Top five do’s and don’ts when recognising employees

4 min read

How do you show appreciation for your top-performing team members? As a manager, it’s your job to build an environment in which your team is motivated and committed to act in the best interest of the company.

You can create this environment by hitting on the three things that truly motivate people at work. All three of these elements earn you trust as a visible leader and are easily influenced by the habit of strategically using recognition.

What is strategic recognition anyway?

Strategic recognition is the act of acknowledging, appreciating, and sharing a story of an instance when an employee helped improve the employee or customer experience.

A strategic employee recognition programme that facilitates the capturing and sharing of these best practices and examples of the company experience in action is a great way to replicate the work of your best employees.

Strategic recognition helps managers:

And you’ll find it will far surpass any rewards-oriented programme when it comes to creating engaged employees (those who are motivated and committed).

Appreciation is the strongest currency in your corporate culture.

Recognition is an essential part of creating a work environment where employees are able to feel motivated and committed, and overall more engaged.

Here are the top 5 do’s and don’ts when recognising employees:

Let's expand on what these top 5 do's and dont's actually mean:

1. Do find a way to consistently and comprehensively share recognition posts across the company. Here’s a scenario: Imagine if your sales team could shadow a day in the life of your manufacturing team. How might this help remove silos and increase collaboration?

Reading recognitions across departments can build this understanding, break down company silos and improve employee collaboration. It also removes the “us vs. them” mentality that can destroy your employee experience. Look for opportunities to recognise not just highly visible great work, but great work behind the scenes.

Employees should think to themselves, who do I know who does great work for the company but may be overlooked for recognition?

2. Do have managers engage with recognition posts, especially when involving their teams. A comment added to a recognition post by a manager can sometimes be even more powerful than the original recognition.

3. Don’t let rewards become more important than the best practices. If your programme uses points and starts to become more about gift certificates than learning from others, focus on making the stories more powerful and sharing them to get things back on track.

4. Don’t settle for the same group publishing stories or being recognised. Employees will stop paying attention unless there is a diverse group represented. Managers can work to keep participation more wide-ranging until broader participation becomes self-sustaining. 

5. Do create a culture of continuous recognition – one where appreciating and thanking employees for their hard work not only comes naturally, but it’s part of your organisation’s identity. By creating a culture of continuous recognition, you’ll start improving employee engagement, productivity and motivation.

Challenge yourself as a leader to get more involved with employee recognition at your organisation. You’ll not only start to build trust and foster deeper connections with your workforce, but you’ll also contribute to improving employee engagement as well. What next “do” or “don’t” would you add to this list? We’d love to hear your suggestions!