Which is a strong method of improving employee morale and encouraging outstanding performance

HR departments, which are challenged to recruit and retain the best people, are the prime movers for implementing an honest and thoughtful employee recognition culture that motivates and rewards employees in a way that extends far beyond material incentives.

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Best Practice For Employee Recognition Culture
1. Make it personal
2. Provide opportunities
3. Magnify recognition
4. Offer beyond-the-call-of-duty perks
5. Motivate with financial incentives
6. Give holiday rewards and bonuses
7. Facilitate peer-to-peer recognition
8. Recognise people’s passions
9. Embrace gamification
10. Use technology and social media to publicise accomplishments

Best Practice For Employee Recognition Culture

Your employees are your company’s most valuable resource, but many organisations still struggle to retain top talent. Some of the best practices for recognising employees include:

Establishing solid criteria for work performance
Recognising people from all areas of operations
Fostering a recognition culture where informal feedback is frequently offered
Aligning performance benchmarks with the company’s goals, culture and succession strategy
Providing opportunities for advanced training and career development as part of staff recognition

The following 10 specific recognition culture strategies are effective ways to recognise and reward your employees:

1. Make it personal

It’s critical to be specific, personal and accurate. Use positive words, and demonstrate to the employee that you actually understand their accomplishments.

2. Provide opportunities

Some workers don’t get the chance to excel because of the nature of their jobs or reduced expectations for certain types of work. Employees who do their jobs well should be able to earn opportunities for expanded responsibilities and training for job advancement.

3. Magnify recognition

While verbal communication is clearly the most effective way to recognise employees, the best strategy is to back it up by publicising employee accomplishments across multiple forums such as company newsletters, dashboards and in team meetings.

4. Offer beyond-the-call-of-duty perks

Employees who consistently perform at the highest levels might earn special privileges. These might include such things as a better parking space or paid time off

5. Motivate with financial incentives

Although financial incentives aren’t always the best motivators, they can certainly demonstrate appreciation for work well-performed. The best financial incentives are more open-ended and unpredictable because they motivate people to work their best at all times.

6. Give holiday rewards and bonuses

The best practices for awarding holiday bonuses include offering a standard bonus or gift package and rewarding people for outstanding performance with special awards, extra cash bonuses, holiday gifts or recognition for yearly performance.

7. Facilitate peer-to-peer recognition

Employees often prefer recognition from their peers than acknowledgement at the office, so many companies implement peer-to-peer recognition programs to engage millennials and the new generation of flexible workers.

8. Recognise people’s passions

Workers love to be recognised for their outside activities, hobbies and passions because it prevents people from feeling as if they’re just cogs in the business machine. Passions can also work as rewards in their own right.

9. Embrace gamification

Gamification strategies can be used in various ways to reward and motivate your employees to reach higher performance standards. A rotating trophy or plaque can generate enthusiasm that’s exceeds the investment. Of course, the more impressive the trophy, the more likely it will generate friendly competition.

People don’t live in a vacuum in today’s environment of instant communications, so it’s important to publicise important accomplishments and even human interest items in the company’s social media forums.

Employee recognition and positive motivation are powerful tools for getting the best out of each employee. The tips outlined above are good starting points, but depending on your business and industry, you can custom-design other rewards and recognition programs that reflect your organisation’s particular needs.

Ari Kopoulos is the CEO at EmployeeConnect HRIS

Financial rewards, such as merit increases and bonuses, are often the first thing that come to mind as ways to motivate and reward good performance. When financial rewards are limited or unavailable, many people wonder what to turn to. You may ask yourself: how can I motivate people to do good work? How can I give strong performers rewards and recognition that will keep them engaged?

Research shows that using money as a reward for performance often reduces motivation because it’s an extrinsic reward. Instead, the most powerful motivators are intrinsic rewards—personal enjoyment and satisfaction of making progress toward meaningful goals. These are very powerful drivers of motivation that are often overlooked.

So, what does this look like? Research indicates that strong performers are more likely than average or below-average performers to be motivated with things like support for advancement, greater authority, and feedback and coaching.

Here are specific ways to affirm their performance, keep them motivated, and ensure job satisfaction.

Stretch Assignments. Setting meaningful goals and making progress toward them is highly motivating and evokes feelings of satisfaction and engagement. Talk with your employees about their professional interests and work with them to create challenging goals that align with those interests. Challenging and meaningful goals will require your employees to tap into their internal motivations to achieve their goal.

Ask yourself:

What do my employees find most challenging and fulfilling in their work?
What am I doing to help talented, ambitious employees remain challenged and satisfied at the University?

Coaching and Feedback. Regular feedback is one of the biggest drivers of performance because it is how you help your employee make progress toward their goals and priorities on a day-to-day basis. When feedback and coaching helps people make progress, it creates motivation and engagement. Feedback and coaching should, at different times, address both positive and negative behaviors. Be specific about behaviors and explain why a behavior was effective or ineffective. Describe the situation, the behavior, and the impact of the behavior on progress toward goals.

Ask yourself:

What kind of feedback do I give to employees and how often do I give it? How do I know if it’s effective?
How often do I discuss performance and give feedback to faculty and staff?
How do I know my feedback is fair, timely, and specific?

Greater Authority. Give faculty and staff the authority they need to ensure their work is successful. Employees who are trusted to make impactful decisions respond with better performance and engagement.

Ask yourself:

How do I know whether employees understand what decisions they can make?
How can I drive decision-making into lower levels within my unit?
In what ways do I delegate challenging work and give employees the authority to complete the work?

Career Planning and Support. To remain motivated and productive, employees need to grow in their jobs—and perhaps grow beyond them. Get to know your employee. Ask them about their goals and the type of rewards they find meaningful. Here are some questions that will help you understand their goals and give you ideas on how to support them.

Ask yourself:

Have I discussed with my employees their desire for career advancement and development and the opportunities that exist?
How do I support employees’ career development and what they need to do to advance?

Ask your employees:

Where do you see yourself in 3 years?
What do you find most challenging and fulfilling in your work?
What are some of the obstacles/barriers that prevent you from being even more successful?
What are other avenues of learning (such as mentors, self-directed options, cross-training, stretch projects, skill development, etc.) could be utilized as development resources?
How can I allow you to focus on your work at the time and place where you can be most productive?
What do you look forward to when you come to work each day?

Flexibility. Flexibility can be a reward for a job well performed, and many people have come to expect flexibility from their employer. First, consider the needs of the position—some positions require the employee to be at a specific place and time. However, if the work allows and your employee is meeting expectations, the opportunity to work outside of normal business hours or the office can be rewarding and motivating.

Ask yourself:

How can I be more supportive of employees who have personal or family matters to attend to?
How can I allow my employees to focus on their work at the time and place where they can be most productive?

Recognize good work. Recognizing your faculty and staff should not be a one-size-fits-all technique. Find out how each of your employees would like to be recognized. Some may prefer to be recognized publicly, others are more comfortable with praise during a one-on-one conversation or a personalized note. Regardless, affirming good work is sure to encourage more good work.

Ask yourself:

How do I give and share credit for success?
How do I recognize faculty and staff, either individually or as a team, for doing a good job?
Is the recognition I provide meaningful to the employees?

Remember, faculty and staff who feel valued are more engaged, productive, and committed employees.