How to Build a Culture of Rewards, Recognition and Engagement

Culture is a way of life which binds people together under one identity. Work place culture is the environment created by companies to offer the best work life and experience for employees to ensure utmost loyalty towards their organization. The work culture would not be the same for every company as it is determined by the values, expectation, missions etc. of organizations.

The term work culture has undergone a lot of modification since millennials became a decisive influencer at work place.

Companies have started taking an extra effort tocreate best experience for employees along with customers. Organizations have made transparent communication, treatingeveryone with respect, recognizing hard work, conductingfun and wacky events, empowering teamas core values and hence programs that show appreciation for each other’s contributions, both large and smallhave become a key affair in every organization.

Creating a day-to-day experience that offers employees meaning, impact, connection and appreciation in their everyday work hasled to a culture of employee engagement and if culture would always be followed by performance.

Here are 10 ways to foster employee pride through a positive employee experience.

1. Communicate Core Values

Establishing a defined, well-communicated vision grounded in core values —and recognizing behavior that supports that vision —gives employees a sense of meaning and purpose in their jobs. Having leadership communicate core values regularly and clearly builds meaning into the employee experience. Recently, we hosted a Leadership Summit, which was a 1-day session that provided several people managers with key perspectives and resources to deepen their leadership capabilities, empower their teams, and reinforce workday values and culture.

2. Employee recognition

You can’t overestimate the power of appreciation. Glassdoor found that 80% of employees say they will stay at a job longer if they get appreciation from their boss. A Gallup Studyshows that employees who get some form of recognition at least once a week are more likely to stay in a job longer. See our guide on Reward and Recognition Systems that workto get science-based tips for showing appreciation.

Following are the ones that we follow:

●       MakeIt Personal Through Reward and recognition platform - Use positive words andengage the employee to show that you really understand what he or she has done and how difficult the work was.

●       ProvideOpportunities for Each Worker to Contribute: Try to providecross functional training where trainer get points in the RnR platform (Incentivize) 

●      MagnifyRecognition Through Multiple Communication Channels- Town Hall meetingscan be a venue to award all rock star performers

3.Offer Beyond-the-Call-of-Duty Perks

These might include the following ideas:

●       More flexible hours

●       Paid time off

●       Celebration events for teams such as a party, company picnic or dinner

●       Paid training program for earning a certification, developing new skills or pursuing other educational programs

●       Opportunity to work on a special team

●       Motivate with Financial Incentives-Loan facilities

●       Enlist Manager to Recognize Performance

●       Facilitate SELF Nomination & Peer to Peer Recognition

●       Design an Impressive Office Trophy with Gamification Strategy

●       Use Technology and Social Media to Publicize Accomplishments- Enterprise platform

●       LSA: Recognize employee for service

4. Consistent, Timely Communication

Employees have high confidence onhaving open conversations with senior manager and Tools like Connect over Coffee (skip level meetings)with Co-Founders, open houses (Townhall Meeting) and HR connects provide employees with a platform to speak up. Every companiesbelieve in developing our people and have embarked on the journey of talent segmentation to identify high potentials, recognize them and provide them with a development plan to grow their career with the organization. We believe that to build a culture, we must constantly reinforce, reiterate and collaboratively bring to life our values.

5. Real-Time Coaching from a Manager

According to Gallup, managers account for 70% of the variation in employee engagement. Real-time coaching from a manager is one of the most effective approaches for fostering employee engagement. Companies should provideInternal training to bridge skill gap. No one wants to feel stagnant in their job. As companies grow, technology changes, and cultures evolve, most job requirements also change. Offers every employee an opportunity to grow, discover, and expand their personal and professional horizons. Employees should alsobeencouraged to spend 10 percent of their time –called unstructured time to chase dreams. This can include spending time working on a new product, participating in innovation forums designed to share ideas across the company.Also, policieswhich extend moral as well as financial support for employee topursues certificationcourseswhichwillenhance his skill set would be of a great help for employees.

6. Team Environment

When you’re spending 40+ hours a week at work, having a meaningful relationship with your coworkers makes a big difference in your employee experience. Having a supportive team environment builds everyone’s motivation. Organization should celebrate all festivities which will bring everyone under one cultural identity also add some human touch to it by running CSR (Corporate socialresponsibility) Programmes.

7. Culture of Trust

“Business is conducted through relationships and trust is the foundation of those relationships.”

Organization should strongly believe in a culture of openness, transparency, camaraderie, trust and mutual respect and these qualities then naturally trickle down intocompanypolicies and processes. The companies should ensure that every employee should have a similar experience and similar value proposition in working with Lifestyle. The programs that would be instituted at every step of an employee’s journey, right from the time they join the organization, should be intended to delight the employee, engage them and ensure that they can perform at their best.

8. Competitive Pay and Benefits

Even though pay and benefits are not the key indicators of employee engagement, worrying about pay can distract employees. When you’re looking at how to engage employees, start out by offering competitive compensation, benefits, and reasonable working conditions.With a strong focus on employee’s health and overall well-being, companies conduct lifestyle assessment checks, dental/medical/eye checkups, life-skill workshops, stress management through yoga, meditation, panic healing, check-up camps, physiotherapy.Medical insurance for families of employeesare facilitated at no cost to the employee. Parents at Organization can enjoy various benefits such as maternity & paternity leave.

9.Initiatives for women 

“Besides a well-defined ‘Anti sexual harassment’policy which ensures safety and equal rights for women, other initiatives like self-defense workshops, companies should organize self-defense workshop for them.Women should have an added benefit of extended maternity leave, part time/flexible working hours, work from home options and option to take a short-term break in careers.

Employee engagement is about all about valuing your employees. Engaged employee is productive, active and disciplined. It is about time to invest in engagement as an integral part of the workplace.

10.Fun @ Work

Celebrating all Regional festivals irrespective of the language, caste and creed that gives the employees a sense of ones. Implementing CSR (Corporate social responsibility) Programme during Republic Day through contributing goodies for small girls, GO Green Programme- Planting Trees. Plank Challenge which has been done recently through gamification on RNR platform. Internal Sports Tournament - TT, Badminton, Football also on the RNR platform. The activities helps in creating a great and healthy work atmosphere.

Conclusion:Employee engagement is about all about valuing your employees. Engaged employee is productive, active and disciplined. It is about time to invest in engagement as an integral part of the workplace.