Seven ways moments of employee recognition can fuel your employer brand

Sharing moments of recognition internally is powerful — the right kind of employee recognition reinforces what great work looks like, drives business value, helps spread best practice with examples of how to recognise others and helps employees understand how the work that they do makes a difference for their peers, the business and your customers.

But there’s something to be said about external recognition too. Showcasing your people's achievements to a broader audience is a genuine way to show those employees their work has a real-world impact, but has the power to attract great talent who want to join a great team.

When you share moments of recognition beyond team meetings, or even on a social feed of recognition, you can use these powerful feel-good moments to strengthen your employer brand, and boost your Employee Value Proposition.

Here are seven ways to harness the power of these recognitions beyond the walls of your organisation:

1. Set the stage by promoting your values

If you haven’t done so already, make your values a clear part of your company message. Include them on your website, post about what these values mean on your social media, display reminders across the office, and showcase your values during employee inductions and orientations. Your values are a key component to setting the foundation for how employees are expected to live your employer brand and sets the tone for the customer experience, too.

2. Broadcast moments of recognition on LinkedIn

I’m pretty active on LinkedIn and it makes my heart sing when I notice leaders and organisations giving their people a shoutout to their broader network. Including a recognition post on your organisation’s LinkedIn page a couple times a month is a genuine way of attracting potential candidates by highlighting the experience of new hires and other employees. Doing so is a great way to show the kind of teamwork and atmosphere they can expect from working with your organisation.

3. Encourage employees to share their “wow” moments on social media

Use social media as a platform for featuring employees that make your peers smile — those stories about employee actions that have a significant impact on the organisation, peers, and customers. For instance, we have a running theme on our employee engagement platform for “Thank You Thursday,” which often talks about how we live the Delight Your Customer value. I’d love to see this alongside a job advert for our Support Team!

4. Extend your Employee of the Month moment with a shoutout

Have an “Employee of the Month” program? Great! Support this acknowledgement by sharing an example of the recognition the employee received, along with their picture. Remember that there are different levels to sharing — employees can be excited about getting recognised, but managers can also use external platforms to extend their congratulations, or members of the Leadership Team can highlight specific teams that have done well each quarter.

5. Move past social shyness

Encourage employees to like and share posts about themselves and their team members by giving examples of how to share (I suggest working with your marketing team, as they might already have something prepared!). For those who aren’t yet social-savvy, encourage them to start small with a comment or a like on a post to add valuable contributions quickly and easily.

6. Shine a light on your company values

Choose a value to feature each month and associate a moment of recognition to it. Use the space on external platforms to explain what that value is, how an employee or team lived it, and show prospective candidates how teams live corporate values each and every day. You can even bring these up during a candidate interview or share links after they’ve come into the office so they can get a sense of your company culture.

7. Show off your fun side!

Incorporate employee events, such as recognition dinners or an annual company picnic, into your company’s Facebook page. Sharing these celebrations gives a picture of what your company is like on the inside by showing how employees are treated.

One (boring, but necessary!) word of caution is that many companies have social media and confidentiality policies. Always check to make sure you have permission to share internal posts externally.

Want more ideas?

Check out our research report; Recognition and Rewards in the Australian Workplace for a deep dive into our data and the power of recognition and rewards to power engagement and productivity.