***Guest blog post by author Reba Webb on employee recognition and reward system
One of the things you learned as a child was that being appreciated and recognized feels good. Some toddlers even want to be the constant center of affection. However, social norms then bring down your expectations to a certain level of rationality.
While people have different motivations when they work, the need to be appreciated is almost universal. Most employees will accept the pay gap and the hierarchies within the organisations, but what they could not stomach is for others to take credit for their work.
There is a direct correlation between recognition and employee engagement. For instance, a Canadian study revealed that nearly 6 in 10 workers think that recognition will drastically improve engagement. For organisations that do not have any idea on how to start, software products such as those available from Redii would allow them to adopt a rewards and recognition program for the employees.
The survey by InSync and the Australian HR Institute revealed that only 22 percent of employees think that their companies are maximising the potential of its human capital. However, 9 in 10 of the same respondents believed that their companies should optimise the use of their personnel.
While software products like Redii allow you to measure the effectiveness of your new pursuit, you can also do it on your own.
Employee Recognition and Reward System
Craft your guidelines
The main difference between a recognition and a reward is that the latter is monetary in nature. Recognition, meanwhile, can be a plaque, certificate, and even a prime parking space, which is significantly better than any performance bonus.
Utilise the help of the HR
Assign your HR to prepare a draft of the peaks and valleys of your revenue performance. Do they align with the period when you handed out cash incentives, performance bonuses, or quota shares? Is there a marked drop in the performance when there is no announcement for cash bonuses? This is also one more thing that you should know.
Review the types of reward and recognition
It will help you narrow down the most effective incentive to keep your employers engaged. In some organisations, for example, remote working has improved the productivity and satisfaction levels of their employees as they can spend more time with their respective families. Is this something that would be applicable to your company?
Draft criteria for the selection of nominees and winners
Make sure to communicate it clearly with all the members of the organisation. Also, encourage all employees to give their inputs on how the system could be improved.
Of course, the most straightforward way is to simply ask your employees whether or not the recognition and reward system works. To do this, you can conduct an anonymous survey, which you can then separate into departments. Then compare the survey results with the overall performance evaluation of the specific department. Do they align? If not, what accounts for the gap?
With rewards and recognitions, the level of expectation for employees in terms of how they perform also increases. It is why you do not necessarily dismiss the program because of the associated costs. The money you spend on the software product for cash bonuses will almost always return to the company in terms of high retention rate, improved sales, and overall satisfaction in the workplace.
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