What is employee recognition?

What is employee recognition?

Employee recognition is the acknowledgement of a person or a group’s efforts or achievements that have contributed to the company’s goals and values.

However, it takes many forms, so the definition can vary depending on how you recognise employees.

The importance of recognition

For many CEO’s and business leaders, employee recognition is at the back of their mind, behind all kinds of other important business issues. However, the research suggests that recognition and rewards are linked to increased productivity, lower staff turnover and higher levels of motivation.

The importance of recognition is clear when you consider that not recognising employees could have the reverse effect.

From a HR point of view, the last thing any company wants is high staff turnover and unmotivated, unproductive employees.

The purpose of employee recognition programs

The purpose of these types of programs differ depending on the business. However, typically you’ll find that they’re put in place to increase loyalty and retention.

They’re also typically used to improve performance through reinforcement of positive behaviour.

Low cost employee recognition ideas and examples

There are loads of simple ways you can reward and recognise employees. Some can be as simple as just saying “thank you” more often or introducing employee of the month.

The best employee recognition programs go that little bit further. Putting a little bit more thought into how you reward employees can make a big difference.

Here are 10 low cost employee recognition ideas that you may not have thought of:

1. Arrange a one-on-one lunch
2. Write about the person in a company-wide email
3. Include them in a company newsletter
4. Leave a thank you note on their desk
5. Give them a longer lunch break or let the person leave early one day
6. Show recognition for them at the start of a staff meeting
7. Give them a gift card
8. Send them a thank you letter home
9. Give a donation to a charity of their choice
10. Show appreciation and recognise employees on social media

Your reward and recognition system

An employee benefits platform can be a great place to reward and recognise employees. Not only can it drive engagement with the platform itself, it can make rewarding employees more convenient for everyone.

For example, you could use your benefits platform to display all awards given to employees for everyone to see. You can then notify employees through the platform that they or another employee has received an award, such as employee of the month for example. Rather than just sending it as an email, this could encourage employees to log on to their employee benefits platform more often.

Combining your employee recognition platform with your employee benefits platform makes sense for HR and for employees in tying everything together and creating a better admin and user experience.

When to give employee recognition

Timeliness of employee recognition is crucial. Often, non-monetary rewards are more effective for this very reason.

Where an employee has to wait to be recognised, the impact of the recognition wears off over time.

Typically, it’s best to give employee recognition as soon as it’s due.

The above employee recognition examples give an idea of what scenarios to give employee recognition, but the timeliness of the recognition itself is also key.