3 Keys to Creating a Powerful Employee Recognition Program

It should come as no surprise that people are the most valuable part of any company, so a dedicated employee recognition program is a no-brainer.It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is; without a hard working team driving business forwards, success will be hard to come by.

Although most companies understand the importance of their team, very few show it. According to The Power of Employee Recognition, Aberdeen Group, a mere 37% of organizations have a clearly defined engagement strategy, with only 15% of these strategies spanning across the entire company.

Aberdeen explains that "for recognition to be ingrained in the company culture, it needs to be supported by managers, communicated to every individual in the organization, and measured on a consistent basis." Unfortunately, this is not being done by most organizations.

Empower Managers

Instead of focusing on how the HR department will identify, manage, and optimize talent, companies need to understand the role of the manager in this process. Aberdeen found that only 14% of organizations provide managers with the necessary tools for rewards and recognition.

The success of your engagement strategy will come down to your ability to gain managerial support. In addition to fully supporting your program, your managers must clearly understand how the program works, their role in the process, and how the program will benefit the overall company.

Use Social Recognition 

A recent trend in employee recognition involves leveraging social platforms to recognize performance. Some organizations tweet praise for an employee using a company hashtag, while others post e-cards and postcards on employees’ Facebook pages. Using social channels can also help to promote peer-to-peer recognition by allowing others to “like” or comment on the post.

Keep in mind that social platforms don’t have to be external facing. Internal communication channels like Chatter or Slack can be used to recognize top employees within your organization. Pair these intangible forms of recognition with a monetary reward and you will be well on your way to creating a healthy recognition program.

A great was to add monetary value to your social recognition strategy can be to direct message employees with digital gift card rewards. Using the Giftbit platform, you are able to generate unique gift links, which can be delivered to recipients any way you like. You can track the progress of your campaign and get funds back for unclaimed gifts.

Measure Success

Without a solid way to track the success of your program, you'll have a difficult time understanding what's working and what's not. Metrics that might be interesting to track are productivity rates and employee retention rates. A strong employee recognition program should increase productivity and reduce turnover.

If you are using digital gift cards, it might be worth checking which brands are being claimed the most. Using Giftbit, you can send multiple gift offers in a single message, allowing your recipients to choose their favorite brand from a selection. Tracking which brands are claimed will help you choose gifts to use for future campaigns.

You can also try playing with the gift value. You might notice a large difference in performance between a $10 and $20 incentive, or you might not. Track performance changes in relation to gift amount to figure out what value works best for your recognition program.