FIVE TIPS FOR EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION

You are here: About>Business & Finance>Human Resources> HR Management: FAQs/Basics> Most Recent Articles/Sites> Five Tips for Effective Employee Recognition: How to Reward, Recognize, Award, and Thank People Successfully

Human Resources
Business & Finance
Human Resources
Essentials
HR / Management Site Guide; Glossary
Interview Tips/Questions; Resume Review
Free Policy Samples, Checklists, Forms
Top 10 Toughest Questions - Answered
Develop Job Descriptions - Free Samples
HR Offers
Recognition Reward

Employee Recognition

Reward Schemes

Employee Retention

Employee Reward

What are offers?

Topics
HR Management: FAQs/Basics
Career / Self Development
Change Management / Culture
Communication
Employee Recognition
Employee Retention
Management / Leadership
Motivation / Work Quotes
Performance Management
Policies / Laws / Samples
Recruiting / Staffing
Salary / Benefits
Team Building / Work Teams
Bad Boss / Difficult People
Training / Icebreakers
Buyer's Guide
Top 10 Management Books for the Human Resources Book Shelf
Top Team Building Books to Accelerate Your Success
Toss Out Your Dusty Old Appraisal System
Reward, Recognition, and Thank You Ideas
All Guide Recommended Picks
Tools

Find a Job

Get a Quote

Yellow Pages

Forums
Most Popular Articles
Latest Articles
Help Advertisement

Newsletters & RSS
Email to a friend
Print this Page
Submit to DiggSuggested Reading
Employee Recognition Rocks: Kick Employee Recognition Up a Notch
Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation
How to Gift the Boss or a Special Coworker
Suggested Reading
Top Picks for Giving and Getting
Reward, Recognition, Award, and Thank You Ideas
What People Want From Work: Employee Motivation and Positive Morale
Recent Discussions
Need help entering HR
HI! FRIENDS !
Workplace Cliques
Most Popular
Work Dress Code
How to Ask for a Pay Raise
Twelve Tips for Team Building
Difficult People
Job Interview Tips
Five Tips for Effective Employee Recognition
From Susan M. Heathfield,
Your Guide to Human Resources.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
How to Reward, Recognize, Award, and Thank People Successfully
Employee recognition is not just a nice thing to do for people. Employee recognition is a communication tool that reinforces and rewards the most important outcomes people create for your business. When you recognize people effectively, you reinforce, with your chosen means of recognition, the actions and behaviors you most want to see people repeat. An effective employee recognition system is simple, immediate, and powerfully reinforcing.

When you consider employee recognition processes, you need to develop recognition that is equally powerful for both the organization and the employee. You must address five important issues if you want the recognition you offer to be viewed as motivating and rewarding by your employees and important for the success of your organization.

The Five Most Important Tips for Effective Recognition
You need to establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions.

All employees must be eligible for the recognition.


The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.


Anyone who then performs at the level or standard stated in the criteria receives the reward.


The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.


You don't want to design a process in which managers "select" the people to receive recognition.
Sponsored Links
Do It Yourself HR Forms
Easy Employment Applications, Personnel Forms & More. Learn More!
www.SmartDraw.com/HR

Employee Retention
Great free information on Employee Retention
EmployeeRetentionDirectory.Info

DF DesigNet
DesigNet solves complex fluid flow problems easily. Award Winning
www.abzinc.com
This type of process will be viewed forever as "favoritism" or talked about as "it's your turn to get recognized this month." This is why processes that single out an individual, such as "Employee of the Month," are rarely effective.
A Working Example of Successful Recognition
A client company established criteria for rewarding employees. Criteria included such activities as contributing to company success serving a customer without being asked to help by a supervisor. Each employee, who meets the stated criteria, receives a thank you note, hand-written by the supervisor. The note spells out exactly why the employee is receiving the recognition.

The note includes the opportunity for the employee to "draw" a gift from a box. Gifts range from fast food restaurant gift certificates and candy to a gold dollar and substantial cash rewards. The employee draws the reward, so no supervisory interference is perceived. A duplicate of the thank you note goes into a periodic drawing for even more substantial reward and recognition opportunities.

More Tips About Recognition and Performance Management
If you attach recognition to "real" accomplishments and goal achievement as negotiated in a performance development planning meeting, you need to make sure the recognition meets the above stated requirements. Supervisors must also apply the criteria consistently, so some organizational oversight may be necessary.

The challenge of individually negotiated goals is to make certain their accomplishment is viewed as similarly difficult by the organization for the process to be a success.


People also like recognition that is random and that provides an element of surprise. If you thank a manufacturing group every time they make customer deliveries on time with a lunch, gradually the lunch becomes a "given" or an entitlement and is no longer rewarding.

In another organization, the CEO traditionally bought lunch for all employees every Friday. Soon, he had employees coming to him asking to be reimbursed for lunch if they ate lunch outside of the company on a Friday. His goal of team building turned into a "given" or an entitlement and he was disappointed with the results.


There is always room for employee reward and recognition activities that generally build positive morale in the work environment. The Pall Corporation, in Ann Arbor, MI, has had a "smile team" that meets to schedule random, fun employee recognition events. They have decorated shop windows, with a prize to the best, for a holiday.

They sponsor ice cream socials, picnics, the "boss" cooks day, and so on, to create a rewarding environment at work. Another company holds an annual costume wearing and judging along with a lunch potluck every Halloween.
Rewards and recognition that help both the employer and the employee get what they need from work are a win-win situation. Make this the year you plan a recognition process that will "wow" your staff and "wow" you with its positive outcomes. Avoid the employee recognition traps that:

single out a few employees who are mysteriously selected for the recognition,
sap the morale of the many who failed to understand the criteria enough to compete and win, and
sought votes or other personalized, subjective criteria to determine winners.
Suggested Reading
Employee Recognition Rocks: Kick Employee Recognition Up a Notch
Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation
How to Gift the Boss or a Special Coworker
Suggested Reading
Top Picks for Giving and Getting
Reward, Recognition, Award, and Thank You Ideas
What People Want From Work: Employee Motivation and Positive Morale
Recent Discussions
Need help entering HR
HI! FRIENDS !
Workplace Cliques
Related Articles
The Power of Positive Emplo
...
Employee Recognition Rocks: Kick Emplo&#...
Provide Motivational Emplo ...
Provide Motivational Emplo ...
Rewards, Recognition, Awar...
Sponsored Links
Real Mind Power
Do Anything You Want, Achieve All Your Desires - Quickly And Easily
www.realmindpowers.com

Exit Interviews
24/7/365 telephone or online, confidential exit interviews
www.globalcompliance.com

University of Phoenix
Official Site. Online Programs. Flexible Scheduling. Get Info!
Phoenix.edu

EVM Dashboard
EVM Dashboard - Instant Download Must have for every project manager
www.connoizor.com

Free Time Management Tips
Want to Have More Time With Your Family? Free Tips Show You How.
Ultimate-Time-Control.com
Las Vegas on a Budget
Find a Bargain
Hotel Deals
Cheap Eats
Free Attractions
Entertainment for Less
What's Hot
Job Ends - Tell Kids
Request and Reward
Downsizing With Dignity
Survivors of Downsizing Soar
Management Secrets

All Topics | Email Article | Print this Page | |
Advertising Info | News & Events | Work at About | SiteMap | Reprints | Help Our Story | Be a Guide
User Agreement | Ethics Policy | Patent Info. | Privacy Policy ©2008 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.