If you’re thankful for your employees, let them know it.
In this season of gratitude and thanksgiving, it’s time to return to one of the foundational principles of leadership and motivation – the practice of recognizing employees for all that they do in our organizations.
Countless studies have shown that recognition is one of the most powerful ways to motivate employees and increase their satisfaction and engagement at work. At the same time, most CEOs I work with tell me that this is a weak area for them. Even when they know they should, leaders struggle to consistently give effective praise, recognize employees, and show appreciation.
Companies spend thousands of dollars to create complex incentive plans, measure employee satisfaction, and purchase programs to motivate employees. But recognition is free. Many leaders miss out on the powerful impact of appreciative words because we simply have no process for consistently giving recognition to our people.
Recognition that Doesn’t Work
Unfortunately, some of the most common ways of recognizing employees, such as Employee of the Month programs, can backfire and create greater dissatisfaction or demotivation for the employees who were not recognized. These can also create a sense of awkwardness for the ones who are called out, even in a positive way.
I’ve been in offices where the same employee’s face appears in multiple pictures on the Wall of Fame, while other employees languish in obscurity. I’ve also heard shocking stories of the salesman-of-the-year or employee-of-the-month being let go a short time later.
The other unfortunate practice I see is leaders who give out random bonuses. Employees have no idea what to do to achieve those bonuses and sometimes don’t understand why they are getting them either.
Our team here at MasterMinds Leadership has given this a lot of thought, and we want to share the fruit of our thinking and research with you by offering a free downloadable Employee Recognition Kit. We are thankful for you, our readers, and we want to make this a gift with no strings attached. In turn, you will be able to give a gift to your employees, your managers, and yourself.
To your employees, you can give the gift of recognition they deserve and need. To your managers, you can give the gift of a simple process that helps them become better leaders. And to yourself, the gift of peace and satisfaction, knowing that you are making a difference in the lives of people who faithfully work in your organization.
Simple Concept, Profound Impact
The Employee Recognition Kit is based on a simple concept with three fundamental principles. Number one, recognize everyone; number two, recognize them every year; and number three, recognize them for things that are important to your company. These three principles combined create a powerful impact, both in the employee who is being recognized and in the rest of the staff.
I first encountered these three principles of recognition in a book by Tom Hill called, “Making Character First: Building A Culture of Character in Any Organization,” but I have seen them carried out in our work with executives and organizations - simple, powerful, and profound.
1 - Recognize Everyone
You can accomplish this by setting a schedule that you already have in your HR system. Everyone has a start date for their employment. So, if you recognize people during their work anniversary month, then by the end of the year, you will have recognized everyone in the company. Now is a good time to set up the system to start on January 1, and make the next year a year of recognition and of greater satisfaction and engagement from your staff.
2 – Recognize Them Every Year
Since work anniversaries come around with every new year, this program is beautifully simple to sustain. Over the course of an employee’s tenure with your company, they will accumulate year after year of recognition in their employee file and in their memories. This builds consistency and avoids the haphazard nature of other recognition programs.
3 – Recognize Them for Things That Are Important To The Company
We recommend that recognition be made for specific instances over the last year when an employee demonstrated the company’s values in action. Hopefully, you already have a list of your company’s core values or guiding principles. Core values can become empty words unless they are connected to business decisions like hiring, promotions, and recognition. When employees live out your company values, they should be recognized both privately and in front of their peers, which further reinforces the values.
Using the Recognition Kit
Your company values will mean more when you emphasize them every month as you recognize the employees with a work anniversary in that month. The Employee Recognition Kit has a simple template that any supervisor can follow to take a simple story and turn it into a powerful recognition experience. Stories are more powerful than boilerplate or bullet points. And stories from people we know take the intangible and make it real in our minds.
As you practice this process, your managers and supervisors will have a forum and cadence for telling positive stories of employees putting your values into action in the way they cared for a customer, demonstrated integrity in a business deal, showed initiative, expressed real compassion to other employees, practiced teamwork, and so on.
Once you begin recognizing employees this way, you’ll wish you had started years ago. I look forward to hearing the stories of how employees’ lives have been impacted and organizations have been strengthened as you implement a practical process for recognizing your greatest asset.
Download Employee Recognition Kit
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