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Attracting and retaining talent is critical no matter what industry you’re in. Competition to recruit the best people can get fierce, and once you do attract top talent, how can you motivate them to be as productive as possible? The answer is to go beyond compensation and benefits. Amy Whillans, Harvard Business School researcher, once said:
“Cash matters in people’s lives, but it’s not all that matters. What really matters in the workplace is helping employees feel appreciated.”
With 90 percent of workers saying when they receive recognition it motivates them to work harder, it’s important for organizations to prioritize employee appreciation. And the best way to ensure everyone receives the recognition they deserve is to take full advantage of a leading employee recognition system.
Here’s a rundown of how employee recognition systems work, and how they can help you raise productivity across your organization.
Why employee recognition systems matter
Worker productivity is critical in yielding the strong returns that ensure the health of your bottom line. But, how can you increase productivity and motivate employees? Start with leveraging an employee recognition system. Build an engaging recognition program and capitalize on the business impacts of social recognition:
- 4X more likely to improve stock prices
- 2X more likely to improve NPS scores
- 2X more likely to improve individual performances
When people are recognized by their superiors and peers it drives engagement, productivity, and motivation. According to Deloitte, recognition is highly correlated with improving employee engagement, in turn improving job performance and capturing business value. In fact, employee engagement, productivity, and performance are 14 percent higher in organizations with recognition that those without.
Make recognition frequent across your workplace to ensure employees feel valued and appreciated for their hard work every day. Having an employee recognition system in place that displays praise on a company-wide platform has immense positive reinforcement power and can provide an extra motivational boost for your workforce.
According to Achievers’ Engagement and Retention Report, 92 percent of workers agree when they’re recognized for a specific action, they’re more likely to take that action again in the future. As you recognize your employees, remember to be transparent and specific when it comes to describing the behavior demonstrated; it can make all the difference when it comes to strengthening their ongoing performance.
In short, an employee recognition system can help your organization:
- Improve employee productivity
- Strengthen your bottom line
- Build a positive company culture
- Retain your best employees
- Align employees to company values
- Unite a multigenerational workforce
How to get started
With the advancements in technology, it’s possible to get your hands on employee recognition systems that offer comprehensive functionality; just make sure you’re looking for the right criteria. Below is an 11-point checklist for evaluating employee recognition systems:
- Security certification
- Integrations
- Program consolidation
- Real-time reporting
- Smart budgeting
- User experience
- Thought leadership
- Core values and behaviors
- High frequency
- Transparency
- Social recognition
Pro tip: Get a deep dive into the 11-point checklist above by accessing our free Buyer’s Guide to Recognition Software.
After you find the right employee recognition system for your business, start crafting a strategic plan with program goals. Ensure your program delivers on the following for optimal success:
- Aim for frequent recognition
- Measure recognition activity on a regular basis (annually won’t cut it)
- Turn to data and insights to find correlations between recognition and key business metrics
- Leverage recognition to reinforce key behaviors
- Create fun campaigns to boost participation
- Encourage employees to recognize from their mobile devices
- Communicate the value of recognition and your program in leadership trainings to encourage participation from managers
- Market your program to all employees including your remote workforce
Pro tip: Learn more about how to create a successful employee recognition program by checking out this article.
With an easy-to-use recognition platform, you can increase the number of recognitions sent, encourage employees to recognize others more often, and quickly raise adoption rates. The more your employees recognize and are recognized, the happier and more engaged your entire workforce will be. All you have to do is get started.
There’s no time like today to get started
If compensation was the biggest factor in motivating employees, the company that paid the most would have the most productive workforce. But this isn’t the case. In fact, strengthening employee engagement and happiness has been shown to raise productivity by as much as 31 percent. Start engaging your workforce today by building a culture of recognition and watch productivity soar.
Achievers offers an award-winning employee recognition system that can take your organization to new heights. To learn more about Achievers Recognize, request a demo. Together, we can implement an employee recognition system that makes your company an attractive place to work and makes people want to work harder.
