Develop a truly employee centric culture with ten employee recognition ideas below - UPDATED for remote employees!
As you might have read in various research and employee surveys, recognizing employees in consistent and sincere ways promoted employee engagement and performance. Thus, we listed below 10 employee appreciation and recognition ideas to help you build an amazing workplace.
Try them out below.
Given the current pandemic, we have updated them to make them relevant to employees working remotely.
1. Celebrate Employee Day
Put it on your calendar! Employee Day is for recognizing and appreciating employees. Pick a Friday in each year. Promote it and get management to actively participate. Think of it like celebrating the birthday of your employees in just one day — make it special and a big deal to show your gratitude. Demonstrate employee recognition is truly part of your company culture.
2. Handwritten cards for birthdays and milestones
In our social media and email crazy world, personal touches go a long way. Send handwritten notes that stand-out to co-workers to celebrate special moments including 1st year at work, birthdays, etc.. (TIP: Add something specific or a memorable anecdote)
3. Introduce timely public recognition
Use technology to get the employee recognition going and growing! With a real-time public recognition platform that encourages instant and timely praise (allowing anyone to give/receive praise), you can boost morale (and reinforce company values) no matter where your employees work.
4. Let employees nominate peers for awards and rewards
Get employees actively participating to further grow company-wide engagement. You might be surprised with the ideas that come from employees. Invite employees to nominate co-workers for awards that reinforce your core values. Leverage fun and make them laugh.
5. Highlight employees on your social media
Let the digitally-connected world be your employee recognition announcement board! Give employee shout-outs on LinkedIn or interviews in your company blog. Bonus: Social media posts are shareable, helping spread the word about your company and the great work you’re doing. Get co-workers to re-post and like as well to boost your employer brand.
6. Be specific in your recognition
Make the recognition memorable by being specific. Tying to something the employee did or demonstrated recently will go a long way to make the recognition sincere. “Good job!” is much less effective than “Great job leading the presentation. I could tell everyone was engaged because you took the time to get feedback from multiple stakeholders.” Get more tips on giving great recognition.
7. Give recognition in real time
Most people agree that recognizing and rewarding employees is amazing stuff — but where good intentions tend to fall apart is in the execution phase. Institute a platform to make recognition part of your process and your company culture.
8. Offer meaningful rewards
Gift cards and company swag are fine, but generic. Show employees you care by offering them a wide selection of rewards so they can choose something meaningful for them or for their family and love ones . (Bonus: Learn how to run a strategic rewards program.)
9. Show employee appreciation consistently
As you might know, a short “Thank you” once a week resonates stronger and longer than an expensive gift once a year. Frequent recognition helps make it a habit for you and all managers. This is the first step towards developing a game-changing feedback culture!
10. Recognize effort, not just results
The destination is important, but so is the journey! And it requires dedication and effort on your employees’ part. Recognize effort, not just results. It reinforces the company culture that promotes risk-taking, learning, and innovation to drive long-term success.