Employees are the pillars of an organization. Hence, it is extremely important to ensure that your employees are engaged and content. This not only ensures employee retention but also drives growth. However, there are very limited organizations that understand the value of employee engagement.
A crucial part of ensuring employee engagement is recognition. It is important for your organization to have the right rewards and recognition program in place. However, let’s take a step back; in order to ensure that you have the right rewards and recognition program, you need to first recognize the behaviours that you wish to reward.
Little lost, are you? Not to worry, we’ve got you covered! Here are a few important employee behaviours that you should consider including in your recognition criteria.
Employee Behaviours You Need to Recognize!
Your employees are highly likely to repeat behaviours when they are recognized and rewarded for them. Here are some behaviours you should really include in your rewards and recognition program.
Encouraging Peer-to-Peer Appreciation
Giving your employees the ability to appreciate the positive behaviours of their colleagues and when they do, rewarding them for the same helps create a culture that supports employee engagement and promotes teamwork. This will help colleagues appreciate one another in real-time while also being rewarded for the same. Thereby, creating a culture wherein they all motivate and boost each other.
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Provide Constructive Feedback
It is, after all, human to make mistakes. Mistakes happen on a day-to-day basis in an organization. What is important is to face these mistakes and provide your employees constructive feedback so that they do not repeat the same.
It is important to have a constructive discussion about why the situation took place, the impact that was caused by the error and how such errors can be avoided in the future. Once your employees act on the feedback, try to recognize them for the same so that they feel motivated to act on the feedback in the coming times.
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Allowing and Acting on Employee Feedback
It is a good idea to include a simple feedback channel in your recognition program to give your employees a voice in the system. Not just that, you should also collate all the employee feedback and act where feasible. It’s often best to keep the feedback anonymous so that your workforce doesn’t hesitate to share what’s actually on their mind. You should also consider setting up a rewards system for the employees that provide their inputs so that more and more come forward for this.
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Encourage Collaboration
You might be having the best of talent in your workforce, however, without the support of their colleagues. One can only reach so far. To exceed their daily potential and unlock what they are actually capable of. It is important to promote a culture of collaboration between your employees. It is essential that your workforce realizes and takes advantage of collaboration wherever possible.
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Providing Growth Opportunities
Offering your employees opportunities to grow their portfolio of skills can be very motivating. You should consider including this in your employee engagement initiatives as learning new skills leads to your employees being motivated to take on new responsibilities at work. You should also consider setting up a rewards and recognition system for those that decide to learn new skills and talents at work. This can involve leader and colleague appreciations, which will further encourage them as their efforts will be seen.
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Promoting a Trusting Culture
There isn’t any organization that has never faced a tough time or a rough patch. However, it is important to make sure your employees are aware. That you trust them to help you get through this. Your recognition program should reflect trust and reliability towards your workforce, try to convey how you see their efforts and how they are appreciated during such tough times.
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Adhering to the Organization’s Values
Every company has a certain culture and some values they swear by, and it is very important for your work. Family to not only be well aware of these but also to take every action while keeping them in mind. It should not be something that you just speak about, but should be brought to life with employee behaviours. So when there is employee engagement that is in line with your culture, it is crucial to recognize and reward them. Once you start doing this, everyone will motivated and driven to live by it.
Make Rewards and Recognition Matter!
Regardless of what behaviours you choose to add to your recognition program, there are a few keys that will make sure any type of employee engagement actually matters and delivers results.
Make sure you are regular with providing employees with the recognition they deserve. You should also try to keep this real-time for a quick turnaround. Try to keep your recognition to the point so that the employees are well aware of where they are excelling. You should ensure systems in place that motivate employees and leaders to recognise the efforts of their colleagues and team members.
About the Author: ADVANTAGE CLUB
Advantage Club is a global provider of employee benefits. The platform serves to digitize all employee demands under one canopy through numerous employee engagement programs such as incentives, rewards & recognition, flexible and tax-saving modules. It now serves over 300 organizations in 70 countries and has over 10,000 brand partnerships.