All employees like to be recognized for a job well done, but recognition from one’s peers always has a special significance.  Perhaps this is because such awards are seldom expected.  Perhaps it is because everyone knows managerial favoritism played no part in the selection.  Whatever the reason, you can be assured that for employees to select someone from their ranks to single out for recognition and praise, that the recognition is well earned and sincere.

For this reason, organizations that are serious about creating a culture of recognition look to find ways to encourage employees to acknowledge each other – or even managers as is appropriate for a job well done.  This can range from providing the simplest recognition tools, such as the Wow! cards used by Disney (cardstock cards that any employee can provide to any other with a note of thanks) or embroidered stars used by Fleet/Bank of America in Boston in which any employee can thank any other employee or group with a half-page written certificate with either a yellow (individual) or blue (group) star attached to it, which the employee then posts by the employee’s name plate at the entrance to their office or cubicle.

Even better is having an online peer-to-peer program, which can offer the added benefits of public recognition (as online praisings are publicly posted) as well as the ability to track the number of recognitions that are being given as a way to measure an activity that might otherwise would go unnoticed to the organization.  Such tracking provides the ability to align the amount of peer-to-peer recognition that is used with the performance of a manager, department, division or line of business.

An added bonus occurs when such recognition can be leveraged into another level of recognition in the organization, e.g., a report out at public meetings, eligibility for other recognition awards, or points accumulation that can be redeemed by the employee for something they find meaningful: merchandise, an experience, donation to a charity, etc.

The savviest employers tie online peer-to-peer recognition as tightly as possible to the employee’s relevant work team, ideally tapping into the use of the employee’s facebook, linked-in, or twitter social groups at work, in a concept being referred to as Social Recognition.

—Bob Nelson

Did you know that 99.4% of today’s employees expect to be recognized when they do good work.
The 2010 State of Global People Management predicted that one of the five top challenges for HR in 2010
will be that “top performer flight will pose a risk to future growth.”

Is your organization rewarding and recognizing your employees to increase engagement and productivity?

Dr. Bob Nelson, Best Selling Author of over 3.5 Million Books and Razor Suleman, CEO of I Love Rewards will present the importance of recognition, and how you can enable recognition using online SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms – which is trending to be the default platform for all HR recognition programs.

What You Will Learn:

• The 7 keys to creating successful online rewards and recognition programs
• Tips to help you get started making recognition a reality in your organization
• The benefits of utilizing technology to enable rewards and recognition

Register and Receive an Exclusive White Paper:
Register today and also get access to an exclusive whitepaper from Dr. Bob Nelson after the webinar.

Today’s employees expect to be recognized when they do good work.  Thanking employees for doing good work increases the likelihood that they will want to repeat that quality work and inspire them to want to do an even better job.  Others in the organization that see what is recognized are more likely to want to do similar quality work.

For these reasons, you would think that the use of recognition would be standard operating procedure in today’s organizations.  It’s not.  In fact, the opposite is most often the case.  Organizations must meet managers who don’t use recognition at their current beliefs that are keeping them from practicing this behavior to help them make recognition a personal, practical, and positive experience.  Objections and obstacles must be removed; excuses must be confronted.

Here are the six leading “excuses” for not using recognition from my doctoral research, listed in priority order as reported by managers who don’t use recognition:

“I’m unsure how best to recognize my employees.” Managers who consider giving recognition a difficult task need to have an increased awareness of the importance of recognition, to be trained in the skills of recognition, to be provided with individual feedback, and to be shown positive examples and techniques that they can actually do, no matter their time and resource constraints.

“I don’t feel providing recognition is an important part of my job.” Organizations need to set the expectation that providing recognition is not an optional activity, but rather an integral part of the organization’s strategies, specifically tied to achieving the company’s goals.  Managers need to be evaluated on the success of their efforts at providing recognition in a frequent and meaningful way.

“I don’t have the time to recognize my employees.” Some of the best forms of recognition (personal or written praise, public recognition, positive voicemail or e-mail messages, etc.) require very little time to initiate and accomplish.  Thus, the reaction by some managers of not having enough time is often no more than an excuse for not doing the behavior.  Such excuses can be countered with techniques that can be readily applied, even by busy managers.

“I’m afraid I might leave somebody out.” Another common concern of managers is the possibility of leaving out someone who is deserving of recognition. Managers who regularly recognize their employees translate this concern into a greater commitment to recognize everyone who deserves it.  Just remember, if at any time someone deserving is left out, it is perfectly acceptable to simply apologize and make amends as appropriate.

“Employees don’t value the recognition I have given in the past.” Instead of being put off by what might not have worked in the past, managers should make a fresh start and seek to find out what forms of recognition their employees would most value.  By involving employees in decisions that affect their own motivation, managers increase the employees’ commitment and buy-in as well as the likelihood that what is done will be successful.

“My organization does not help facilitate or support recognition efforts.” Although recognition efforts can flourish even in the absence of formal organizational support, such support, if made available, can help managers maintain their commitment.  Even a simple approach such as asking top management to use recognition can serve to model the desired behavior and send the message that the organization is serious about the activity.

