’t skimp on this,
Your organisation has overall company objectives, do you know what they are?
Once you’ve found out what they are, you need to make sure that your recognition program aligns directly with both the core values of the organisation as well as making sure that the program is not hindering the achievement of those high-level company objectives.
A successful recognition program will aid in achieving those objectives, through a highly engaged and productive workforce.
Piktochart is a great example of embodying
They have a team that largely works remotely. They come together once a year to celebrate all their achievements and brainstorm new ideas for the upcoming year. As a part of this process, they adopt a recognition program called Hopeful Awards.
The word ‘Hopeful’ is an acronym for their company’s values; This is used to remind them where they came from and is used to guide them with decisions like
These values help align their recognition strategy as a part of that; the types of recognition received will be for exceptional teamwork, leadership skills or moments of humility.
This process of deeply understanding and embodying your core organisational values needs to inform your program identity and values. This will ensure that you are not creating a program that sits separately to your organisation, where very little overall value is created.
So you know what the process is. That’s great.
Your participants don’t. There’s nothing worse than not knowing, the when and the how. So it’s time to change that.
As a part of your communications strategy, you’ll need to be sure to let your participants know when the program will start, define what behaviours and outcomes will be eligible for recognition and how this program aims to benefit them in the short-, medium- and long-term.
There is obviously so much more that can be added to this list and tailored to suit your
The aim
You’ve provided valuable full picture insights to your program participants, but now it’s time to let them know just how you plan on kicking things off.
There are three areas of communication that are important
Pre-launch can even see the development of training manuals and guides for the select managers implementing the program.
This helps to establish the expectations managers have and provides an avenue to voice any initial concerns or suggestions.
Don’t worry we haven’t forgotten about them.
Sending out informational newsletters and emails to program participants will assist in program interest. You might find that by gathering everybody together for a brief program introduction, where you can define some baseline understanding and really outline the value, would be a significant program promoter.
TOP TIP: Don’t forget to communicate who the program go-to person is - you’ve selected a program leader. This person has indicated that they will be responsible for the effective implementation of the program. They should be fully aware of all the ins and outs of the program, should any participants have any questions or queries surrounding the program, its objectives or even about the software you will be using. They will be responsible for resolving any confusion.
You could gather everybody into a central meeting place, ask a senior executive to prepare a launch speech to create some hype around your program.
You will need to make sure every logistical element is communicated to your participants:
What do we mean?
The implementation, adoption and participation of your program
You need to ensure that your communication with participants as a manager is ongoing. They will need to be constantly reminded about the recognition program and its benefits for them.
Maybe you’re fresh out of ideas in this department. Don’t worry. We’ve put together a short list of ways that recognition can be delivered;
TIP: Recognition does not only have to be outcomes based. You can and should recognise your employees for just being part of
We live in an ever-evolving digital space, so email is not your only go-to here. You could Skype or Zoom for a congratulatory conference celebration, this will feel like you’ve really gone the extra mile for your employee.
Recognising your employees need not be boring. Set your organisation apart with your program by really encouraging your employees to strive for only the best!
Recognition provides employees with
• Recognition software like bountiXP enables you to set up and schedule communications with your program participants, wherever they are.
The ongoing communication strategy is to make sure you don’t lose any of the
Take a look at our beloved Google: The former Senior Vice President of People Operations created what he called a “Wall of Happy”, where he decided to print out all the virtual thank you’s and personal notes that were sent and received using their online recognition platform. He stuck them on a
This is super easy for you to implement as well, and you don’t even need software to get you started. You could place a board up in
Many bigger organisations will choose to use recognition technology to help them properly implement and streamline their program efforts. It’s a fast and immediate way of recognising employees on the spot for a job well done.
Your organisation will need to consider the budget and resources available to the implementation of your recognition program, before deciding on which technology you will be using.
There is a wide range of employee recognition software available to aid successful recognition implementation, such as bountiXP. They have a live interactive recognition dashboard, providing engagement and recognition results in real time.
bountiXP differentiates itself from most employee engagement and recognition technologies in that its very core focus is on the human aspect of employee recognition. They achieve this through their real-time recognition element which enables measurable behavioural change which ultimately drives those company results you’re also looking for.
