In a workplace, the achievement and hard work of employees often go unnoticed, and it can demotivate and even make them feel devalued. On the contrary, even a small congratulatory note or a ‘thank you’ can go a long way in making them feel appreciated and improve your employee motivation.
A natural human instinct is to expect appreciation and recognition after a job is done well. Now, if you want to increase your employee motivation, you must understand the importance of a strong recognition program for employees.
Statistics show that an organization with a recognition program sees almost 14% higher employee productivity, engagement, and performance than its counterpart.
1. Curate an incentive program
Incentivizing your employees is a great way for retention as well as driving productivity. Incentives can be financial and non-financial. You can reward efficient workers with bonuses, raises, and promotions from time to time to boost their morale and encourage them to keep up the good work.
However, one of the biggest challenges that incentive programs face, can be the bias of leaders or managers.
Therefore, before introducing an incentive initiative, you must plan and define the quantitative and qualitative metrics, objectives, and purpose. Defining eligibility and parameters will help choose the right candidates.
If you want this initiative to be a success, provide your managers with the right tools so that they can recognize and reward the deserving participants. Unfortunately, only 14% of organizations offer any such tool to their managers.
For a more fair selection or judgment, you can also allow employees from other departments to vote for an employee after considering the eligibility parameters.
2. Celebrate diversity
It is high time organizations start adopting principles of diversity and inclusivity for their employees. You should also incorporate the DE&I initiative in all operations to change and celebrate different cultures, gender, skills, ethnicity, disability recruitments, and training initiatives.
To strengthen your recognition program, you must have a diverse workplace. Statistics by McKinsey reveal that gender-diverse organizations are likely to see 15% higher financial returns.
You should also encourage your employees to join with their peers and leaders to develop network committees and employee resources where they can celebrate the shared value of a specific belief or group.
By introducing diversity in the workplace, you will get different perspectives at work, skills, etc. It will ensure professional growth, and eventually, your business can leverage a diverse talent pool for better turnover.
3. Develop a peer recognition program
Often overlooked, a peer recognition program is an effective form of recognition crucial for employee motivation. Peer-to-peer recognition is when employees of the same level or same department appreciate each other privately or publicly for a job well done.
It reduces the pressure on managers as they are not the only ones giving feedback to other employees. Peer-to-peer recognition also improves team cohesiveness because it gives employees an opportunity to feel recognized and appreciated.
It helps in retention in the long run and the employees feel motivated after getting highlighted by their peers. However, in this case, they must also know the eligibility criteria to nominate an employee as an efficient worker.
4. Grant compensations and extra privileges
Compensating is another way you can improve employee motivation. Sometimes, too little or too much pay affects the productivity of employees to a great extent.
A little pay makes the employees unhappy and on the other hand, too much pay can make employees complacent in their work. Therefore, it is necessary for you as a leader to strike the right balance when it comes to granting compensation as a form of recognizing your employees.
Likewise, granting extra privileges is also a non-financial recognition program that you can start for your employees. For example, employees may want to work from home more frequently or might want extra time off on some days.
In each of these cases, if you grant these requests, the employees will feel content and have extra motivation going forward.
5. Opt-in for social media recognition
In this digital era, taking your employee recognition program to social media is a great way to appreciate them. You may have ‘employee of the month’ or similar events at the office.
If you also post about it on company social media profiles, such as on Facebook or LinkedIn, the attention it receives will leave a huge impact on your employees. You can also let an executive tweet about a team member who went above and beyond for a client.
Your employees will be more than happy to receive such appreciation from their seniors, and they can also start establishing their personal brands. Besides recognizing your employees, it will also give you an opportunity to grab the attention of your target audience.
And, who would not like to work with a company that appreciates its employees and recognizes their achievements publicly?
Public recognition not only motivates existing employees but future job applicants will also be motivated to join your team due to the positive message you will send.
If you are looking for more than just a traditional award and recognition program, get in touch with Ovation. This platform offers the best-customized solution to make your workforce feel appreciated and valued through the best possible ways, such as incentives and gamification. Drive your business growth with a motivated, engaged, and productive team of people. We help you empower your people and ensure a higher retention rate.
