Three Tips (You Didn't Already Know) For Creating Effective Employee Recognition Programs

It's hard to be involved in any HR discussion without hearing about how important good Employee Recognition Programs are to your bottom line. You already know that effective employee recognition programs motivate and retain your staff and you also know you need to motivate and retain your staff so that you can harness their ideas, solutions, and practices and grow your business.

You've likely also read lots of articles describing the do's and don'ts of creating great programs. And from those, you now know you need to ask your employees for their input when you create the programs and that your programs need to be fair, consistent and valued. None of that is a secret.

So here are three tips that you don't already know for creating an effective employee recognition program.

Tip 1: Recognition, like correction, needs to be given as soon as possible after the event. That's why I use the example of weekly get togethers when I'm explaining the motivational aspects of public praise. To be its most effective, praise needs to follow the desired behaviour as closely as possible. Don't let good ideas, positive actions, or outstanding customer service go unrecognized for months at a time because when you finally do offer up praise, no one will remember who did what or why. And they certainly won't be able to duplicate the behaviour. They'll have all moved on to the next project.

And on the topic of time, the get together for recognizing an employee needs to be short and sweet. Don't let these gatherings take up too much of your staff's valuable time. You don't want your recognition announcements to become an interruption instead of a reason to celebrate. Give praise often and quickly.

Tip 2: Don't overlap reward programs. Don't implement a Great Customer Service Award of the Week and Month and Quarter and Year and so on. First because, they'd be very difficult and expensive to administrate but also because the award becomes diluted and loses its perceived value. Also, is the winner of the monthly award "better" than the winner of the weekly award? That question could kill your attempts to boost morale and instill team spirit. You'll probably also find that the field of candidates for the monthly award is always the four people who won the weekly awards. This leaves no one else with a way to win the monthly award. That's not motivating.

For each behaviour that you want to encourage, offer one program and make the criteria for that program as easy and transparent to follow for everyone.

Tip 3: Simple is always better than complicated. The simpler the program is, the easier and less costly it will be to administrate. We've already touched on this in the previous tip about overlapping programs. An often used but potentially complicated program is the tiered award program. This type of program offers different levels of prize for different levels of success and is usually tied to sales quotas or lead generation goals etc. They can be very difficult to create meaningful criteria for and to monitor effectively. They can also put newer employees at a disadvantage from the onset because they just started with the company and already have to "catch up" to contend for any of the prizes.

Another sure-fire way to complicate your program is making your employees "sign up" to participate. If you're running a true competition to raise money for a cause for instance then yes, a sign up form is probably needed. An Employee Recognition Program though should be universal. Members of your staff shouldn't be able to opt out by not signing up.

These three tips, together with what you already know, will move you in the right direction for creating the best Employee Recognition Programs for your company.

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