We know that through effective recognition strategies, rewards and analytics, companies can lower their staff turnover, engage a diverse workforce and track measurable results.
So you have decided which behaviours need to be recognised. These behaviours are closely aligned with your company’s core company values, but apart from just saying “thank you” or sending an email, how do you reward your employees?
You already have a predefined budget for your program, so deciding on your reward mix will be easy enough. Take a look at these ideas:
The rewards you offer can be as creative as you wish them to be. All you need to bear in mind is the person or people that you are rewarding are just that, they’re human, so don’t forget to personalise the reward experience.
There are companies dedicated to developing highly personalised rewards strategies based on your companies needs. Take a look at
The main custodians in creating an environment of sustained recognition will be your managers.
Their awareness, ability and commitment to using recognition on an ongoing basis will determine the success of your recognition program.
The kind of training that you provide your managers with will be dependent on the type of recognition program you plan on running; whether it be formal, informal or a top-down approach. You will also need to take into consideration the resources and budget that have been made available for the holistic implementation of your program.
Training will be both your responsibility and in part the responsibility of the managers that you’re training. You must provide the right resources as well as the perfect environment for the training needs of your managers.
For management training to be successful, you may want to consider the following:
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to training and you may want to embrace a combination of the training techniques listed below, depending on how your managers prefer to do their learning.
Let’s unpack the various methods that you have available to you to train your managers:
Encourage your managers to note recognition opportunities that they have taken advantage of in the past, as well as any that they may have missed out on. These examples can be shared with the other managers and provide the perfect opportunity to foster a discussion on areas that managers may be struggling with and how they can improve upon these.
It incorporates micro-moments of learning to drive improved job performance and development. This learning is delivered in rich media formats such as apps, video and even animation. It’s accessible through devices such as smartphones and tablets.
This ease of use and access means that your employees have the opportunity to learn well, but also quickly in formats that are well suited to their needs.
We also need to look through the skills that leaders and managers should have to make them effective in the recognition process.
These are powerful, yet simple ways to make the people you employ feel valued and appreciated.
Training cannot be a one-time event that only happens during the build up and initial launch of the recognition program. It should effectively only be the first step of a longer-term process.
Regular training is well worth the investment as building up recognition skills within the company keeps your employees more engaged, encouraging them to improve their productivity and quality of work.
An organised training plan will help provide more structure and will also allow managers to know what to expect.
Therefore, before you jump in headfirst, it may be important to take a step back and think about these key areas:
Ongoing training is a great way to determine where your managers’ weaknesses and strengths lie. It’s not only an opportunity to provide more information to managers but it’s also an opportunity to assess how your managers perceive and understand what’s expected of them.
Training your managers to effectively implement recognition will help them become better at coaching their teams to success and also successfully expand the reach of your recognition program.
The fact of the matter is anything new has to be reinforced several times before it becomes second nature.
It’s a lot to expect your managers to retain and apply everything they learnt during the on-boarding training session. They will need to be reminded and knowledge will need to be refreshed (on an ongoing basis) especially if you’re dying to see those positive results.
Of course, in addition to reinforcing old skills, highlighting skills gaps and strengths, ongoing training also presents an opportunity to add a new skill set to your manager’s arsenal.
Sounds like a great idea to us. But hey, human-centred recognition is our kind of our game.
We all love raising a glass, taking a moment to high-five someone or throw a punch of accomplishment in the air. The sweet smell of success and achievement is something every employee, manager and company owner can relate to.
It’s something we should all be striving for!
Seeing we’re all in the same boat here; striving for success, how are these successes celebrated? And how does celebration fit into the objectives and structure of your overall recognition program?
Let’s take a look at the three elements that will form the backbone of your event and celebrations strategy:
You’ve assigned primary program owners - the people responsible for the implementation of your program. As a part of that responsibility, you may want to consider them for the ideation, planning and creativity for the events and celebrations element to your program.
