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Back on Henry Ford’s assembly line, this wasn’t such a
bad idea. But over the years, it’s become a standard HR
practice – possibly to our detriment. Only recently,
companies have started to realize that they can make
better use of that budget with meaningful recognition
programs that impact and drive day to day behaviors for
the benefit of the business.
This doesn’t mean you should ignore levels of service, but
it can be done with very little budget or none at all. The
trend is that companies are focusing on making an impact
on recognition daily as opposed to annually. Another good
reason for this? The 2009 US Department of Labor study
shows that the average employee tenure is 1.8 years. Most
employees never see their five-year service award. But if
they’re being recognized on a daily basis, there’s a good
chance you might retain them for years (even if you never
promise them a gold watch).
Need more convincing? According to Gallup poll,
companies with with large numbers of disengaged workers
experience much lower productivity, and these employers
experienced over 51 percent higher turnover than their
peers. Additionally, almost 50 percent of employees polled
said they would leave their job for a company that clearly
recognized employees for their efforts and contributions.
Finally, among respondents who stated they plan to search
for a new job this year, only 24 percent are satisfied with
recognition received at work. This presents a clear
opportunity for improvement.
Trend 3: Leverage  the Power of Social Employee Recognition
With the world going much more social, social employee
recognition has made it to the workplace. Organizations
are encouraging and allowing employees to recognize
their peers and utilizing new SaaS technologies to let them
share it on a social platform for everyone
to see.
This has become impactful because it amplifies daily
recognition and helps reinforce desired behaviors to drive
employee success. Furthermore, it highlights key
performers in an organization and identifies high-
potentials.
Social employee recognition isn’t only amplified one.way,
but also allows employees to interact with each other in
r ea l - t ime and ac know l edge t he i r t eamma t es ’
accomplishments. How many of us ever feel in the dark
about others’ job responsibilities, especially
in different departments? This facilitates constant
communication among employees, regardless of
geographic location and time zone, and helps align them
with the bigger picture.
However, the real benefit of this trend is when your start
sharing on all social media platforms outside of the
company.
It might sound crazy at first, but when companies are
doing it and they’re getting great results. So many
companies spend endless hours and dollars trying to
create a positive, powerful social media presence. With
social recognition, you provide an outlet for positive
messaging to help support your employer brand and make
your employees more engaged and productive. In other
words, everybody is #winning.
External social employee recognition means sharing an
internal recognition across the individual employees’
external networks including Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn. It’s optional, but it plays to people’s intrinsic
motivations. For the same reason that people share little
details about their lives to create an online persona, they’ll
want to share to their successes in the office through
social recognitions.
The benefits? There’s a constant flow of positive content
related to your company. You build an attractive employer
brand, and set your company up for social recruiting. You
can even follow best practices and link recognitions to
information about hiring. Who wouldn’t want to work for a
company that recognizes their employees? It’s a
competitive advantage that doesn’t only attract great new
talent, it helps retain the A players you already have.