The Importance of Employee Recognition

What is employee recognition?

Employee appreciation is a concept that has numerous definitions. Some refer to it as a different sort of employee engagement, employee motivation, or employee appreciation. And they are not mistaken. But the true meaning of employee recognition is that, when done right, it satisfies some of the most fundamental human needs, including a sense of fulfilment, accomplishment, and belonging.

Publicly thanking your employees for their contributions is known as employee recognition, also known as social recognition. Recognition and appreciation for employees contribute to a more hospitable and friendly workplace. Employee appreciation is one of the main factors impacting workplace engagement, productivity, and employee retention.

What kinds of actions need to be recognized?

There are many different efforts and outcomes that should be commended. It can involve honoring a worker for something they did with little effort but enormous impact on the company.

It might be something that, despite titanic efforts, failed but yet yielded an important lesson. Or it might have been a regular contribution, but the employee added something special to it.

In other words, the true worth of a worker's labor is evaluated not just by the results they produced but also by the processes they used. Considering this, you might think about praising staff for their efforts:

• That has affected the business outcomes of the organization or team.
• That goes much beyond what is required.
• You want to watch other people imitate.
• That represents the ideals of your business.
• Others are observing and discussing That, otherwise, is thankless.
• Recently, they have received praise, but with a new twist.
• You wish they would perform more frequently.       
• That greatly eases your life.

Importance of Employee Recognition

When workers feel appreciated, they are more engaged, driven, and willing to go above and beyond for their company. A formal recognition program reduces voluntary turnover in an organization by 31% compared to one without one. Additionally, their chances of having effective business outcomes are 12 times higher. If CEOs want to foster employee, team, and business success, they must prioritize employee appreciation.

Impact of Recognition on Employee Experience

We all like to feel appreciated, and psychologists have shown that praise triggers the brain to release the feel-good chemical dopamine. However, from the perspective of an organization, employee appreciation also offers significant and tangible advantages.

Employee engagement is critically dependent on recognition. It's especially important now that many companies are adopting a hybrid work style in which some employees spend the majority of their time working from home. By connecting them to the corporate culture, creating a positive feedback loop, and preventing them from feeling forgotten, recognition can help engage these remote workers.

Impact of Recognition on Employee Retention

Employees that feel deeply connected to the culture work harder and collaborate more effectively, experience less burnout, and are less likely to consider leaving the company.

Simply put, employees who are thanked feel more engaged to your company and are more likely to stick around.

This is so because acknowledgment deepens the fundamental ties that make a culture one that employees want to be a part of. Additionally, staff members are more likely to stick around if they feel more a part of the company culture.

Your activities for diversity, equality, and inclusion (DE&I) are supported and advanced by recognition. Making DE&I a core component of your company's culture has a profound and practical impact on your ability to draw in and keep the caliber of top people that your business requires to succeed. Many, if not the majority, of your most valuable employees place a high value on knowing that a business is genuinely devoted to DE&I.

How might a recognition program promote staff morale and corporate goals?

A social recognition program can boost engagement, productivity, quality, and profitability while lowering absenteeism and employee turnover.

It is real. Numerous studies and vast amounts of research have demonstrated the influence that recognition has on a wide range of important business indicators that affect your bottom line. Social recognition has been shown to promote motivation, drive psychological safety, increase job satisfaction, and retain workers. It promotes engagement as well. Involvement also immediately affects the top and bottom lines through improvements in sales, earnings, customer loyalty, productivity, and job happiness.

So why don't all organizations adopt recognition programs that are based on values? After all, programs based on values are more than twice as likely to be concentrated on supporting or advancing organizational objectives, 33% more likely to concentrate on giving employees greater autonomy, and 29% more likely to concentrate on enhancing the employer brand. On the other hand, projects that are not aligned with values are much more likely to be created as cost-saving measures without any corresponding business objectives.

The survey went further to determine which prizes, if the program is created with related staff awards, have the greatest positive impact.

Employee choice is significant; according to 94% of professionals polled, giving employees points or a certain amount of money towards things they may choose from, including experiences, goods, or gift cards, has a very favorable effect on their motivation. Finally, if a program is integrated with a company's overall people/talent strategy, HR is over 6 times more likely to assess it as great than if it is merely loosely connected.

The best method to design a successful program is to have it become an integral part of the organization's overall people objectives. Employee recognition should be treated by HR leaders as a management practice with significant business impact rather than just as a program.