—Bob Nelson, PhD

One of the most basic aspects of effective recognition that often gets overlooked is the importance of connecting recognition to performance that matters in the workplace.

Recognition should be contingent upon performance that matters whenever possible, whether that performance involves the strategic objectives of the organization, its core values, department or group goals, or an individual’s key responsibility areas.

Recognition that is not tied to performance can still feel good to those that receive it – and perhaps even to those that provide it — but it will not have the power of reinforcement that helps to drive the future motivation, effort and focus on the part of those individuals who are recognized as well as all others that saw or heard of the recognition that was done.

Recognizing performance serves a practical purpose in providing specific feedback to employees about what they did well that makes it easier for them to repeat the desired performance or to excel beyond their past performance in future instances.  This feedback is essential in most fast-moving, constantly changing work environments in which there are constant pressures on people’s time and energy.  All employees have a choice in how they use their discretionary energy in their jobs and recognition helps to keep them pointed in the right direction on a constant basis.

Recognition sends the message that “I saw what you did and I value what you achieved” that is so important for every employee to hear in their job today.  By calling out the performance that people do as they do it, a manager systematically sends a message to all employees that “this is the type of performance and behavior that gets noticed around here,” causing other employees to want to emulate the job that was done by the top performers.

—Bob Nelson

In my research as to what most motivates today’s employees, the #1 response that employees report is open, honest and direct communication from one’s manager.  Ninety-five percent of today’s employees report that getting information they need from their manager is either very or extremely important to them and, in fact, it’s the highest rated variable of some 50 explicit behaviors I’ve tracked in the workplace over 15 years.

What kind of information?  Certainly information an employee needs to do his or her job and answers to an employee’s questions that arise in doing their work.  But this is just the starting point.  They want to be part of a steady stream of ideas and conversations that make their time as work more interesting and fun.  Employees want to know how they can help make a difference in their success and that of their colleagues, manager and the company overall. They want to know what opportunities they have to learn and grow and where those opportunities can take them in their careers.

Employees also what to know what’s going on in different parts of the organization, what the organization’s plans and strategies for the future are, new products and services, marketing strategies and even what the competition is doing.  They want to know how the organization is making its community and the world a better place.

In short, employees want to feel “in on things” and giving them that information is the starting point for empowering them to act in a way that goes beyond just being an employee, beyond just doing a job. Ample communication sets employees up to want to do their best job in striving to make a difference and a contribution at work that goes beyond their job description.  To be a member of a community that is tied to a purpose and mission that brings meaning to their lives as well as the lives of others who benefit from the community.  Communication ties them to something that is bigger than themselves that provides a sense of purpose for their lives for which they can be proud.

Communication:  It’s more than what meets the eye for today’s employees.

—Bob Nelson

With all the ideas I have in my book, 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, people often ask me what is the best way to get started with employee recognition activities where they work.  Here are some guidelines that I have found useful in working with individuals and companies to increase employee recognition efforts where they work.

Start in your immediate sphere of influence. Motivation is personal topic and to be successful with it you need to operate at a very immediate, personal, one-on-one level.  One of the great things about motivation is you don’t need anyone’s permission to start using the principles involved.  You can immediately recognize, praise, and encourage those you work with—and just as fast start to have an impact in your workplace.  A simple praising, gestures of thanks, public acknowledgments of achievement, celebrations of success — these are the high-leverage actions to get employee recognition going in your workplace.

Involve those individuals you are trying to motivate. Bring up the topic of recognition and ask the question: “Does anyone think we need to do more recognition around here?”  I’ve never heard of any employee saying “I just get too much recognition where I work,” so this is almost a rhetorical question.  Take the initial interest you receive in having more recognition at work and ask if anyone in the group would like to help make recognition a more prominent part of your group’s activities.  Some of the best recognition efforts are driven by volunteers!  From the outset, the recognition initiative can be their program, not management’s program that is being imposed on them.  Remember, the best management is what you do with people, not what you do to them.  Make employees partners in their own success: involvement equals commitment!

Ask employees what motivates them.  What motivates us, motivates us, and that differs from person to person and for the same person over time.  Make time to spend with each employee, finding out where they want to go with their career, skills they’d like to develop, hobbies they have and their family situation.  All of this information is fodder for motivation.  By helping employees reach their goals you can unleash an excitement and commitment for them to want to do their absolute best to help you and the organization succeed.

Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t do. In almost every work environment there are constraints that can keep you from recognizing employees.  Instead of dwelling on what you can’t do, focus on the hundreds of things you can.  I often recommend that organizations start with the performance and behaviors they want to drive using the principles of effective recognition.  If you start on driving specific performance and behaviors that impact the organization’s success, your success will have a positive impact on the budget and allow you to invest more as you demonstrate results.  Recognition then becomes an “investment in people” rather than just an “employee cost.”

Don’t expect to do recognition perfectly. I find some managers and companies attempt recognition activities, then abandon their efforts because they didn’t have instant success.  Instead, you need to take a long-term view of the topic and remember that any new behavior or change will be awkward at first.  There is no single right way of doing recognition.  Instead, try various things, learn from those efforts, and seek to improve.  Have fun in the process and you will seldom go wrong!

—Bob Nelson