Six Reasons Why an Employee Recognition Program is Vital
May 11, 2022
By Theresa Karkins-Schulz
It’s no secret that employee recognition is critical to your company’s bottom line. Without it, employee morale and motivation plunges, and turnover soars. Giving your workforce a tool for recognition empowers them to celebrate each other, fostering a culture of appreciation and improving business success.
Here are six reasons why a “formal,” enterprise-wide employee recognition program makes good business sense:
Elevates recognition across the entire company: Employee recognition — including peer- to peer recognition — motivates employees and makes them feel valued. With an enterprise-wide employee engagement platform like Inspirus® Connects, public recognition is visible within the entire organization. This type of platform is one way to expand your reach so that you can share success stories that inspire all employees, no matter if they are on-site, remote or hybrid.
76% of employees who do not feel valued are looking for other job opportunities (Lifeworks)
Creates a fun, interactive space for recognition: When a recognition platform is fun and engaging, it is used repeatedly and becomes a part of an employee’s daily routine. A familiar-looking, easy-to-use social activity feed helps employees’ bond by congratulating each another on their accomplishments and milestones with recognition, likes, comments, and fun emoji’s.
92% of employees said a seamless platform would allow them to connect to and communicate with co-workers and customers, which would raise their job satisfaction (RingCentral)
Highlights accomplishments: Taking the time to recognize achievements signals that your company values the good work your employees do and the effort they put in. Accomplishments can span the entire employee journey, from completing onboarding training to big sales wins from seasoned professionals, and everything in between.
22% of senior decision-makers don’t think that regular recognition and thanking employees at work has a big influence on staff retention; 70% of employees say that motivation and morale would improve “massively” with managers saying thank you more (Benefit News)
Ties recognition to company goals and values: Employee recognition programs can and should be aligned with your organizations core values. When employees understand the vision and mission of the organization, and see their company goals and values in action, they’re inspired to emulate (and replicate) the behaviors that matter.
5% of employees don’t think their contributions make any kind of difference, while 44% do not understand their impact or are unaware of business goals (Ceridian)
Keeps management and leadership in tune with employee sentiment: Employee recognition programs that use technology platforms to automate processes reduce administrative burden and human error. For instance, Connects sends email notifications to managers so they never miss an employee recognition moment. Analytics tools give program administrators the ability to pull real-time reports to show leadership just how much recognition is happening across the company, platform and participant usage and more.
Almost two-thirds of managers wish they had a better way to collect feedback from their team and peers (Betterworks)
Acts as a recruitment strategy: Today’s job searchers are looking for companies that take care of their employees and have a thriving team culture. One way to do this is by having a formal employee recognition strategy. Successful programs motivate and inspire employees and thereby perpetuate behaviors that create a positive team culture. If your organization has recognition champions who create a buzz about how fulfilling it is to work for your company — internally and externally — it will attract like-minded individuals.
One-third of job seekers would pass up the perfect job if the corporate culture was a bad fit (Robert Half)
