Recognition (or lack of it) is a topic that comes up a lot in our surveys. We often describe recognition as a timely acknowledgement of a person's contribution.
Employee recognition done right is easy, but it’s not simple!
According to a 2021 study, 73% of employees would consider leaving their jobs for the right offer. Employees will consider a move for all kinds of reasons, and recognition might have a key part to play. In this article, we take a deep dive into recognition and its link to employee retention.
Why is making people feel recognised so important?
1. It makes people feel valued
A survey found that feeling valued at work is linked to better physical and mental health. Feeling valued affects levels of engagement, satisfaction and motivation as well. All these things lead to a healthy and productive employer/employee relationship.
But don’t just recognise the heroes!
Employees need to know that the company they work for doesn’t just care about sales revenue and profit. People need to form lasting connections to the colleagues they work with and the work that they do. Knowing that their contribution is valuable to the organisation is a key part of this.
People can see how much you value them from what you celebrate. If you’re celebrating business wins without any acknowledgment to the people who gained those wins, then employees can quickly feel underappreciated. It’s important that you don’t forget about those people who deliver for the business day in, day out, even if they are chalking up revenue on the leaders board.
2. It Builds Engagement
Taking employees for granted is a sure-fire way to drop down the levels of employee engagement.
Engaged employees outperform those that aren’t. In fact, companies with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable.
You can ensure your team is engaged by conducting feedback surveys. These surveys can cover areas such as: connection, leadership, fulfilment and wellbeing of your team. For more information on how to increase employee engagement using feedback surveys, read our blog post.
Layer up recognition
There isn’t one solution to making people feel recognised. Sometimes it’s a heartfelt ‘Thank you’, sometimes it’s an early finish and sometimes it’s a bonus payment or a career move.
Like compensation and benefits, you might need to make it personal to the individual to get it right. Don’t assume everyone sees recognition in the same way. You need to be aiming to make the individual feel recognised and build up a recognition culture at the same time.
By doing this, you will be able to successfully recognise your employee’s work whilst also showing them that you truly care about their individual achievements.
3. It Builds High Performance
“The State of Employee Recognition” reveals that whether it is an individual or a team recognition; organisations observe a 14% improvement in their performance compared to companies that do not have any recognition programs at all.
Recognition leads to increased motivation, a sense of pride and increased self-confidence at work. Companies that actively recognise and reward their employees are more likely to see increased levels of accountability, responsibility and leadership initiatives. In short, higher performance.
Aim to have an impact
Thank yous never get old, but free lunches on a Friday can quickly become the norm and expected. Make sure you’re not giving out recognition just to tick the box, you need to actually mean it. Aim to have an impact. You may need to rethink your approach on a regular basis, to make sure that it continues to have effect of creating an engagement boost in individuals or your teams.
Check it’s working
Make sure you're checking that recognition is working in your business. Employee feedback is a great way to do this. Ask your employees whether they feel more engaged and valued due to the recognition they’ve been receiving. By doing this, you can ensure that you’re on the right track and make adjustments and changes if not.
You’ll know when it’s time to switch it up and try something new, as recognition will become background noise. Our employee feedback survey allows teams to be grouped, so you can see what is working for each team and where you might need to take a new approach to ensure you’re getting the maximum engagement and performance boost for your efforts.
If you’d like to understand more about how we can help you with team retention, engagement and performance, you can find out more about the work we do here: www.tenspace.co.uk.
