Traits of an effective employee recognition program

Keep it simple and frequent

Let’s talk about some traits of effective employee recognition. These are important to note also as you’re designing your program and rolling it out to managers. These will help you define whether or not your program is a success.

• Immediate feedback

Immediate feedback or immediate employee recognition or immediate as it can be. It’s got to be sincere. There’s nothing worse than getting recognition from someone who really doesn’t mean it. And I think most people sort of get that. Being specific on why recognition was handed out will go a long way in lending credibility to your program.

• Performance based programs

Successful programs are performance based. Yes, you can give awards for attendance or length of service but that is not an employee recognition program. They are separate, as your program needs to focus on performance.

• Personalized rewards

You know, life is personal. Make your reward system personal too. And once again, we’re back to how much employees value the recognition when it comes from their immediate manager. So good traits to keep in mind when you’re designing your program.

• Program design

This is a good blue print for you on how your employee recognition program should flow. And you can use this if you’re designing your program from scratch or if you’re reviewing at an existing program.

This is pretty important so we’re going to kind of go through each step in detail. It’s really important to note that you don’t have to do it all on your own. In fact, it’s probably better that you don’t do it all on your own.

Program designers in employee recognition program
Therefore, having a diverse group of folks help you in defining or redefining your employee recognition program can be very, very beneficial.

Now, you need to have a strong ability to manage teams to ensure each meeting is productive and that you’re moving forward. Some amazing ideas by bringing a diverse group of employees together.

Diverse in this sense means different roles within the company, age, title. It is rare to have anyone at an executive level, just so you know, outside of the company champion.

Ethnic groups, again, the more diverse, the better. Now, one note of caution, do not pick someone who didn’t believe in an employee recognition program.

This team is not about convincing someone why it’s good. This team should be all about setting up the best program possible. So keep that in mind when you’re selecting participants.

It’s really important to enlist a senior leader as a champion for the employee recognition program. Again, this is someone who is fired up about the program as they will be utilized to overcome any naysayers if the time comes