When going through the process of selection, you’ll want to consider the best-fit person/people for the job. You’ll want to harness creativity and authenticity, as you’ll want your program participants to feel genuinely appreciated during the event or celebration.
There will be certain characteristics you’ll be looking for in the person you bring on board with you.
These are only a few of the elements of the type of person you’ll want assisting you in the events and celebrations of employee recognition and appreciation.
So what resources have been made available to the celebration of employee recognition and appreciation within your organisation?
If you don’t know, you need to find out.
You need to plan an event and celebration calendar to make sure you keep up your program momentum up.
Well, It’s going to require a little bit of time and research on your behalf. You’ll need to do some research on the types of events and celebrations that should not be missed by your recognition program.
These are only a few examples of the kinds of events you can include in your recognition calendar. This kind of forward thinking and strategic planning will ensure that you never lose the momentum you gain after the launch of your program.
The key will be to put some real time into this. You will want to make sure that it's highly personalised and contextual to your employees and organisation. It will also need to be specific to the country that you’re operating in. South Africa’s calendar of events will look
The flip to that is making sure to organise special events, maybe every quarter, so roughly, four of these can be hosted in a year leading towards the year-end top event.
These special events can be things like awards celebrations, where you really make the effort of celebrating excellent performance by employees on a quarterly basis.
This requires a fair amount of event coordination and planning. You will need to;
TIP - Don’t forget to send out personalised thank-you notes to all attendees and contributors, but also to any executives that were able to make the event. Appreciation, as we know goes a long way in the motivation of your program.
As a part of your planning process, don’t forget to track all people who were invited against those who actually attended. You will need to record all your event costs from the venue to the cost of food and drinks etc. and any other data that you would like to add in order to showcase the success of your event.
So you’ve hosted your event, and it was no doubt a raging success. But what happens now?
We’ve already touched on some post-event items, but let’s spend some time delving a bit deeper;
You will have hired a photographer and/or videographer, and followed up on when you will be receiving those images/ videos. Once you do you need to make them easily accessible for all the event attendees.
You can also spend some time designing and writing a newsletter mailer that will update the rest of the organisation on the event and the various award winners. You can select a few images to include in the newsletter.
If you had a videographer at your event and you’ve received some great footage, why not sign up for a company YouTube account, where you can place some of those videos? You can also spend some time embedding them into an internal company mailer or webpage.
So what other post-event recognition opportunities are there?
Images should be put up on your bulletin boards. These images can be changed every quarter with new event images. If you are using an employee recognition platform like bountiXP you have the option of loading event information and company wide messages to the platform. This provides a central place for messages to be dispersed.
How do you harness a variety of employee recognition opportunities through the avenue of an event or celebration?
The key here is to harness creativity and uniqueness to provide meaningful experiences that make your employees feel appreciated. You will need to accurately track levels of participation and the overall experience of the events hosted. This needs to be done in order to provide you with a strategy for continuous improvement.
We’re not really expecting you to have an answer, you could just skip this section then ;)
You don’t have to make a major event out of this, but recognising an employee on the date that they were hired and why you’re grateful to them for all their time will go a long way.
Groupon celebrates employees Grouponiversarys by presenting them with a top of the range bright green Adidas jacket. Employees are also able to personalise their jacket with a nickname. They also get star patches sewn on for each year that they’re at the company. This has helped create a sense of team and builds toward a positive company culture.
Your guiding principle is to always remember that you are recognising a highly-valued “human” employee, so make the effort to make it special.
You can absolutely organise a company-wide event with dinner and keynote speakers just congratulating everyone for all the efforts they’ve put into building something epic. It may be worthwhile putting up a plaque in a central place of your building, to act as a reminder and to show off your organisations achievements.
If you pick a cake, make sure his/her name is on it, get everyone together to sing happy birthday - get everybody to sign a birthday card. But here’s the twist, you have to write something genuine about your employee, not just sign your name.
The goal with this is to show genuine care, excitement and celebration with your employee on their special day. These celebrations aid the success and ongoing implementation of your recognition program. Your organisation’s celebrations and events are meant to reinforce positive behaviours, boost morale and increase productivity with an
It is a basic human need to feel appreciated and respected for a job well done. Recognising this at quarterly or annual events may not be enough to give your company the engagement and culture boost it needs.
