What does success look like?
How do I achieve success with my program?
Glad you asked! Let's dive into what can be done to strengthen company culture, grow customer retention, and increase employee satisfaction. Happy employees lead to happy customers.
A lot of companies tend to deprioritize recognition programs. It can be viewed as a 'nice to have' rather than a 'must-have' and therefore doesn't warrant a budget. The truth is, it is just as much of a 'must-have' as the employees that do the work. The critical thing to remember is that a good recognition program will pay for itself with happier employees that are loyal to the company.
Of course, people could leave for other reasons, but reputation stays, and fantastic talent that you are hoping to attract will find out. Rather than spending money on often pointless and barely appreciated snacks or unlimited drinks, invest in the employees' confidence through a recognition program.
What are the steps to create a successful employee recognition program?
Some steps that can help simplify the process of starting a recognition program:
- Develop the reasons why it is essential. No one knows your organization, its' people, and their problems better than you do. Utilize your knowledge to build out the case for why employee recognition is critical to the company's success overall. The key is to focus on employee satisfaction, retention, and the effect turnover has on the company. Pull out company NPS surveys, feedback from past employees, or do a spot check survey to prove the need.
- Find advocates within the organization. It's always easier to climb a mountain with others than all by yourself. Build a team of advocates within your company that recognizes the importance of happy employees and is willing to fight for its success. Having people from different backgrounds and departments contribute to the employee recognition program will only enrich it and make it more successful. They can help create a proof of concept program that can be tested and optimized as it expands.
- Understand & align on the type of recognition you employees expect. Recognition and rewards can look very different as they should - no two companies are the same. Lean into the company values and bring them to life to make a program relevant and applicable. Employees tend to participate in recognition programs when it doesn't feel forced but instead encouraged, finding what motivates people and using that as a guiding force. A great way to get more ideas is to launch an internal survey or simply talk to employees to see what resonates and excites them.
- Set yourselves up for success with benchmarks. Measure and improve is the name of the game. To know the impact a program has on the company, make sure to set the benchmark. Build a quick survey to get an understanding of how rewarded and recognized employees feel before the launch. This will serve as a benchmark for the future and something to help show success. Follow tips and best practices that will prove the program's value long-term and measure success along the way.