The best company cultures and most successful businesses both empower and recognize their employees.
Employee recognition is the act of acknowledging and celebrating an employee’s accomplishments, hard work, and day-to-day contributions.
The importance of recognition programs is undeniable. Recent employee recognition statistics show that these programs brought positive impacts to the work culture of 83% of surveyed companies. A strong company culture can be a key factor in why individuals choose to apply for job opportunities, invest in the company, or even become clients.
Throughout my nearly three-decade HR career, I have worked with over fifty employers, from startups to corporate 100 companies, including my own consulting firm. I have witnessed the good, the bad, and, yes, the ugly.
I am grateful for all of these experiences, as each taught me unique business lessons for building a culture of appreciation. I have been able to maximize the value of these lessons for businesses I have supported.
In some of the prior companies I have worked with, there was a belief that HR was responsible for creating a positive culture and employee experience. I can recall a time when my personal performance review had a goal tied to the company's culture.
Engagement metrics were in place related to employee retention, employee and manager satisfaction, manager feedback regarding the quality of hires as it related to the performance of the newly hired employee, etc.
I remember this because it was early on in my career, and I felt this incredible weight on my shoulders to make the organizational culture the best it could be. If there were concerns with the metrics the company identified, my performance and hard work would be in question. It was then that I started to really look at what impacted a company's culture.
I remember thinking it was not fair that I was solely responsible for this. Some colleagues told me that life was not fair and that I was immature in my thinking. But honestly, this is one time when I really can say, even looking back, that this really wasn’t fair—in fact, it was absolutely absurd.
Employee Recognition Creates a Company’s Culture, Not HR
Culture is a shared responsibility among team members. Too many variables come into play to believe that certain metrics fall on one person or team.
While Human Resources may drive some of the initiatives, workplace culture needs to be supported from the top down and requires participation at all levels.
Employees’ contributions and acceptance of recognition create the culture. And I can’t emphasize this enough… creating a culture of recognition requires the buy-in and support of senior leaders who genuinely care for and respect their employees.
A successful culture of recognition will only prosper if managers embrace, encourage, and actively participate in cultural initiatives, including any change management that needs to take place. I learned that it was okay to respectfully challenge beliefs on culture and where responsibility should fall. I supported my thoughts with facts and professional experiences.
Employee Recognition Program Best Practices
Starting any new program can feel overwhelming. With recognition and employee rewards programs, it is okay to start small. In fact, it may be better to start small so you can carefully build the program's momentum and determine what is and isn’t working as it progresses.
The Plan: What Milestones and Achievements Are We Recognizing, and How?
Depending on a company's budget, geography, and size, there are many different options and types of employee recognition, rewards, and tools to consider. You’ll also need to establish a guiding set of milestones and achievements that would trigger a form of recognition.
Some modern employee recognition program ideas include birthdays, work anniversaries, years of service, and goals reached. Additionally, you can choose to recognize creative achievements, rights of passage, and general good work that is unique to your industry or organization.
The Goal: What is The Intention of Implementing Our Employee Recognition Program?
When I was the Head of Human Resources for a healthcare organization, I discovered three universal culture drivers that, to this day, I believe employees not only desire but deserve.
These are to be cared for, respected, and well-informed.
At the time I made this discovery, I was presenting my employee engagement action plan with findings from a recently completed employee culture survey to the leadership team. Several speakers were before me, and the agenda began with comments about patient satisfaction.
As I listened to some of the challenges with patients, I started to make some parallel observations on how employees were feeling about the way they were being treated.
I was a bit taken aback as I thought the patient satisfaction conversation had jumped to my employee survey feedback insight. The points raised were identical! I could not help but chime in and ask how or why some of my findings were being discussed as the engagement survey was confidential.
We all looked at each other confused for a moment. They shared that the insight was from a recent patient satisfaction survey. It was then I realized we had two different surveys going on at the same time, but patients and employees had the exact same concerns and ultimately, needs, which were not being met.
I realized that what clients and patients wanted was true of employees, vendors, etc. Everyone wants to be cared for, respected, and well-informed. Ultimately, all of these themes are essential for any relationship to thrive. From that point forward in my career, I worked to embed these themes in all of my employee recognition ideas and in my personal life as well.
Striving for employees to be cared for, respected, and well-informed will only enhance the chances of a high-performing, positive work culture.
The Practical Execution: What Types of Employee Recognition are Happening in Our Organization?
Companies can categorize employee recognition in many different ways. While a more serious approach may be preferred in some initiatives, remember that employee recognition can and should be fun.
There are endless ideas for in-person and virtual events for remote employee recognition. At a high level, there are three main types of employee recognition as seen and described below. For employee recognition to be most effective, you need all three.
Types of Employee Recognition in the Workplace
In essence, there are three different types of employee recognition: top-down (from leadership to employees), bottom-up (from employees to leadership), and peer-to-peer. In each instance, there are tiers in which the recognition should be given. These can also be tied to the types of employee rewards you offer your team.
Formal Recognition
This type of recognition is typically managed by a Human Resources or People Operations team. It is typically centralized to provide more structure and consistency in certain recognitions. Examples of formal recognition include employee awards for tenure, teamwork, service milestones, and contributions to company culture.
Many times there are formal events associated with this type of recognition, making it a form of public recognition (recognition that happens in front of peers).
By nature, formal recognition is infrequent—reserved for year-end parties, quarterly gatherings, or a small ceremony to announce employee of the month. For that reason, it can’t be the only form of recognition your people get.
