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It may be time to revisit how you recognize and reward your employees. Improve your approach with these 6 simple solutions.

Key Takeaways

• These 6 strategies will help you improve your team recognition program:

1. 1. Incorporate gamification
   2. Make it public
   3. Use peer-to-peer recognitionn
   4. Be as specific as possible
   5. Tailor your approach for each employee 
   6. Ask for employee feedback

One of the fastest and most effective ways to improve company culture is to recognize and reward employees who are performing well and doing what you want. The method you use to display that recognition should depend on a specific set of goals: whether you’re addressing a problem area or you just want to boost motivation and productivity. The right approach can accomplish all of these outcomes and more, enhancing your business’s work environment and employee motivation.

When you are creating the optimizing a rewards and team recognition program for your employees, these six strategies will help you tailor the approach. 

1. Incorporate gamification

One of the most effective ways to make your team recognition plan more effective is by incorporating gamification techniques. This approach adds game-like rewards elements to normal business functions and tasks so they’re more interactive and fun. Gamifying functions like onboarding, weekly goal-setting, and daily contests can:

• Improve company culture
• Boost team morale
• Show workers greater appreciation
• Increase engagement in everyday tasks

Employees can compete against one another in games, allowing the winner to receive a prize or reward. This kind of system motivates workers to do their best so they’ll eventually see their names at the top of the leaderboard. Friendly competition can keep employees on task and more engaged in what they’re doing.

2. Make it public

If workers are recognized on the company-wide, or even public, level, they will feel even more proud of their accomplishment. Doing this with one employee will show others what is possible when they go above and beyond in their roles. 

Public recognition cultivates a company culture based on positivity. Showcase what’s going really well for each team or employee instead of always focusing on the negatives.

3. Implement peer-to-peer recognition

Give your recognition program a boost by allowing team members to reward one another. Peer support is one of the best ways to motivate people. These are the people your employees interact with on a daily basis, who they probably know better than anyone at the company. Thus, workers want to impress their peers and even compete against them.

Peer-to-peer recognition can be as simple as budgeting for team members to choose a gift or reward that they can give to a coworker for reaching a goal. This method also supports camaraderie and building positive team spirit. Allowing employees to recognize one another is extremely motivating since it is on a more personal, granular level.

4. Be as specific as possible

When you give verbal recognition or praise to employees, make sure it’s always specific. Instead of just telling someone they’ve done a “great job,” pinpoint exactly what they’ve accomplished. For example, if a client was unhappy, and an employee was able to accommodate their needs with a calm and patient response, stop by their desk and tell them that you really appreciated their initiative. Add specifics to detail what you liked about what they did. 

Being as specific as you can shows employees that you’re paying attention. It also reinforces what kinds of behaviors you expect at work and sets the example for other employees who are involved in these situations. Team members will feel more appreciated when they are recognized for specific things they did that improved the company or helped a client.

5. Tailor your approach for each employee

Remember that all employees will have different needs and desires. While public recognition may be the perfect form of recognition for one employee, another may not want that kind of attention. Alter your approach based on what these workers would actually want. What would make them feel appreciated and seen?

For example, if you know an employee has to walk a long way from the parking garage to the building each day, reward them for a win by giving them access to an executive parking spot for a month. Sometimes the best method is providing a monetary reward, like a bonus, since most people won’t turn down extra cash.

6. Ask for employee feedback

The only way you can really know how the team recognition program is working is by asking employees directly. Send out surveys, hold one-on-one meetings, or ask for feedback in company-wide settings. Asking for employees’ opinions will help you plan recognition strategies for the future, as you’ll be able to get a sense of which methods are most meaningful to them.

You can also have managers of each team gather this information and report back to you. Involving workers in the recognition decision-making process is a great way to make them feel empowered, and they’ll be more satisfied with the result.

Use a platform like CrewHu to revamp recognition

Whatever approach you decide to use for employee rewards and team recognition, use a platform that will help you manage surveys, track data, and involve workers in the process. CrewHu makes it simple to create a program specific to your company’s needs. We help you collect customer feedback and relate that feedback back to employees. You can then reward and recognize workers for doing a great job and helping the company. 

CrewHu also helps you create goal-based contests and peer-to-peer recognition programs, and employees can interact using the Café, a social media-style newsfeed.

Schedule a demo with the CrewHu team today to learn how we can help you revamp and improve your approach to employee recognition.