5 Best Practices for Employee Recognition and Appreciation
- Financial Recognition with Quarterly Bonuses - The recognition employees seek most is economic benefits through bonuses, commissions, or salary increases.
- Shoutout in a Team Meeting - Announce an employee’s recognition in a team meeting. Sometimes seeing your colleagues congratulate or celebrate you makes you feel more connected to your work environment.
- Thank You Card - Not all recognition needs to be a huge to-do. Sometimes a thank you card can go a long way!
- Leadership Role on a New Project - Recognize an employee’s success by giving them more responsibility in areas they’ve proven success in.
- Breakfast or Lunch at Work - Consider allowing the recognized employee to choose a caterer or small restaurant to provide breakfast or lunch for the office.
- Company Swag - Consider a swag item that only employees who achieve certain milestones or hit quotas can earn. The visibility of the swag will motivate more employees to strive to attain the same recognition!
- Feature Employee in a Newsletter - Create a section in your internal communications channels for recognizing top employees.
- Provide an Extra PTO Day - Increase employee benefits when team members achieve a key milestone — like adding an extra PTO day or providing a free parking spot.
- Lunch with an Executive - Provide access to a member of the C-suite for your team member who earned recognition. This could be lunch, a phone call, or a meeting to discuss their career growth at the organization.
- A Trophy - While it may seem silly, sometimes something as simple as a trophy or certificate that employees can keep on their desk is effective recognition.
The past few years for employees have been difficult due to the pandemic and overall shifts in the work environment as an employer. One of the most impactful ways to boost employee morale during these hardships is by recognizing employees hard work and perseverance. So let's examine the best practices for employee recognition before you start take a moment to establish a relationship with your employees and learn how each one likes to be recognized then set individualized goals by setting goals employees know how you will measure achievement doing this will create a mutual understanding of success and reward. Once your criteria is personalized strive to create a culture of consistent feedback use a performance management system to track and know all feedback over a given time when it's time to review employee performance. This will help increase the quality of your input next provide opportunities for advancement recognition can be in the form of gifts and raises, but it should also Line with career growth adjust employees workplace goals over time to closely resemble the responsibilities of a higher senior role. It may be time for a promotion if they consistently reach their benchmarks lastly make sure to utilize different recognition methods these could vary from a shout out in a team meeting a leadership role in a new project a quarterly bonus slash raise or a promotion employee recognition is a crucial part of any well operating organization. Remember these essential practices to ensure your employees are adequately recognized and feel appreciating.