5 Tips on How to Acknowledge Your Employees

Your staff members work hard for you and your business - and it is important that they are recognized for doing so.

Not only do employee rewards improve your staff members’ sense of wellbeing and increase their loyalty to your brand, but they are also likely to boost productivity and lead to an improvement in the quality of their work.

If you’re wondering how to reward employees for a job well done in as effective a manner as possible, read on. In this article from UK home buying firm Property Solvers, you’ll find handy hints and tips on employee rewards and recognition that will help you to show your staff exactly how important they are to you.

What is Employee Recognition?

The term “employee recognition” refers to the approaches taken by a company manager or management team to show staff members that their hard work and talent has been noticed and appreciated.

The importance of effective employee recognition id

eas has been realized to a far greater extent in recent years, with an Employee Appreciation Day - the first Friday in March - launched in the US in 1995.

So, what does recognition mean to an employee? 

Forbes acknowledges that the morale boost provided by recognition of this kind is likely to result in greater levels of happiness amongst employees. They also note that happy employees are, on average, 12% more productive than those who are not.

Employees who feel recognized are also more likely to stay with their company for longer, meaning a reduction in the costs and man-hours involved in recruiting new workers.

These are just a few of the many reasons why a good reward system for employees should be a vital part of how you do business.

Below, we reveal a few tips on how to give an employee praise in a way that is both sincere and effective.

5 Ways to Utilize Employee Recognition

Let’s explore some of HRCloud’s suggestions on how to reward employees your employees for doing a great job.

Of course, it’s worth noting that there are hundreds of different approaches you can try in order to find the perfect reward system - so why not come up with a few of your own to try alongside the selection below before settling on a system that works for you?

1. Use HRCloud’s Workmate Solution

Workmates - a digital platform designed by HRCloud - is a superb and intuitive tool that you can use to boost staff morale by recognizing the work done by individuals or groups. 

You can give staff members “kudos”, which generates a special badge that they can display in order to literally wear their accomplishments on their (digital) sleeve for their colleagues to admire. You can also provide “points” that can be exchanged for material items.

Workmates allows the milestones of a staff member’s career to be easily shared with the rest of their team, which means that you’re not only providing public recognition for a job well done, but also encouraging others to achieve more in order to receive the same treatment.

You can also use the intranet function of this handy platform to improve internal communications, focus on employee wellness, transform your employees into brand advocates and precisely measure the results of everything you do - along with many other features.

2. Give Sincere Compliments in Person

Sometimes, all an employee needs is for you to look them in the eye and tell them they did a good job. An approach of this kind can help to foster a greater sense of mutual respect and loyalty between employee and employer.

Arranging a one-to-one meeting purely on the subject of their great performance is a way to show an individual that you take them and their accomplishments seriously. After all, you’re giving up your valuable time to acknowledge and celebrate what they have done.

Use this meeting to praise their work ethic and talent, talk about their potential and help them to set new, more ambitious goals. This will help them to see the faith you have in them and could boost both their morale and their productivity to new heights. 

Why not create a feeling of give-and-take by asking if there is anything you - or your company - could do to further improve their experience and encourage a continuation of their good work?

You could even write high performers a letter or provide a certificate detailing their achievements and maybe even sharing any available information regarding what they mean to the company in a quantifiable sense. 

A physical note of this kind means that the employee in question will have something to look back at in order to be proud of what they have done and to keep them motivated.

When your team meets next time, try to end the meeting with an uplifting comment. Your team will love the reassurance that you’re thinking about them and all of the work is not simply for you. This is vital for your remote employees as they won’t get as much communication as someone else would in the office.

3. Feature Them in Special Communications and Publications

A regular cross-department or company-wide roundup or newsletter could serve as the perfect vehicle to share employee recognition and to praise high performers.

With the permission of the employee in question, you could put together a very brief biography of them and explain why their hard work is being acknowledged, then add it to the next relevant communication.

If appropriate, you could even share this information via your company’s socials and online content. This will boost your employee’s peer recognition and make them feel special.

Not only will this provide an even bigger audience to help you celebrate an employee’s achievements, but it will also reveal that, as an employer, you appreciate the input of everyone on your team. This will help to build a sense of trust in your brand, both internally and externally.

4. Offer Material Rewards

Sometimes, employee rewards need be nothing more complex or subtle than a material prize.

Why not offer to take star employees out for dinner, or present them with gift cards, movie tickets, away days, or even a bottle of bubbly along with a note or card expressing your thanks?

Be sure to gauge the kind of prize that will be acceptable to - and highly appreciated by - your employees in order to avoid any missteps. A good idea is to create an employee of the month program, so they have something to strive for in the short term.

Generous and thoughtful tokens of appreciation will help you to show professional warmth and pride towards your staff members, as well as hinting that there is more where that came from if they are able to keep up the good work!

Another idea is to let your employee leave a few hours early once in a while. They’ll love that you took the time to recognize employees of all salaries by giving everyone time off. If you aren’t taking into account your employees' personal life, then it’s time to start doing so.

5. Throw Them a Party

Employee rewards and recognition don’t need to be arranged on an individual basis. The contribution of whole teams can be acknowledged by way of a fun social event, an away day, or a department shindig.

Set targets that you need a certain number of team members to beat in order to enjoy a reward of this kind, and you’ll soon find that the whole group becomes more productive.

Of course, events should only be arranged based on exceptional circumstances, as the costs involved can be significant. Consider making it a pizza party, too, everyone loves pizza!

However, the sense of fun and celebration they are likely to instil will probably be enough to encourage continued high performance among staff in the hopes of achieving another reward of this kind - meaning improved productivity, which, in turn, will help you to afford more parties!

Final Thoughts

Whatever method you choose, the bigger the morale boost enjoyed by your staff, the more productive your business is likely to become! For this reason, you should pay considerable attention to employee acknowledgment in order to increase your employee engagement and satisfaction.

It’s important that you notice when your employees don’t feel recognized so you can take action right away. Being empathetic to your employees' needs is how you maintain a staff that loves working for you.

This blog post isn’t the end all be all, use your common judgment when it comes to creating a recognition program. You’ll want to instill these habits into your daily life so your employees feel engaged and want to continue working for you.

Author Bio: Ruban Selvanayagam is the co-founder of Property Solvers, a quick home buying company, auctioneer, and 28-day estate agency operating throughout the UK.