The Importance of Employee Recognition

Employee recognition is the open acknowledgement and praise of employee behaviour or achievement. Companies use it to express appreciation and motivate employees. If you regularly give employees authentically deserved recognition, you are more likely to unlock their full potential.?

Recognition can take many forms, and implementing the right recognition program is critical in giving your business a competitive edge. With that in mind, organizations are increasingly adopting and rethinking recognition programs. They’re powerful and can improve employee engagement, reduce turnover, increase productivity, boost morale, and build purpose when used correctly.

These 10 examples will help you to acknowledge the hard work and achievements of your employees:

Say ‘Thank you’: We often underestimate the power of a simple thanks. It is important to acknowledge your employees' efforts and say thanks more often?Try to make a habit out of it and encourage a culture where people appreciate one another.

Award certificates: If you want to recognise a special accomplishment or achievement, hand out certificates. When given out in moderation, certificates can be a great way of helping an employee feel really proud of something they’ve achieved. They can easily be framed and placed on display if an employee chooses. For example, on their desk – if they want to show others that they are proud of what they’ve achieved.

Take staff out for lunch: Not only are staff lunches a nice way to show recognition, but they can also be a great environment for team meetings. Your team members will not constantly be wondering when the meeting will end so they can grab a snack, and it’s a great team-building exercise too.

Professional photoshoot: We highly recommend this gesture. The aim is to capture the employee in their absolute best light so they have a top-quality professional photograph they can use for their professional and personal profiles. This will be good for your image as a company, too. Customers can see top-quality headshots of the employees they are interacting with.

Provide flexible salary access with Earnipay: Money worries are one of the leading causes of unproductivity in the workplace. Give your employees the best workplace benefit. With Earnipay, employees can access up to 50% of their earned salary whenever needed, thereby protecting them from falling victims to loan sharks when they run out of money. Visit earnipay.com to sign up for your company so that your employees can enjoy this benefit.

Provide training opportunities: Think about training courses that will help employees improve in the areas they are passionate about, especially the ones that give an official qualification at the end. Employees will love being taken seriously and the chance to improve their resume; hey, the more skilled your workers are, the better their work will be. Win-win.

Role shadowing opportunities: Employees might be interested in roles that are a little different to their own. While giving them a taste of what such a job might be like, a great way to recognise this is to let them shadow a colleague in that role. They’ll be able to see how other teams and colleagues work without taking a risk with their careers.

Provide a buddy for new employees: It is important to provide new starters with a buddy for their first couple of weeks at work. It just needs to be somebody who has been at the company for a while, knows the ropes, and can show them around, help them settle in, and introduce them to more of their peers.

Organise team-building experiences: Putting together thoughtful and fun team-building activities can be a great way to show your staff that you care about getting along with each other. The right team-building activities show employees that you’re not afraid of them having a good time at work!

Team nomination: A good way to get the whole team involved in employee recognition is to hold a regular nomination for “Team Member of the Week”. Ask the team to vote on who has worked particularly hard that week, and then award a small prize to the winner. If you hold your team nominations on a Friday, it’s a nice positive way to wrap up a week – and the winner goes home feeling good for the weekend.

Takeaway

When employees feel appreciated and recognized for their contributions, they will be more connected to their work, their team, and your organization as a whole.