Pro-tip: Having an employee recognition event checklist is always a good idea! Performance reviews are another great vehicle to tie in cultural initiatives company-wide so that everyone is measured and accountable for culture.
Informal Recognition
Informal employee recognition may have some general guidelines associated, but it tends to be a bit more relaxed in structure. For instance, the execution could be varied by location or department.
Examples may include Spot Awards, a handwritten note to a direct report, employee shoutouts on your social media accounts, intranet board thank you’s and announcements, site-specific contests, etc.
A big part of this type of recognition is peer-to-peer recognition (recognition within the same rank). Your team must have the means to give shout-outs and praise to their colleagues at any time, both privately and publicly. Dedicating a Slack channel to recognition is an easy and highly accessible way to achieve this.
Alternatively, some modern employee rewards and recognition platforms such as Matter now offer peer-to-peer recognition right within users’ Teams or Slack.
Day-to-day Recognition
This is the least formal type of recognition but equally important as it comes from all levels and every employee. Day-to-day recognition is ingrained in how people treat each other in your organization.
Prime examples are thanking a colleague for their help, congratulating the sales team on landing a new client, and general verbal praise for good work. As a part of your company values, leadership sets the tone here.
From a verbal appreciation word to a thank you note, culture needs both informal praise and formal recognition.
Bear in mind that, while it is easy to recognize your best employees on a regular basis, everyone plays a role in the organization’s overall success, and is therefore deserving of positive feedback. Don’t let an introverted staff member or unsung employee’s great work go unrecognized.
Getting Started with Your Employee Recognition Program
Before initiating a program, it is best practice to send out employee surveys to gauge interest and determine the best types of rewards, activities, etc. based on what your employees enjoy. You can start by suggesting some recognition ideas to see how these resonate with your team.
Fortunately, many tools are available for companies to create surveys for free (examples include Survey Monkey and SoGoSurvey).
Establishing a work environment focused on recognition is a great way to boost morale and employee motivation. While monetary rewards are appreciated, recognizing someone for going the extra mile does not need to break the bank.
Culture committee ideas can be creative. Consider:
I have also seen how employee assistance programs can tie in nicely with these types of initiatives.
How to Choose the Best Recognition Programs for Employees
In a manual recognition program, a work anniversary or other employee achievements can easily be overlooked. Fortunately, effective employee recognition platforms can bring several benefits to your recognition efforts. These tools make it easier to ensure program consistency and gauge the program’s effectiveness in real time. They support multiple types of recognition (such as peer nominations, social recognition, and private kudos) and can also assign integrated rewards (like gift cards, swag, and other perks) tied to pre-set milestones. Some even offer gamification and mobile access for better employee experience and engagement.
Do Your Due Diligence
The best tool for your organization depends on your unique needs. For example, according to SSR’s tech tests, global recognition vendors like TerryBerry and Nectar work wonders for large companies, while solutions like Mo and Matter are much better fits for small companies.
Hence, it’s important to consider expert guidance before buying recognition software and research recognition program best practices. Additionally, global companies should consider local differences and preferences, communication styles, as well as any tax implications for monetary incentives.
The size of the company, along with short—and long-term needs, are equally important. I recommend that Legal review any contracts when purchasing or subscribing to any kind of software.Many times, hidden fees can add up quickly, or pricing may not be all-inclusive or vary based on the number of employees. This may drastically increase the total cost over time as your organization grows. Also review the tool’s integration capabilities, the length of contracts, the cost of technical upgrades, etc.
Consider the ease of using the recognition program with internal resources versus outsourcing more technical features and customer support. The timing of onboarding and how that works with the billing should be confirmed, especially if multiple modules do not go live at the same time. Companies shouldn’t have to pay for something that they are not fully utilizing.
Prepare for Change Management
Whenever a company implements new software, it is good to get buy-in from IT, Legal, HR, and Finance heads to plan out any potential concerns. Input from all departments is also necessary to ensure that you choose the right HR tech solution.
This is a big undertaking and I have seen companies really fall short in realistic expectations of the amount of time, planning, and resources involved. The key to success is having strong project management, a communications plan, organizational HR tech buy-in, and training.
Some of the softer skills related to culture may require managers' training. It is worth investing in talent development for these soft skills (emotional intelligence, handling difficult conversations with their teams, etc.).
Implementations take time, require resources (typically more than planned), and generally include costs outside of the system. These usually involve people and time.
Have a plan and some faith. A successful employee recognition program can have an extremely impactful and beneficial effect on companies if they are fully prepared to invest in their people and commit to consistency and continuous improvement in the program.
Final Tips and Advice on Employee Recognition
Culture does not change overnight. Building a culture of recognition is a team effort that starts with senior leaders who value and respect their employees while actively participating in programs.
Planning and communication are essential for any employee recognition program to be successful. Companies must be willing to invest the initial work, time, and commitment to building employee recognition into their day-to-day operations.
A positive work culture is one that should be celebrated and shared. Remember, when starting a recognition program, companies should ask:
- Does this empower and recognize employees?
- Am I providing regular and transparent communications?
- Do I have diverse recognition and rewards that offer a sense of fun?
- Are projects and goals tied back to the company’s mission, vision, and core values?
- Are senior leaders actively participating?
There are countless ways to drive recognition in an organization and tools which can support these efforts but all of this is driven by the people in the company.
Done correctly, a company can reap many benefits from their employee recognition program. That’s attracting top talent, reducing voluntary employee turnover, driving employee morale and well-being, and ultimately impacting customer experience, sales, and the bottom line.
