Everybody wants to know they’re doing a good job. Even the most intrinsically motivated person needs some recognition for their efforts. Even the biggest introvert, someone who sweats from embarrassment if their friends sing “Happy Birthday” to them, needs a reward for their efforts so that they may continue to do well.
At the same time, we all know when praise is false or unwarranted. We know our capabilities and we want to be recognized for them, and we don’t want meaningless platitudes or flattery. That’s why it’s important for HR departments to not only recognize employees when they excel at a task or a project, but to tie that recognition to specific metrics and job duties.
Recognition can take a number of forms: public praise, formal recognition like an “Employee of the Month” award, or rewards like raises, bonuses, and promotions. When recognition is relevant to the job done and the goals of the organization, they are more meaningful to the employee being rewarded and bring greater rewards to the organization.
Align Goals With Strategy
Just as praise should be specific and relevant to what an employee does, it should also be aligned with the business’s strategic goals. A well-defined strategy is the foundation on top of which you build relevant goals for each department and each employee. With your goals and metrics by which you measure them in mind, you will have a team working in well-defined roles with clear expectations. This makes it easier for management and HR to notice when employees are doing a good job, and it makes it easier for employees to know what they have to do to receive praise.
Celebrate Moments
While year-end reviews are the time to celebrate your team’s achievements, you don’t have to hold onto your praise like a Christmas present hidden in the closet. Celebrate moments as they happen. Let your team know you notice their good work as it's being done and as goals are achieved and projects are completed. We have a kudos channel on our team chat where we can show our appreciation for our colleagues’ efforts. Team meetings are also a great place to recognize good work.
What about those employees whose work isn’t so closely tied to KPIs and sales numbers? Things like developing new ideas, streamlining processes, tactfully navigating customer and client interactions aren’t exactly measurable. They won’t show up on a year-end review, but they are a key part of many positions—and key to a business’s success. Make note of these achievements as they occur. A kudos board serves another purpose in this regard as a place to track these achievements and collect them for the end of the year.
Build Relationships
Knowing your hard work is recognized gives you a greater sense of purpose. It also builds camaraderie and gives everyone a better sense of where their work fits in. No matter how big or small a business is, individual workers don’t often get a view of the business beyond their own individual projects or teams. When you recognize the work of a particular employee or team in front of the rest of the organization, the curtain covering what everyone else does gets pulled back a bit. Having a fuller picture of how each piece of the organization fits together makes everyone’s work more meaningful.
Someone in marketing, for example, might be vaguely aware that there is an IT department keeping the website running, but they might not fully realize how intertwined the two departments are. Shouting out your IT department for swiftly fixing an email delivery issue so that the promotional email marketing worked so hard to deliver actually gets to your customers demonstrates how we’re all in this together, working toward the same goals.
Celebrating a job well done and recognizing high-performing employees also serves another purpose: maintaining morale. First, all employees should understand a company’s goals and unique selling point. They should understand the strategy used to achieve those goals and the metrics by which those goals are measured. This overview gives each employee a clearer idea of where they fit into the organization. When everybody knows what everybody else’s job is and they see examples of someone doing it well, they are more likely to trust that raises, bonuses, promotions, and other recognitions are fair.
When Employees Achieve Their Goals, the Business Achieves Theirs…
…and vice versa. Goals inform strategy. Strategy informs metrics. Metrics inform the framework put in place to deliver on strategy. When managers and HR departments approach recognition strategically and deliberately, the whole organization reaps the rewards.
