Recognition is a big part of building community and a culture of appreciation. It can help retain top talent because a prime reason why people leave their jobs is because of poor managers, usually ones that overlook the excellent work of others and fail to provide praise.
While it is a fundamental human need to receive recognition, it is not a universal practice. More than 80% of supervisors say they express appreciation to their employees, yet less than 20% of their employees say their supervisors give appreciation more than occasionally. There is a disconnect, and it is contributing to a hemorrhaging of great talent.
Some traditional recognition programs such as employee of the month or the annual banquet recognizing star performers have problems. To acknowledge only one employee for the month is not enough, it should be a daily and weekly practice. Another problem is that they are often not judged fairly, otherwise, your best employee would win every month, but it seems awkward to give it to the same person so you start concocting reasons to spread the benefit around to the point where everybody gets it. This means your best and average workers are treated equally, which is unfair if they provide different outputs. Worse yet, if 1-2 people on your team have not gotten it, that can become an issue.
Effective recognition makes the employee feel noticed for what they have done. Managers who say, “I saw what you did, and I appreciate it” means a lot. Both individual and team recognitions are essential, and they can range from formal to informal.
Here are some recognition practices you may want to consider:
1. Saying thank you in a public way. You can do this via slack channel or at a standup meeting for peers to see that you appreciate them. You can also send a physical note or card to tell them how much you value their work beyond the requirements. It can be helpful to keep track of those you recognize so you can challenge yourself to praise new people regularly if you feel it is genuine and well-deserved
2. Send an email to your teammate and CC others. You can be specific about what they did to do a great job and CC your boss and your boss’s boss to make their contributions more visible.
3. Create a kudos board or gratitude channel. Some companies have a dedicated spot where you can see all the thanks. There are programs like Assembly where you can give kudos to people and the ones that get the most every week will get rewards like gift cards, show tickets, or other benefits.
4. Spot bonuses. Some managers have a spot bonus budget that they can give an individual or a team for a specific behavior, action, or result for an extraordinary job. They can range from a couple of hundred to a few thousand, and it is nice to give a monetary reward when you can.
5. Have a forum to share your good work. Google’s “I Am Remarkable” initiative empowers women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond. It is done because many people struggle to talk about their accomplishments due to culture, gender modesty norms, or imposter syndrome, so the goal is to challenge the social perception around self-promotion.
6. Make connections to mentors and sponsors. In addition to recognizing their good work, you can make connections to potential mentors or sponsors for them to receive support to further their excellent work.
It is essential to take time to shine a light on people’s good work, and the benefits extend to both the receiver and the giver. For the receiver, it can be a moment stamped in their memory for years. The boomerang effect for the giver is that it elevates their spirits because they create a positive experience for another.
Quote of the day: “Recognition is not a scarce resource. You can’t use it up or run out of it.” -Susan Heathfield, HR Expert
Q: How do you like to give and receive recognition? Comment and share below; we would love to hear from you!
The next blog in this series 5/11 will focus on accountability in the remote environment.
As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to create enjoyable remote work experiences for themselves and their teams, contact me to explore this topic further.
How do you recognize others?