Employee Recognition Programs Best Practices
Question: What’s your best advice for putting together a formal employee recognition program? Any tips on what to include (or what doesn’t work)?
Best Employee Recognition Programs
Work With Your Team to Define Rewards
“Every startup has its own culture. It’s worth learning how other businesses (startups, major brands, consulting companies or tech shops) recognize employees. But you should work with your team to develop your recognition programs. Make sure that the rewards excite your employees so that they will actually be effective.”
— AARON SCHWARTZ of Modify Watches
Be Creative
“A plaque for the employee of the month is old school. Be creative. Money doesn’t always do the trick. People like to be recognized in ways that affect their hearts. Thank their spouses or their children, award trophies for salesmanship, and offer handwritten thank-yous for exceptional work. Surprise them. Keep them guessing.”
— ZIVER BIRG of ZIVELO
Hire a Queen/King of Culture
“Employee recognition is on every company’s to-do list, but it often gets forgotten or deprioritized. Yodle hired a Queen of Culture whose #1 job is recognizing top performers and arranging prizes. A mistake to avoid is thinking that money will sustain performers. Group prizes encourage teammates to support one another. Make rewards unique – trophies, dinners and trips can go further than cash.”
— BEN RUBENSTEIN of Yodle
Ask Their Peers
“Crowdsource it. Usually recognition comes from management, but peers know what’s really going on. Let them be the ones to recognize achievement and reward it. ”
— BRENT BESHORE of adventur.es
Create Contests
“Keep the recognition frequent and consistent. Use the hourly, weekly, quarterly or annual benchmarks that drive your company forward to create contests with rewards for achieving those benchmarks. They don’t need to be monetary if you focus on the ceremony (e.g. an Employee of the Month Award where you place the winner’s photo on a placard on the wall).”
— NICK FRIEDMAN of College Hunks Hauling Junk
Cater for All Personality Types
“Recognition can be skewed toward the loudest and proudest extroverts. Implementing a system that allows peer review/praise and opportunity for the quiet achievers to be recognized is important. We implemented Small Improvements to make this happen.”
— ROBERT CASTANEDA of ServiceRocket
Praise Effort. Reward Results.
“When putting together a formal employee recognition program, it’s important to remember to praise effort and reward results. It’s crucial that the employee program encompasses each role and position within the organization. Start by determining what is most important in your company and choose the values that you will recognize. ”
— NICOLE SMARTT of Star Staffing
Don’t Overthink It
“We created a really awesome, but elaborate point system, only to discover that it was too much for people to keep track of and actually deterred them from doing their job. The system that’s used to track employees for recognition is far less important than just having something in place to recognize those who have done well. People love to be recognized in front of their peers.”
— ANDERSON SCHOENROCK of ScanDigital
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