The world of work is changing rapidly. With many employees choosing to move to new companies right now, employee retention is a crucial concern in most managers’ minds. Part of retaining your talent comes down to how you interact with and treat them when they work for your organization. Employees should feel like they belong, have a clear understanding of company expectations, and be recognized for their hard work.
Engages Employees
Did you know that 71% of businesses believe that employee engagement is the key to driving their business to success? It’s an interesting statistic, to be sure. So, why is employee engagement so vital? One of the reasons comes down to improving employee morale and them actually wanting to be at work. Think about it this way: if you don’t want to take care of your employees and engage with them, there’s another company out there that will. Employees being poached from organizations isn’t anything new, but it’s taken on an entirely new meeting throughout the Great Resignation. Therefore, engaging your employees is critical to retaining them and ultimately keeping your business in a good place. Using employee recognition makes employees feel valued and like they’re contributing. This, along with full transparency, outlining expectations, and developing their talents is going to go a long way to work keeping them engaged. Remember, if you’re not engaging your employees they probably won’t stick around very long. And that’s not good for any organization, considering onboarding costs and the search for talent being full of their own challenges.
Develops Potential
When employees can freely acknowledge each other’s excellent work in a way that’s consistent with the company’s values, it helps those employees learn and grow together. They can learn from each other, feel more at home in their interactions, and freely cooperate with one another without worrying that their opinions aren’t valid. A robust digital employee recognition platform gives employees the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. Peers can interact with each other and provide real-time feedback, ultimately creating an awesome office culture and ushering in an era of amazing products for the company.
Reduces Stress in the Workplace
Workplace stress leads to all sorts of problems. Angry, unhappy people tend to perform poorly. It goes without saying that reducing workplace stress is beneficial for everybody. Using a broad platform for recognition is the best means to making your employees happy and stress-free. There need to be regular feedback, encouragement, skill-building, and opportunities to learn. When employees get recognized for their work, the impact on stress levels is enormous. That, along with better work-life balance leads to an overall better environment. Happy and productive employees are employees that will stay with your organization.
Acknowledges Anniversaries
No one wants to have their work anniversary go unacknowledged. Many employees take on a lengthy stay at most jobs. Acknowledging anniversaries reminds employees about what they love about the company. Employees working in an organization with good company culture and positive environment tend to be happier and have less stress. Moreover, employees who receive acknowledgment for their anniversaries and accomplishments are going to be much happier and more productive. Using recognition software, it’s easier to automate the alerts for these acknowledgments and send recognition to your employees. Other good ideas for acknowledging anniversaries are an extra day offer to, some additional paid time off, and utilizing shoutouts to give crew members their due.
Relevant Rewards
Some might say one of the worst ways to show appreciation for your staff is to give them a pizza party. It’s not conducive to helping them perform better and is borderline insulting. Taking care of your employees and rewarding them with meaningful rewards/awards is critical to improving morale. It’s almost as bad as offering healthy snacks as an “employee incentive.” Willfully choosing not to offer rewards or incentives that align with company values just leads to less employee engagement. Worse, it shows a demonstrable lack of understanding and connection with your employees. Providing supposed benefits and rewards that seem arbitrary, out of touch, or cheap just leads to further attrition. When offering employees rewards for recognition and service, give them something that adds value to their lives. Just as their hard work adds value to your organization, so should a reward enrich their lives. Monetary rewards such as bonuses, gift cards, and extra PTO or vacation time tend to go over well. But other rewards can work just as well, especially if they provide an experience. Consider a gift of event/concert tickets, a trip, or something useful like a backpack as possible options. Spending some time using your employee recognition platform to get the “rewards and incentives” part of the recognition equation right will go a long way toward making everyone in the organization happier and more productive.
