When employees feel valued, they’re more engaged, motivated, and likely to go the extra mile for their company. Quantum Workplace research found that when employees believe they will be recognized, they are 2.7x more likely to be highly engaged. Organizations with formal employee recognition programs have 31% less voluntary turnover than organizations that don't have any program at all. And they're 12x more likely to have strong business outcomes.

If leaders want engaged employees that contribute to team and business success, they need to prioritize employee recognition.

This is the million-dollar question. And unfortunately, there’s no one right answer. Because every employee is different, each person will respond to and prefer different types of recognition.

Your job as a people leader is to figure out how your team and individual employees want to be recognized. We recommend managers come out and ask each employee, “How do you like to be recognized?” The answer to this question uncovers key factors to help determine what type of recognition employees want:

• Whether the employee prefers public or private recognition
• What types of work the employee wants to be recognized for
• When the employee wants to be recognized
• Whether the employee prefers individual or team accolades

Get to know your employees on a personal level so you can determine which types of praise they appreciate the most.

An effective employee recognition program can look different based on your employees’ needs. Regardless, there are some things you should do—and shouldn’t do—when recognizing employees. Here are some best practices for a successful recognition program.

• Be detailed and specific. Recognition resonates better when it’s tied to a particular accomplishment.
• Be prompt. Recognition will be more meaningful when it comes right after an achievement or during times of extraordinary discretionary effort.
• Tie to company values. Recognizing behavior that aligns with your company values reinforces the behavior, positively influences peers, and actively fosters your ideal company culture.
• Elevate across the organization. When you spread recognition across the company, employees often feel a greater sense of pride knowing that others are aware of their achievements.
• Recognize both big and small things. While it’s great to recognize the big accomplishments, employees need to feel appreciated for smaller contributions too. Daily thank-yous go a long way and reduce the risk of employee burnout.

Getting started with an employee recognition program—and getting everyone on board—can be difficult without the right tools. Here’s what you should look for in employee recognition software to maximize your program’s success.

• Elevates recognition across the company: With the right platform, recognition won’t go unnoticed. Effective tools share success stories company-wide to align employees across teams.
• Ties recognition to key goals and company values: With an integrated recognition tool, you can link any recognition post to a business, team, or individual goal. Plus, you can set up custom recognition badges aligned with your core values.
• Creates a fun, interactive space for recognition: An effective employee recognition software should be interactive and engaging. A social newsfeed encourages employees to bond and congratulate one another with likes, comments, photos, and GIFs.
• Highlights accomplishments with alerts and analytics: With automated email, Slack, and other app alerts, managers are notified when employees are recognized and can celebrate employees too. Plus, with analytics tools, managers can understand how much recognition is happening across teams and which core values are being demonstrated most often.

Creating a culture of recognition where employees feel valued requires a partner you can rely on. For the last 20+ years, our customers have trusted us to deliver reliable expertise, technology, service and results.

We help you uncover meaning.
Elevate and understand the full picture of employee performance. See how individuals and teams are exhibiting values, driving team performance, and contributing to business success.

We make action easy for everyone.
Facilitating public, peer-to-peer recognition needs to be easy for everyone. Our solutions help reduce headaches for HR, integrate into manager workflows, and encourage employee involvement.

We’re a partner you can rely on.
You’re on a journey – and we’re with you every step of the way. You can rely on our dedicated team to provide strategic guidance, ongoing coaching, timely tech support, and safe and secure practices your programs need to be successful.