For business owners and managers, one of the biggest challenges in business today is attracting and retaining top talent. A tighter labor market and changing attitudes toward the workplace mean that today’s employees are looking for more than a standard compensation package.
For businesses seeking improved employee productivity and business profitability, the solution to this challenge is deceptively simple. Positive recognition in the workplace can elevate your company culture, engage your staff, and strengthen morale around the office. Recruiting and retaining the right individuals for your staff is easier when you create a positive office culture.
Why Use an Employee Recognition Program?
What matters to employees? It’s more than just a compensation package. While it’s important for employees to be able to support their families, what keeps them on the job in many instances is their relationship with management and coworkers.
Creating and nurturing that relationship should be a top priority. That’s where an employee recognition program comes in. By creating a system in which you recognize your staff members for their efforts, relationships can develop. Knowing that they have the respect and recognition of management can go a long way toward retaining the staff who make your business successful.
Employee recognition is more than the occasional pizza party. It is the deliberate cultivation of a company culture that places value on employee effort and contribution. An employee recognition program can help you to place this acknowledgment at the forefront.
Choosing the Right Employee Recognition Program
The program you use to recognize employees should be easy to understand and simple to navigate. The last thing anyone wants is to make it difficult to recognize an employee for a job well done.
When selecting an employee recognition program, consider these guidelines:
- Does it align with company goals and values?
- Is it appropriate for staff at all levels?
- Will it be funded sufficiently?
- Will the rewards be meaningful and relevant to your staff?
- Can the program adapt to a diverse workplace?
- Are rewards timely in relation to the behaviors they recognize?
- Is the program easy to administer?
- Will the program be subject to regular evaluation?
Careful consideration of these criteria can make the difference between a program that falls flat and a program that has a powerfully positive effect on workplace culture.
Defining the Purpose of Your Program
“Improving company culture” is a noble goal, but like most noble goals, it needs to be well-defined in order to be effective. Improved company culture can take many forms, and it’s important to have a clear picture of what these improvements look like.
When you begin researching an employee recognition program, determine what your objectives are. Some considerations:
- Improving employee motivation
- Increasing productivity
- Streamlining an existing rewards and recognition program
- Promoting a healthier workplace
- Encouraging specific actions (i.e., meeting deadlines)
- Building interpersonal relationships between employees and/or departments
- Generating increased participation in company activities
Once you have defined the purpose of your program, you can begin to determine its goals.
Determining Your Goals
The goals that you define for employee recognition will help you to establish the type of program best suited for your business.
What behaviors do you want to encourage? The actions you choose to recognize will drive the program and influence your company culture. Consider carefully what the desired behaviors will look like. Do you want to boost teamwork? Create mindfulness about time and deadlines? Advocate for employee health? Improve participation in office activities?
How will you measure the effectiveness of your program? It’s not enough to gauge program performance by office atmosphere alone. Knowing how well and how often you are recognizing your staff for exhibiting desired behaviors will help you to fine-tune your program. As the tenor of your company culture evolves, having this measurement will allow you to adjust goals.
How will you recognize individuals and groups? Recognition can take many forms. You can award points to be used toward incentives. Plaques, certificates, and trophies can be part of a longer-term recognition period. You can also encourage staff members to nominate others for recognition. However you decide to conduct the recognition process, be sure that it is appropriate for your company and its culture.
How to Choose
Once you have done the background work of defining the purpose of your employee recognition program and determining its goals, you must choose a delivery method. While it might be tempting to do it all by hand, consider the effort involved in such an endeavor. Manual accounting of such a program, including spreadsheets, can easily get bogged down. Make it easier on team leaders and managers with employee recognition software.
Just as you research software to help your business operate more efficiently, consider these standards:
- Is it easy to use and intuitive?
- Does it operate in real time?
- Is it customizable to my company’s goals?
- How easy is it to set up?
- Can I use it for employees at all levels?
- Does it provide me with metrics, analytics, and reporting?
- Is there a social platform that employees can use?
- Is there a mobile app?
- Does it provide notifications?
Employee recognition software can take a lot of the guesswork out of administering a rewards program. Workplace Rewards can answer each of the questions above and allow you to build a positive company culture, easily and intuitively.
Yes, it’s possible to build a positive company culture using software! Let Workplace Rewards show you how – contact us for more information!