5 Employee Recognition Program Best Practices To Improve Office Morale

Employee recognition programs help workers feel valued and appreciated. That is why they are such a crucial component for creating a great working environment. In addition, an employee recognition program can also improve employee morale once implemented. Ultimately, this is sure to help business owners improve employee productivity and retention. If you are an HR expert hoping to bring an employee recognition program to your workplace, allow this post to help you out. Below, learn the employee recognition program best practices that will help you successfully implement these new HR strategies.

Source Peer Reviews

Include a peer reviews process in your employee recognition program. With traditional employee recognition programs, oftentimes only the loudest and most visible employees get recognized. This can be demoralizing to the hard working employees that are a bit quieter and less likely to promote themselves and their projects. You do not want those employees to fall between the cracks. Implementing an employee review system that prioritizes peer to peer recognition makes it much more likely that those introverted employees will also be recognized. It also gives you, the HR personnel, much better insight into the real contributors to business success, not just the ones that talk about themselves the most. Be sure to include a space for employee reviews, suggestions and feedback in the employee recognition process. This will make it much more effective.

Get Help Picking Rewards

Get help from a team of employees to pick rewards for employee recognition programs. This is the best way to select the best employee recognition prizes that all workers will want to win. It allows you to get insight directly from the people that will be working to earn these employee rewards. Further, it also allows employees to see how seriously you are taking the employee appreciation program. When workers see how hard you are working to make the employee appreciation program as enjoyable and exciting as possible, that alone will make them feel appreciated. Source employee input on employee appreciation gifts, and your employee recognition program is sure to be all the better for it.

Share Their Stories

You should also incorporate a story-telling aspect in your employee appreciation programs. Employees are often recognized for contributions that go unannounced. They get the employee recognition gift and then head right back into their normal work routine. Your program will be much better if you choose to share those employee appreciation stories with other business stakeholders. Feature recognized employees’ stories in your company newsletter. Or, just give recognized employees the chance to tell their own personality development story at a lunch meeting in their honor. As long as you give your employees a chance to share their story of success, you will inspire other employees to aspire to similar successes. That will make for a much ore effective employee recognition program.

Tie It To Your Values

Tie employee recognition program rewards to company values.  This will help to reinforce those company values across the entire organization. It will also make your employee recognition program much more meaningful. When the program itself feels like it has meaning, it makes it easier to get employees to buy in to the program. It will also look great to your superiors, who will be glad to see you incorporating corporate values into everyday work operations. Be sure to tie employee recognition programs to existing company values and beliefs. It will make for a more meaningful, effective employee appreciation program overall.

Recognize Employees Often

Your employee appreciation programs should also recognize employee contributions frequently. You want to recognize and reward employees often, not just once a year. The more your recognize employee contributions, the more appreciated employees will feel. It is easy for employees to forget the nice employee appreciation rewards they got a year ago. It is much more difficult for them to forget the recognition and appreciation they receive when it happens once a month. This will make your employee appreciation attempts much more effective. In the end, that will drive employee satisfaction to improve office morale and employee productivity and motivation. Be sure your employee appreciation programs happen frequently to experience these workplace culture benefits.

Human resources professionals like yourself are no strangers to employee recognition programs. They are not required by employment law, but they certainly provide advantages that outweigh the financial costs. However, not all employee appreciation efforts are made equal. The employee appreciation program best practices detailed above will help you create a program that is head and shoulders above the competition. These employee recognition program best practices will benefit your organization by improving employee satisfaction and office morale. Ultimately, that will help you improve employee retention rates, which will positively impact your entire organization. Use these employee recognition tips to wow your bosses with these business benefits.

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