Make sure that all your recognition and appreciation efforts are ongoing and genuine.
Workplaces change. People change. Companies change. So what good is building a recognition program, if it doesn’t accommodate the changes every workplace experiences?
Gone are the days of traditional, physical rewards like a shiny gold watch on your five-year work anniversary. In fact, Bersin by Deloitte found that tenure based recognition and rewards actually had no effect on organisational performance and did very little to improve staff retention.
Today’s workforce demands ‘moment-centric’ micro-recognition that everyone in their department or company can share in.
Think of your Facebook feed. Linda could have shared that last photo of her pet Labrador in a private message to her loved ones, but no, she shared it on Facebook to all 500 of her friends to get as many likes and comments as possible.
The onus of recognition no longer sits solely on the shoulders of leaders and managers within an organisation. Instead, everyone is now expected to be involved. Adapting and changing recognition programs to match the demands of your company and it’s employees future, needs the understanding that recognition platforms are required to constantly undergo change.
The art of recognising your employees is more of a marathon than a sprint. In order to win the race at the end, companies should be setting themselves up to improve mile upon mile.
A key consideration
You should never stop evaluating the effectiveness of your program. Ask yourself:
Company goals should never be ignored in your recognition program. The sales division of a major corporate company, looking for rapid expansion into the African market, for example, might decide to include a recognition method specifically for new sales into Africa, encouraging and engaging staff to focus on a key area for the company.
The other key factor to consider on a constant basis is exactly what you deem worthy of recognition. We touched on some of these behavioural indicators earlier on, but maybe they’ve changed based on how your employees have interacted within your program.
Consider what impacts an employee’s emotional state of mind and consider acknowledging behaviours tied to your company culture and values, like:
After all, all of these behaviours are directly related to significant moments within your company, like new sales, awards or project launches. Companies are looking to consistently deliver an impact in their respective markets, and that’s exactly what your recognition program should provide for your employees.
According to Gallup, recognition programs work best when senior leadership within a company is actively involved in the recognition program itself, and it’s results. Whilst peer-to-peer recognition is on the rise internationally, the key to maintaining the success of a recognition program remains the buy-in from management.
The added bonus of involvement from management in the recognition program means they will be able to interpret the results of the program far better.
Traditionally the success of a program is based on employee retention rates and any noticeable improvements to a company’s bottom line. Those measurements, however, often take time to reflect and be evaluated.
There are tools and techniques to measure the effectiveness of a program in real time, providing comprehensive views into the likes of:
All of which provide the metrics to calculate what management is often concerned with most; the ROI of the program.
The simplest, and often most effective manner in determining the results of a recognition program, however, is simply to ask. Naturally, you can ask around the office verbally. Free online survey tools such as Survey Monkey or Google forms, however, are easy, quick and cost-effective ways for management to judge the reaction to a program simply and anonymously.
Programs are seldom able to evolve without effective communication.
The trick to effective communication is that it doesn’t work when it’s one-sided, and neither can your recognition program be. During the lifetime of your company’s recognition program, the conversation around recognition itself can’t come to an end.
SHRM believes that the average US company has a staff turnover rate of 19% each year. Deloitte believes that as much as 76% of the millennials occupying South African workspaces plan on leaving their employees before 2020.
Taking time to digest these figures highlights the need for communication around recognition in your company to be more than one
Easy.
Don’t just rely on the traditional company newsletter that few people read. Involve key stakeholders within your company to communicate the changes you’re making to your program, the behaviour management has noticed and why the program is important in the long term.
You’re likely to receive more regular and useful feedback that way too!
So how do you manage and implement the consistent change to your program?
Well, have you ever heard of Agile Project Management?
The concept is not limited to developer teams. In fact, it’s incredibly useful to manage the change and improvement of a recognition program. Short cycles of development for recognitions methods and layers, punctuated by short periods of
The effective construction of your recognition program lies within your strategy, your planning and your level of effective communication and structure implementation. So let’s take a quick look at what we’ve covered:
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