Recognizing great work can have a long-term impact and return on investment as seen in retention, engagement, productivity and trust. A strategic recognition approach creates a culture of appreciation and achieves real business results.
There are many ways to recognize employees, and creating a recognition program with guidelines is a great first step. As you think through you what strategy best fits your area, use these best practices for conversation and decision-making.
- Develop a strategy that reinforces positive behaviors, organizational values, performance, etc.
- Establish how you will measure the effectiveness
- Engage employees at all levels to create a culture of appreciation
- Recognition from supervisors to staff
- Recognition from staff to supervisors
- Peer to peer recognition
- Develop recognition criteria and a nomination/approval process if applicable
- Utilize already established award opportunities
Ways to recognize
- On-the-spot recognition: Saying thank you/great job immediately. It can be face-to-face or by written communication (hand written note or email).
- Builds trust in relationships
- Creates confidence in skills
- Shows employees they are on track
- Reward results: Saying thank you/great job for accomplishing a goal, meeting extreme deadlines, etc. Most often has a gift item* associated with it.
- Increases innovation
- Drives desire to increase customer satisfaction
- Encourages employees to seek new ways to improve efficiency
- Celebrate years of service: Saying thank you for their contributions to the university.
- Creates a bond between co-workers
- Helps people feel they belong
*Gift items and Employee Awards should follow the application of the University’s Business Procedure: E-7-12: Employee Awards