5 Tips for Effective Employee Recognition

Employee recognition is not just a nice thing to do for people. Employee recognition is a communication tool that reinforces and rewards the most important outcomes that people create for your business.

When you recognize people effectively, you reinforce, with your chosen means of recognition, the actions and behaviors you most want to see people repeat. Your recognition reinforces the employee's understanding of how you want to see him or her making contributions in the workplace.

When you consider employee recognition processes, you need to develop employee recognition that is equally powerful for both the organization and the employee. You must address five important issues if you want your employees to view the recognition you offer as motivating, rewarding, and important for the success of your organization.

The 5 Most Important Tips for Effective Recognition

You need to establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions. These five tips will help you do so.

Make All Employees Eligible to Obtain Recognition

You should never exclude any employee or group of employees. This is especially important to consider when different employees have entirely different responsibilities. Depending on the nature of your firm's business, you may need to create multiple recognition processes for different departments or different types of jobs.about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.

Define Your Criteria for Recognition Clearly

The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized. The more clearly you design and communicate the criteria for eligibility for the award, the easier it is for employees to perform accordingly. Since this is the performance you most want to see from employees, it's a plus if many employees attain eligibility. 

Make Your Recognition Equal Opportunity for All

Anyone who then performs at the level or standard stated in the criteria receives the reward.

Or, in an occasionally used approach, which is not recommended except in cases of severe budget restrictions, every employee who meets the criteria has his or her name added to a drawing. You must communicate on the front end the fact that one name or three or however many employees you plan to reward will be selected randomly from among the employees who met the eligibility criteria. 

Provide the Recognition Close to the Performance You Are Recognizing

The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces the behavior the employer wants to encourage. Monthly recognition is too infrequent and not reinforcing. Annual recognition, plaques, and gifts reinforce the performance you'd like to see even less effectively. Depending on the nature of your business, you may even reward employees daily.

An element of surprise is also beneficial. If you frequently reward employees with a free lunch, gradually the lunch becomes a given or entitlement in employees' eyes and is no longer rewarding.

Set Objective Standards for the Recognition

You don't want to design a process in which managers select the people to receive the recognition based on subjective criteria. Employees will see this type of process forever as managerial favoritism. Or, they will talk about the recognition in words such as, "Oh, it's your turn to get recognized this month."

This is why processes that single out an individual, such as Employee of the Month, are rarely effective. When recognition is based on objective figures—such as sales totals—it will be much more meaningful and effective.

Supervisors must also apply the criteria consistently, so you may find the need to provide some organizational oversight.

A Working Example of a Successful Recognition Process

More Tips About Recognition and Performance Management

Strive for Consistency Across the Organization

If you attach recognition to real accomplishments and goal achievement as negotiated in a performance development planning meeting, you need to make sure that the recognition meets the above-stated requirements. Supervisors must also apply the criteria consistently, so you may find the need to provide some organizational oversight.

The challenge of individually negotiated goals is to make certain their accomplishment is viewed as similarly difficult by the organization for the process to succeed.

Random Recognition is Recommended

People also like employee recognition that is random and that provides an element of surprise. If you thank a manufacturing group every time they make customer deliveries on time with a luncheon, gradually the lunch becomes a given or entitlement and is no longer rewarding.

For example, in a software development organization, the CEO traditionally bought lunch for all employees every Friday. Soon, he had employees coming to him asking for reimbursement for lunch if they ate lunch outside of the company on a Friday. His goal of team building turned into a given or an entitlement and he was disappointed with the results.

Build Fun Recognition Into the Daily Lives of Employees

You always have room for employee reward and recognition activities that will generally build positive morale in the work environment. The Pall Corporation, in Ann Arbor, MI, for example, had a Smile Team that met to schedule random, fun, employee recognition events. They have decorated shop windows, with a prize for the best, during the holidays.

They sponsor ice cream socials, picnics, the boss cooks day, and so on, to create a rewarding environment at work. Another company holds an annual costume judging parade with a lunch potluck every Halloween. (An appreciated tradition, too—the costumes are hilarious—picture the CEO dressed up as a hanging shower curtain.)