1. Create a Recognition Program Committee
Having an Employee Recognition Committee to help develop and manage your recognition program will ensure you get off on the right foot and that employees remain engaged. Here are some tips on how to have an effective Recognition Committee:
- Determine Who Will Serve on the Committee – If possible, include members from both management and staff to create an inclusive program with buy-in from all employee's. Some ideas to select committee members include:
- Solicit for volunteers
- Election by peers
- Appointment by management
- Align on Program Objectives – Your Recognition Committee can work together to make sure that the the program:
- Meets the needs of employees
- Reinforces behaviors that benefit company goals
- Honors the company’s mission and core values
- Monitor and Adjust – Once the program is underway, the committee should monitor results, solicit feedback and adjust the program as needed.
More information on Committee Roles here: List of Roles and Duties for an Employee Recognition Committee
2. Get Leadership Buy-In
Leadership buy-in is essential to any successful employee recognition program. A successful employee recognition program requires a change in culture that must be promoted and championed from the top down, or it will never take root. If you are not confident that your leadership has fully embraced recognition and is promoting it at every turn, you should have a meeting with your leadership team to learn their thoughts and feelings around the employee recognition program. Take this opportunity to discuss with them the importance of recognition and reiterate why you initially decided to start a recognition program. Remember, recognition is not only important to building a strong unique company culture, but it also has tangible effects as well. Recognition has been shown to increase employee engagement and employee retention. Boosts in employee engagement and employee retention can lead to increased productivity, cost savings, and boosts to your bottom line.
For more stats, visit: https://recognizeapp.com/docs/about/why-recognize.pdf
Additional Resources:
3. Train Managers on How to Use Recognize
You cannot have engaged employees without engaged managers. Managers should be the ones sending the most recognition within Recognize and making sure that all of their direct reports are being recognized for their contributions. We have great resources to help you train your Managers on how they should be using Recognize in order to maximize employee engagement.
Additional resources:
4. Have Leaders and Managers Promote Recognition
Once you have leadership buy-in, brainstorm ways to have leadership promote recognition. Leaders should be logging into Recognize regularly to react/like and comment on recognitions and anniversaries/birthdays. They should also be shouting out extraordinary recognitions at companywide meetings.
Additional resources:
5. Make your Recognition Program Visible
Recognition works best when it can be done quickly and in the moment. Therefore, you should integrate Recognize into the tools your employees use on a day-to-day basis.
- Integrate Recognize into Outlook, Sharepoint, Workplace, Yammer, Microsoft Teams and more!
- Use our Kiosk Mode to display a live feed of the Stream Page in break rooms and meeting spaces so that the Recognitions happening in your organization are always visible and top of mind:
- Use some of our promotional material around the office to promote the use of Recognize. We have posters and email signatures available for download or create your own to add your own unique twist:
- Use our Announcements feature to keep your program top of mind, and encourage employees to Recognize each other. See the article below for some ideas on how to use the Announcements feature:
6. Enable Engagement Emails
Engagement Emails are an easy way for Company Admins and Managers to check up on engagement in the platform and get reminders. Recognize offers multiple engagement email options such as:
- Monthly emails for Admins and Managers to summarize the previous months engagement activity. Admins receive an email showing which managers are sending the most Recognitions, and which managers are the least engaged. Managers get an email showing which of their direct reports may need more recognition and also their all-stars:
- Manager notifications when direct reports are Recognized, or have a Birthday/Anniversary
- Manager Recognition Reminder Notifications to remind Managers to consider recognizing a direct report that hasn't received recent recognition, in order to keep recognition top of mind, increase engagement, and ensure all employees feel appreciated.
- Redemption Reminder Notifications: Company Admins can enable notifications that will remind users to redeem their points on the last day of every month.
7. Use Reporting to hold Managers and Leadership accountable
If a Company Admin notices a Managers not sending regular Recognitions, they should try to set a meeting with that Manager to find out what’s going on. It could be as simple as the Manager not understanding how to use the tool or that they don’t understand the value of the program. In either case, make sure you work with that Manager to help them improve their engagement. Once you’re sure they understand how to use the platform and believe in its value, help them put together a set of goals, such as send 2 recognitions a week, like 5 recognitions a week, and comment on 3 recognitions a week. Be sure to track and celebrate their progress!
- Use the Top Employee reports to determine which Managers have sent the most Recognitions and which Managers have sent the least Recognitions: How to Pull a Report to See Which Employees Have Not Received or Sent Recognition
8. Celebrate your top engaged employees
It is important to encourage leaders and employees to embrace your recognition program by celebrating those who are most engaged. Recognize offers numerous reporting options and features that make it easy to celebrate your managers and staff who are highly engaged in your recognition program. Here are a few suggestions:
- Generate Certificates from some of your most meaningful Recognitions:
- Use Recognize Leaderboards to showcase your top badge earners and/or top point earners:
- Use the Random Recognition Generator and the Top Employee sections on the Company Admin > Overview page to celebrate and reward recognitions in team calls or gatherings:
9. Inceltivize sending Recognitions
To help encourage your employees to send Recognitions to their peers, consider adding an incentive for sending Recognitions.
- Give users Points each time they send a Recognition.
- Incentivize sending Recognitions with the Task feature. Example: Create a Task for Managers and/or Staff to send 5 Recognitions in the month and earn 5 Points for themselves:
10. Have an Outcome to your Recognition Program
It’s important to have some type of outcome to your Recognition program, so that your employees feel like there’s a purpose in giving/receiving recognition.
- Rewards: If you don’t already offer Rewards through Recognize’s Rewards’ catalogs, consider adding some. If you have the budget, gift cards are a great way to tie a monetary component in with your recognition program. We have hundreds of gift cards to choose from! Non-monetary rewards can be just as popular as well, such as a special parking space, extra paid time off, or coffee with the boss. Check out our list of Rewards ideas here: List of Low Cost or Non-Monetary Employee Reward Ideas
- Hold Contests/Raffles: Another way to have an outcome to your Recognition program without having to have a big budget is to offer contests rather than Rewards. Some companies do a quarterly drawing where each time someone is recognized that quarter, they get their name added to a hat. The more recognitions they get, the bigger chance they have to win. They all come together in the office for the quarterly drawing and hand out special prizes like gift cards, experiences or company swag to the winners of the drawing.
- Reward Top Teams: If you’re seeing low participation by some teams, we suggest having a team contest. For example, you can use your Team Directory page in Recognize to see the team with the best engagement for the past 90 days and reward them with a team lunch or a dessert brought into the office.