For many employees, a compliment — not compensation — makes all the difference when it comes to feeling valued at work.
Employee recognition is so important these days because one of the main reasons employees leave their jobs is that they don't feel appreciated.
Did you know that up to 65% of employees haven't received any form of recognition over the last year? You can help lower that number by creating an employee recognition program.
What is Employee Recognition?
At the core, employee recognition is just positive feedback. There are many fancy ways to explain why, what it is, and how to do it. But, at the core of its definition is giving employees positive feedback — feedback focused on employee's strengths and what they're doing well!
When digging a little deeper into the definition of employee recognition, we see that there is also an expression of appreciation and gratitude from you and others in the organization towards them. Allowing the team member to see their hard work directly strengthens the team and making their work feel more meaningful and powerful.
Why is Employee Recognition So Important?
The most successful companies know that the more gratitude they give out to employees, the better employees perform. There is an ROI of appreciation in the workplace, as Eric Mosley points out in McGraw Hill.
Employee recognition is so important now in business because it's one of the biggest reasons for employee retention. However, when people work in an environment where they don't feel appreciated or valued, they can become disgruntled and wonder if this is the right company culture.
There are ways for you to foster a new company culture, to bring employees together, bring people together. There are new ways to nurture and strengthen a connection between you and your employees.
Become more human at work, recognize people for their hard work. Be kind.
Main Benefits of Employee Recognition
Make Employees Happier
It's essential for employees to feel happy at work, but employees need to know that they’re valued and appreciated in the workplace. It's such a simple thing that you can accomplish, and you'll reap the benefits for years to come.
Happy employees equal higher productivity.
Improve Employee Retention
According to Gallups, employees who do not feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they'll quit in the next year. As we all know, employee turnover is expensive. You can't always avoid turnover, but you can avoid losing some top talent but creating a positive work culture and recognizing the good that your employees do!
Cultivate a Culture of Self-Improvement
Creating a workplace culture that focuses on personal development can positively boost performance. How can you create a culture of personal development? You create a workplace culture of recognition, and this will help lead your employees to want to develop and refine their skills in order to keep on impressing you!
Boost Employee Morale
Who doesn't love a compliment? Whether from your friend, mom, or coworker. We all love knowing that we are doing a good job. If we don't receive feedback on how we are doing at work, our minds can wander and jump to conclusions. By recognizing employees and providing feedback, you will help boost morale and boost productivity.
Effective Ways to Recognize Employees
Employee Appreciation Day
The last week of every April is Administrative Professionals' Day, where you can take the chance to honor your hard-working administrative assistant with any thoughtful administrative assistant day recognition.
But don't just leave it for once a year, or just for your administrative team. Recognize employees from different departments at least once a month. Choose one day every month that you'll show genuine appreciation for at least one employee. You can even separate departments by month, one department at a time.
Employee Appreciation with VidDay
In a Gallup survey, employees were asked whom did they receive the most memorable recognition from? Here's what they found:
Manager (28%)
CEO (24%)
Manager's Manager (12%)
A customer (10%)
Peers (9%)
Other (17%)
You could quickly bring all of these people together to recognize your team member. Yes, schedules are different — it's hard to get everyone together in one room. But what if there was a way to bring them together at their convenience? It's simple, VidDay will allow you to collect video messages from Managers, CEOs, high-profile clients, or anyone else that you want to include.
Bringing all of the messages of appreciation and support from all management levels will make employees happier, boost morale, and create a stronger sense of self-improvement. The employee you are recognizing will be able to keep the video for a lifetime. Whenever they need that extra bit of motivation, they can go back to hear all of the aspirational words that they need.
Social Media Shout-Outs
If you want to take it to the next level, you can combine Employee Appreciation Day and VidDay Employee Appreciation and shout them out on social media. You can either shout them out with your VidDay video on your company's social media, such as your company's LinkedIn Page or even the company's Facebook Page.
Showing off employee excellence and excellent work culture will help promote your brand with new clients and recruit top talent.
Or you can make it a little more personal and shout them out on your personal social media; LinkedIn is recommended for this. This will add a personal touch, and the employee will appreciate that extra little something.
Be Authentic
Whatever you do to recognize your employees, make sure it comes from the heart. Whether you appreciate an individual's work or the whole team, appreciation only works when it's sincere. Don't just offer recognition for the sake of morale — give it for a job well done, and give it often. People can sense when praise is inauthentic, so really mean it when you're giving recognition.
Giving recognition is just what your office needs for a happier, more productive environment.
Get started on creating an uplifting employee recognition program today.